Your phone is on its last leg, but that’s okay because your upgrade eligibility date is today.  You know because you just checked last month.  You go down to the store to pick up that new phone you’ve had your eye on, but when you get there something has changed.  The store rep advises you that you’re not eligible for another two months.

“There must be some mistake, I just checked last month and I’m eligible as of today.”

What happened?

Despite the best efforts by carriers to simplify their billing, wireless bills can be confusing.  To make matters worse, no bill is more likely to fluctuate than your wireless bill.  Extra charges can be caused by a variety of things but primarily they come from overages, fees or proration.

Join Phonecan as we tackle AT&T’s wireless billing.  We’ll break down how usage, service, fees and taxes appear on your monthly statement and explain the terminology that AT&T uses in their billing.

I have issue with some of the statements finding their way around the Internet concerning AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile.  Let me share some thoughts with you.

AT&T announced today the intended acquisition of rival and #4 US wireless carrier, T-Mobile.

The boards of AT&T Inc. and Deutsche Telekom AG, owner of T-Mobile USA, came into an agreement that allows AT&T to acquire T-Mobile, in exchange for cash and stock worth approximately $39 billion.  Also, Deutsche Telekom AG will receive an 8% ownership share in the combined business.

No word on how long such an acquisition would take to be approved and finalized.  It is unclear at this time if the federal government will have issue with any of AT&T’s offer.

The full press release can be found here.

Ready for a new phone?  Are you eligible?  How does all this eligibility stuff work anyway?

Everyone knows that you get a good deal on a phone when you start service with a company and sign a two year agreement.  Every so often that same company your with will do the same thing for an existing customer.  This is called an “upgrade.”

Just when a line is able be upgraded varies on a line-by-line basis, but in all cases it will either be 13, 18, or 20 months since you signed your last contract. (all lines are now 20 months)

Read on to learn about the basics of AT&T’s upgrade policy…

As bizarre as it may seem that a big company would be giving you something for nothing; letters like these go out semi-regularly.  I frequently see customer questions about these letters in forums.  The first thing people want to know is: what’s the catch?

If you’ve received one of these letters or are just curious as to what these campaigns are all about read on to find out more.

In the wake of the Verizon Iphone announcement and Verizon’s own policy updates AT&T has decided to make some similar revisions to their upgrade policies.

The changes aren’t ending there though.  AT&T is also revising their changing policies on fees, international long distance rates and texting plans along with adding a-la-sprint style “any mobile” calling to the unlimited texting packages.

Read on to learn what’s new and how it may impact your service.

CES is finally winding down, and while tech sites are falling over themselves to bring you news about that iPhone coming to Verizon, we wanted to focus on some actual innovation.

At first blush, it just looks like all the other high end “4g” phones coming to carriers this year.  Dual Core Tegra2 processor, huge screen, some cool HDMI features.  But this little device is looking to change how we think about what a mobile device can and cannot do.

Join us after the break to find out about this amazing device, easily the best in show from CES.

Recently, AT&T announced they were moving away from unlimited consumer smartphone data plans. The new plan rates will be billed as follows:

Previously, they billed $29.99 for unlimited use for the same consumer data feature.  This type of change was in the works for some time, as corporate executives have been hinting at moving away from unlimited data plans with the advent of 4G technology.

The timing is impeccable, though, seeing as how a the iPhone 4 is coming to their network in a matter of weeks.  A customer using a similar phone on other networks would be able to transfer as little or as much data as they care to.

What are the real ramifications of moving to this type of plan?