Can you hear me now? Verizon ranked highest in customer care for fourth time in a row

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For the fourth time in a row, Verizon was recognized by J.D. Power and Associates for the best customer care among national, full-service carriers. The rankings take into account on how well companies provide customer service via telephone, walk-in and online support. Verizon ranked first with a overall score of 766 (based on a 1,000-point… Read More…

Sunday marks new era in cellphone carrier market power

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New cellphones purchased after this Saturday Jan. 25, 2013 can be unlocked only with the permission of the carrier; phones purchased before Sunday are exempt from this restriction and have been since 2006. Back in October, the U.S. Copyright Office filed a new decision on unlocked phones in the Federal Register. The Copyright Office is… Read More…

T-Mobile CEO rips into rivals, dubs AT&T network ‘crap’ and calls Verizon uncool

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John Legere has kept a pretty low profile since being named CEO of T-Mobile USA last September, even though he did already help orchestrate a big merger with MetroPCS. But now we’re starting to hear more from the wireless executive. And Legere, the former CEO of Global Crossing, is coming out firing on behalf of… Read More…

Verizon vs. AT&T: Location stats reveal whose retail stores are most popular

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Seattle startup Placed tracks in-store foot traffic and we now have a better idea of which wireless carriers saw the most customers this holiday season. For the past six weeks, Verizon and AT&T went back and forth for the most-visited store, with AT&T holding the lead for four weeks. T-Mobile ranked fourth behind Sprint for much… Read More…

Rhapsody allowing AT&T subscribers to pay for music subscriptions with wireless bills

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Seattle-based Rhapsody continues to make it easier for music-lovers to access its service. We wrote last week about how you can now listen to music on Rhapsody with Xbox Live. Now, the on-demand music service is allowing its subscribers to pay for the Rhapsody service with their wireless bills. Rhapsody already announced a simliar joint… Read More…

The people’s champ: Verizon is most favorable carrier

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Remember those “Can you hear me now?” Verizon commercials? Turns out there’s actually some truth to those messages. The people have spoken and Verizon is the most favorable cell phone carrier in the nation based on an annual Consumer Reports survey of 63,253 subscribers around the country. Out of the four big carriers, Verizon led the way… Read More…

T-Mobile exec: One major carrier will go down

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In a recent conversation with shareholders, T-Mobile COO Jim Alling said that he believes out of the four major cell phone carriers — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and his own T-Mobile — one will fade away in the coming years. We’re guessing he didn’t mean the company he works for, even though T-Mobile took a net… Read More…

AT&T bolsters LTE network in Seattle, looks to rival Verizon

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It has been nearly two months since AT&T officially turned on its 4G LTE network in the Seattle area — offering speeds that are as much as 10 times faster than its 3G network. Now, the carrier is bolstering its LTE coverage in the greater Seattle area, optimizing the network for gadget and speed freaks…. Read More…

T-Mobile calls dibs for new Nokia Windows smartphone

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Just one week after AT&T said it would be the exclusive carrier of the Nokia Lumia 920, T-Mobile announced Monday that the Bellevue-based company will exclusively offer the Nokia Lumia 810. T-Mobile said that the new Windows Phone 8 smartphone will be available in the coming weeks, presumably after Microsoft releases Windows 8 on Oct…. Read More…

Podcast: iOS 6, iPhone 5, and more from the week in tech

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We had a lot of fun putting together this week’s GeekWire radio show and podcast, talking at length about Apple’s new iOS 6 and iPhone 5. To start, John tells the unbelievable story of what happened after he updated his iPhone 4 to the new iOS 6 — a story that involves an encounter with a… Read More…