Data-hungry AT&T customers — smartphone and tablet users — will begin paying more for their allotted monthly amount starting Sunday, when the carrier will begin charging an additional $5 per plan. However, the hike will also come with an increase in the amount of data assigned to each plan, the carrier said.
Puerto Rico’s wireless market is gearing up for another year of growth, fueled by the explosion of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) digital technology that promises faster and better services. The demand that should be associated with LTE will drive companies to do everything they can to expand the technology’s reach, industry executives told News is my Business.
The concerns expressed by the island’s wireless carriers and retailers over the potentially harmful effects of regulating the sale of prepaid cellphones on consumers and competition apparently fell on deaf ears, as Gov. Luis Fortuño signed Tuesday a law mandating it.
Puerto Rico Telephone, which does business as Claro, announced Friday that if the increase in Universal Service Fund charges that the Federal Communications Commission is pushing for is approved, landline and wireless customers will see an increase in their bill starting the first quarter of 2012.
Non-computer devices — including mobile phones, tablets, and other connected gadgets — accounted for 5.9 percent of all web browsing activity traffic generated in Puerto Rico in October 2011, according to the latest report released Thursday by reputable digital world analyst firm comScore.
AT&T announced Wednesday its ongoing expansion of its 4G LTE network on the island, rolling it out to parts of Aguada, Aguadilla, Añasco, Mayaguez, Rincon, Moca and Hormigueros. The added areas comes a month after AT&T introduced 4G LTE in parts of the San Juan metropolitan area on Nov. 20.
AT&T’s decision to walk away from its intention of buying rival T-Mobile puts an end to concerns expressed locally that consummating the $39 billion transaction would create a monopoly on the island.
As AT&T’s proposed acquisition of rival T-Mobile USA virtually unraveled Monday after a federal judge granted a request to delay the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust case, an unlikely third party announced its interest in partnering with the latter carrier if the deal ultimately falls through, Bloomberg reported.
The Economic Development Bank this week marked the end of the first phase of the Vieques and Culebra Tourism and Commercial Development Loan Program, which has already approved $1 million in loans that have created 74 new jobs split between the two island municipalities.
The four largest wireless carriers serving the island banded together Thursday to express their concern over House Bill 1956 that seeks to create a registry of prepaid phone numbers in an attempt to keep track of the devices that have become a conduit for criminal activity.
The number of bankruptcy petitions filed last month in Puerto Rico was 19 percent below the same month last year, Boletín de Puerto Rico revealed Friday. The preliminary numbers show that so far this year, the number of filings on record is 9 percent lower than those on record for the same 11-month period in 2010.
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority’s new residential rate that goes into effect today for the island’s residential customers is a temporary subsidy that does not imply efficiency improvements at the agency, the Center for the New Economy concluded Wednesday.
Critical Hub Networks announced Wednesday the U.S. Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s approval of a route change for the Puerto Rico Bridge Initiative’s (PRBI) islandwide network, as well as the expansion of the network’s interconnection points from 16 to 24.
The island’s bankruptcy rate held on to its seventh consecutive monthly decline in October, when a total of 1,077 cases were submitted to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The figure represents 90 fewer filings and an 8.35 percent drop in comparison to the same month last year, research firm Boletín de Puerto Rico reported.
Wireless carrier AT&T will be sponsoring for the first time in Puerto Rico its Youth for Broadband Awareness Literacy & Education program, looking to offer technology and computer training to youth through a partnership with the Boys and Girls Club. The event will take place in Carolina, Dec. 1-2, News is my Business learned.
Wireless speeds for Puerto Rico Telephone (Claro) customers are about to get a whole lot faster.
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