Scott

According to a Verizon authorized retailer who posted in the Verizon subreddit, the $80 includes the line access fee (and $5 autopay discount). So it seems like a single line would be $80 plus taxes and fees (plus an extra $5 if you don't do autopay).

They got a new CFO after their previous CFO, who was strongly against offering unlimited data, retired at the end of the year.

Can former Sprint subscribers take advantage of "new customer" promos? I ported out from Sprint to Cricket in July, but I'm thinking of going back to Sprint for the $50 Unlimited Freedom promo. Would I qualify as a new customer?

That $50 unlimited freedom promo that Sprint was running for four days last week wasn't so limited after all. Starting on Friday, they're offering the promo again and it will be available to sign up for until the end of March, with the promo pricing remaining in effect until the end of March 2018.

The fact that Comcast said the following should be a clear indication Pai's appointment is bad for consumers. The last thing Comcast is interested in is things that benefit consumers.

That 3 million number is reportedly inflated and the actual number could be closer to 1 million.

I thought that was the case. Thanks for confirming, Trip.

Yes the fourth stage (to use the proper terminology) is the end of the auction, I'm not arguing that. My point is that the fourth stage isn't over yet. Bidding in the fourth stage is still going on (as explained in the link in my last post), unless it ended today but I can't find anything indicating that it has.

I think it's premature to put an actual number on the total bid because I think the auction is still ongoing. It has reached the minimum, which just means the auction will close when the current stage of bidding ends, which will be when there are no further bids in any market. Bidding was scheduled to go until 4pm ET today and continue on Monday, if needed. I have not seen anything that has said bidding has ended yet. I welcome Trip (or someone else) to correct me if I'm wrong.

Spelling Nazi (as I point out the proper spelling of grammar -- love "Word Crimes" BTW)

According to this Reddit thread, starting Friday you can add unlimited data (with mobile optimized streaming) to any tablet for $20/month on autopay ($25 without) if there's an active phone line on the account. 5GB of mobile hotspot included.

No team has been blacked out since 2013, when there were two. There were none in 2014, then the league got rid of the blackout policy entirely as of 2015. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/03/28/nfl-continues-suspension-of-blackout-rule/

Yep. According to the Verge article about the Unlimited Freedom Premium plan, video is capped at 1080p, audio is throttled at 1.5 Mbps and gaming is throttled at 8 Mbps.

AT&T already charges an access fee for BYOD, so they're not adding it with the new plans. They're changing it to a flat $20/line (right now, it varies with the among of data in the plan)

I haven't been to Lake George since I switched, but Cricket's coverage map shows LTE up there. I can tell you where I live in Queensbury, there are places where I got 3G on Sprint but I get LTE on Cricket so the coverage in this area is better. As I mentioned about your quote, even parts of Queensbury doesn't have LTE, but on Cricket the worst I've gotten is HSPA, which is significantly faster than Sprint's 3G. I'm not sure about Cricket's hotspot policy since I don't use hotspots. I'm pretty sure it's not included with their plans, but I don't know if there's an add-on available for it.

Yep. I live about 20 minutes away from Lake George and noticed the ridiculously slow 3G when I was up there about 5 or 6 weeks ago. Took me about 30 minutes to download an 18MB podcast. That was the last straw for me that got me to switch to Cricket.

I got the Moto G with Amazon ads on Tuesday and, honestly, the lockscreen ads don't bother me. I think I've seen a full-screen ad exactly once -- the first time I turned it on. If you have any notifications, the ads only show up as a notification. Since I always have at least a coupe of notifications (SignalCheck, weather) I always get the notification-style ads and, honestly, don't even notice what product is being advertised much of the time. Well worth the price of the phone, especially as a backup phone or something. I plan on using it until the next Nexus comes out, then keep it as a backup.

AP made the render based on information about the devices they got from their sources.

Yeah, it'll probably be hard to get in-store reps to let you do contracts because apparently they make a lot less for those than they do leases/installment billing. So when they tell you you can't do it, they really mean they're not willing to do it because they don't make enough money to make it worthwhile for them.

How much more can they do? How about launch B41/LTE Plus in markets that don't have it before worrying about deploying third carriers?

Good timing. I just had to go back to my Note 4 yesterday because the screen on my Moto X cracked. Guess I won't have to look at the Walmart spinner again for much longer.

But the specs on the B&H site, if they're accurate, don't include B26 or B41 Cellular Network 2G (CDMA/IS-95 ) Bands:800, 1900 2.5G (EDGE, GSM/GPRS ) MHz:850, 900, 1800, 1900 3G (CDMA2000, EV-DO ) MHz:800, 1900 3.5G (HSPA+, UMTS/WCDMA ) MHz:850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 4G (LTE ) Bands:2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 17, 20, 25

Say goodbye to options. Nextbit has cancelled the CDMA variant.

The codename Google is using internally for Android N is New York Cheesecake, which likely won't be the final name if history is any indication -- the last three codesnames were Key Lime Pie, Lemon Meringue Pie and Macadamia Nut Cookie. http://www.androidpolice.com/2016/03/15/google-is-calling-android-n-new-york-cheesecake-nyc-internally/

The hint is actually why I don't think it'll be Nutella. They usually wouldn't give that big of a hint this soon before the release of the OS. I think it's a misdirection. Before the release of Android 4.4, Google was dropping hints it would be called Key Lime Pie, but it was eventually released as KitKat.