AT&T

9to5Mac republished a video about data throttling which caused AT&T to respond to irate customer complaints. The video created by AppAdvice shows how data throttling can reduce your downlink speed to as low as 0.1MBps. While data throttling doesn't affect everyone, it can be very annoying to the people who have experienced it. It can cause long connection times, slow data transfer speeds and so on.

After the comments section on both 9to5Mac and YouTube started filling up with complaints, AT&T responded by saying, "throttling only applies to top users with grandfathered unlimited plans."

You can read AT&T's full response and watch the data throttling test below.

AT&T is expanding its network by purchasing a slice of the 700MHz spectrum from Qualcomm. This is after the company dropped its bid to acquire T-Mobile due to opposition from the FCC and US Justice Department. Instead, AT&T and T-Mobile are entering a roaming agreement that has been billed as helpful to both companies.

The FCC has approved the latest deal, with Qualcomm selling the frequencies it was formerly using for its Flo TV service. The $1.9 billion agreement hands AT&T additional 700MHz spectrum to expand its 4G LTE network. Although the deal was announced last year, the FCC decided to review both the Qualcomm purchase and T-Mobile acquisition together and ruled on the proposal last week.

Apple was named with T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, HTC, Samsung and Motorola in a class action lawsuit on Monday. Sianni & Straite of Wilmington of Delaware and two other law firms from New Jersey (Crutchlow Zaslow & McElroy of Edison and Keefe Bartels of Red Bank) filed the lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in the District of Delaware. The lawsuit alleges Apple and other companies committed an "unprecedented breach of the digital privacy rights of 150 million cell phone users.”

The class action lawsuit is in response to the Carrier IQ software installed in various cell phones that logs the keystrokes, texts and geographic data of its users. Apple admitted using the diagnostics tool in the past, but said they never recorded "personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.” Apple also promised to remove the software from all their devices in a future firmware update.

25-year-old Trevor Eckhart discovered a "rootkit" hidden in various Android handsets that logs information like text messages, location and encrypted web searches. The company behind the software, Carrier IQ, claims their technology is an innocent diagnostics tool that doesn't record keystrokes or illegally track users. However, Eckhart's YouTube video below seems to suggest otherwise. On Thursday, Apple joined several other carriers and manufacturers in coming clean about using the software. Here is their statement in full (via All Things D):

“We stopped supporting Carrier IQ with iOS 5 in most of our products and will remove it completely in a future software update. With any diagnostic data sent to Apple, customers must actively opt-in to share this information, and if they do, the data is sent in an anonymous and encrypted form and does not include any personal information. We never recorded keystrokes, messages or any other personal information for diagnostic data and have no plans to ever do so.”

Looking for a less expensive way to call overseas? AT&T now provides a solution in their own Call International iPhone app, available for free on the App Store. Calling from the US using the app requires no recurring monthly charge, contract commitment or prepaid balance. According to AT&T the rates offered when using Call International are their lowest available.

Contacts can be dialed directly from your iPhone Contacts list without entering any codes or PIN numbers to call. Calls are billed directly the credit card associated with your Call International account. This account can be set up directly within the Call International app on your iPhone. So what are the advantages of VoIP calling?