AT&T Corp.

The race to provide ultrafast broadband is on.

AT&T has just announced a USB-based telephone charger that does not pull electricity from the wall when it's not charging a phone. I don't know about you, but my charger is plugged in 100% of the time. That charger pulls a tiny amount of energy from the wall 24 hours a day 365 days a year. Multipy that by 100 million chargers in America and there's probably at least one coal-fired power plant in America dedicated entirely to that wasted power.

Google's Nexus One may have gotten off to a rocky start with consumers, but the "superphone" is making fast inroads with wireless carriers. Google this week started selling a Nexus One that will run on AT&T's 3G network, and has also inked a deal with Sprint Nextel. Google previously struck deals with T-Mobile, Vodafone and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint hasn't announced pricing or the availability date, but the carrier is already priming the competitive pump with marketing messages that proclaim its network has twice the coverage of AT&T and 10 times the coverage of T-Mobile.

AT&T's lower-end feature phones are becoming smarter. On Monday, the carrier announced it will offer "smartphone-like experiences" on four of its new, less-expensive models.

The new phones, part of the company's Quick Messaging Devices lineup, will be among the first at AT&T to receive the new suite of consumer data services as the company tries to add value to its lower end by making its data services as valuable, or more so, than the phones themselves.

'Cutting-Edge Services'

by Michael Blim

by Michael Blim

Verizon Wireless hopes to debut its first 4G smartphone in the middle of next year, months earlier than planned, a company executive revealed Wednesday. The new handset will debut about three to six months after its Long-Term Evolution network launches, Verizon Wireless CTO Anthony Melone told The Wall Street Journal.

That timetable suggests Verizon sees 4G as a significant way to outpace its leading rival, AT&T.

Motorola is placing two new bets on the open-source Android operating system with the release of its Backflip and Devour smartphones. The uniquely designed Backflip began selling through AT&T Wireless late last week, and the Detour is now available from Verizon Wireless.

The 3G/Wi-Fi Backflip, at $99 after rebate and with a two-year contract, is gaining a lot of attention for its unique flip-out QWERTY keyboard, which AT&T has described as "an original reverse flip design."

Big Selling Point -- MOTOBLUR

As Apple gets ready to ship its Pads with AT&T as the exclusive U.S. 3G carrier, the wireless giant's CEO seems to be downplaying expectations by saying the tablet computer will be "largely a Wi-Fi-driven product."

The basic iPad with Wi-Fi will sell for $499, and consumers who want 3G connections will have to shell out an extra $130 and pay AT&T $30 per month for unlimited data, or $15 a month for a 250MB plan. They'll also have to wait an extra month for 3G-capable tablets.

No Strain on Network

Having the latest and greatest Windows phones will no longer matter once Microsoft releases its Windows Phone 7 Series. Mobile-phone users running the latest Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, made available in October, will have incremental upgrades but will need a new phone if they want to use the software giant's Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.

Mobile-phone users with the latest Windows Mobile phones do not have the hardware needed to run the newest mobile operating system, according to Microsoft's Mobile Communication Business.