AT&T plans to soon make its nationwide Wi-Fi network free to users…provided you are one of its 10 million plus broadband subscribers. No specific date was given for when this offer would be made valid, though the company’s “higher-speed” broadband customers already get this feature.

AT&T, in its announcement, said those who subscribe to its broadband services with downstream speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps, 3.0 Mbps, or 6.0 Mbps will soon be able to get online for free at any of its over 10,000 wireless hotspots. These include locations in retail stores, restaurants and airports. The service provider says this will deliver “an annual saving of $60 for AT&T broadband customers.”

What do AT&T, Apple, Comcast, Cablevision and eBay all have in common? They are all being sued today by Klausner Technologies over visual voicemail patents the company says it owns and which it feels these well known, other companies have not yet requested a patent license for.

The suits were filed by the company which “was founded by Judah Klausner, the inventor of the PDA and electronic organizer.” Klausner Technologies says Cablevision’s Optimum Voicemail, Comcast’s Digital Voice Voicemail, eBay’s Skype Voicemail and AT&T/Apple’s iPhone Visual Voicemail services all violate patents it holds which allow “users to selectively retrieve and listen to voice messages via message inbox displays.”

The once mighty pay phone is now going the way of the dodo as mobile phones are the way of today. AT&T sees the writing on the wall and is getting off the sinking ship, announcing today it plans to exit the pay phone business by the end of 2008.

AT&T said pay phones in the United States have declined over the last 10 years from around 2.6 million phones to a measly 1 million today. The company sees no reason to remain in this business any longer and “plans to phase out both public pay phones and phones provided under contracts at government correctional facilities through the end of next year.”

AT&T and LG want you to find a little extra something shiny in your stocking this year. The two have teamed to unveiled the exclusive LG Shine. It’s priced at around $150 after a two-year contract and rebate.

The LG Shine is described by AT&T as a mobile multimedia device. To that end it supports a variety of AT&T online services, including video sharing, mobile banking and mobile music. It’s a slider-style mobile which sports a silver exterior as well as a 2.2-inch mirror LCD screen.

Another day, another new sliding mobile phone. This time around AT&T and Samsung are teaming to reveal the Samsung SGH-a737, a slim and multi-color handset which will price at around $50 after your usual contract and rebate.

AT&T describes the SGH-a737 as “ultra-thin” and “entertainment accelerated.” What you’ve basically got here is a lightweight slider-style phone available in four color combos: black/orange, black/blue, black/red and black/lime. It’s got a lot of your typical bells and whistles, including a 1.3-megapixel digital camera, external microSD memory expansion and stereo Bluetooth 2.0 technology.

AT&T revealed today the Pantech duo, a mobile handset device which sports both a full QWERTY and a numeric keypad. It’s priced at around $200 with your typical two-year contract and mail-in rebate.

The AT&T Pantech duo is an exclusive device for AT&T in the United States. It has a dual-sliding, double keyboard design, allowing you to make phone calls or text messaging with a full mini-keyboard. It has as its operating system Windows Mobile 6, which comes with your standard Office Mobile for viewing PowerPoint presentations, as well as viewing and editing Microsoft Word and Excel documents.

AT&T is looking to give a speed boost to users of its 3G wireless network via a new wireless laptop card. The Sierra Wireless AirCard 881 will be free, subject of course to your standard rebates and two-year contract.

The Sierra Wireless AirCard 881 is compatible with new High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology being pushed by AT&T onto its existing wireless network. This card will allow average upload speeds between 500 Kbps and 800 Kbps and also support enhanced HSDPA download speeds ranging between 600 to 1,400 Kbps.

AT&T is set to make available to wireless subscribers a new 3G smart device packed with features. The new AT&T Tilt, developed for the telephone company by HTC, will be priced at around $300 with a rebate and two-year agreement.

The AT&T Tilt is powered by Windows Mobile 6 and sports an angled screen with slide-out QWERTY keypad design. It has a built-in 3-megapixel digital camera, integrated Bluetooth 2.0, 3G data connectivity support, GPS-enabled turn-by-turn directions and global accessibility. There’s also built-in WiFi.

Here it is. AT&T has announced that the BlackBerry 8820 that amazingly (for a BlackBerry) supports EDGE, Wi-Fi and GPS all in the same smartphone. AT&T will have the new 8820 available for purchase starting tomorrow, September 20. In addition to showing off to your coworkers that you have a BlackBerry that can connect via Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) to your own network, the mobile phone can hook up to Wi-Fi hotspots around the country giving data access without data minutes.

The device also has built-in GPS for navigating your way through unfamiliar lands and has AT&T’s push to talk service. To round out the broad connectivity in this device, the 8820 even has Bluetooth for your wireless headset. Also housed is a microSD card slot and a full QWERTY keyboard, all being priced at $300 (after some rebates and a 2-year plan, of course).

LG got busy with AT&T today by exclusively unveiling a multi-purpose clamshell mobile device which is geared for multimedia users. The trax by LG is available beginning Tuesday for around $130 after rebate and two-year contract.

The trax by LG is around .62 inches thick and weighs around 3.55 ounces. Inside this thin phone you get support for 3G HSDPA data speeds, stereo Bluetooth support and a 1.3-megapixel digital camera. Its support of AT&T’s UMTS/HSDPA network also lets users of this phone access the provider’s online video service as well as share live video from the …

Today eMusic, who is the second largest online retailer of music behind iTunes, announced along with AT&T that they together will be providing a service to allow people to buy and download songs directly to their cellphones with no computer in between.

eMusic will be offering through the mobile service almost all of the 2.7 million songs available currently from the online service, DRM free as always, which feature only independent labels and not as many mainstream artists as rival services. They do however carry …

Not surprisingly, Apple and AT&T are seeing their first class action lawsuit over the iPhone regarding its internal battery. According to the filed suit the allegations state, “The battery enclosed in the iPhone can only be charged approximately 300 times before it will be in need of replacement, necessitating a new battery annually for owners of the iPhone.”

The Plaintiff claims that he did not know, nor was disclosed to the public prior to purchase, that the iPhone battery was in a sealed unit with the battery soldered in …

The weekend launch of Apple’s brand-spanking new iPhone was a tremendous success if you’re a shareholder in Apple stock, but if you’re one of the unfortunate customers that have been left out in the dark without activation by phone carrier and Apple iPhone partner AT&T then success is a four-letter swear word.

As iPhones flew off store shelves across the country over the weekend some customers found that Apple’s supposedly easy-as-pie activation scheme for the iPhone via iTunes turned out to be a never-ending nightmare. After registering their iPhone, selecting …

Here’s another release that just made it within its announced time constraints, launching on the last of the month. RIM and AT&T have announced the official release of the BlackBerry Curve, available through AT&T starting tomorrow, May 31st for a price of $199 with a two year contract and a mail in rebate, of course.

The BlackBerry Curve is the latest, smallest and lightest BlackBerry smart phone with a full QWERTY keyboard that RIM has produced. In fact, AT&T (through a predecessor company) was the first carrier to introduce a BlackBerry …