Sources in Sprint are reporting that current plan holders are in for a discount. Sprint has dropped the price of Phone As Modem add-ons on new plans, to $15, down from the previous $40 per month.

This appears to only take effect on current offerings; Sprint’s Simply Everything, Sprint Everything, and Everything Plus plans. The price drop appears to be part of an effort to lure customers over from older, grandfathered plans. Sprint’s plans of today typically cost more, but by discounting PAM, it can make up for the difference.

In addition, this will finally enable the Samsung Instinct to support Phone As Modem tethering officially. Sprint’s current plans have lacked a Phone As Modem add-on code until this week, and Instinct must be hacked to use Phone as Modem without a Phone as Modem plan.

A local CBS affiliate in Vermont is reporting that AT&T will finally be moving into the state it’s been denied in for years.  Thanks to the Verizon/Unicel merger that was recently approved, Verizon picked up several rural areas,  which includes several markets in Vermont.

With the merger, it leaves only one wireless network in the state, which spells trouble and a potential wireless monopoly.  AT&T has picked up the slack, and can now offer their services throughout the state. This spells good news for residents that have patiently anticipated the iPhone for going on 14 months now.  Given that some determined residents used jailbroken iPhones on other networks, at last the “got-to-have-it” device is legally available with full-fledged AT&T services.

The process of conversion will obviously take months to accomplish, but they’ve waited long enough, what’s another few months?  Now, the only other question is whether or not they’re also turning on 3G for the Green Mountain State.

While many thought the much anticipated Blackberry Bold would make its debut in the US around the same time as the iPhone 3G, it’s still yet to happen.  Interestingly enough, the device was launched recently on the Movistar network in Chile.  Why Chile?  It’s not exactly clear.

While it should be available some time next month for AT&T here in the states, Movistar’s website is boasting that their offering of the Bold is “Primero en el mundo,” or the First in the World.  It was likely a ploy to get the Bold introduced before competing wireless companies came out with their signature devices, most notably the iPhone for Chilean consumers on the Claro network.

Blackberry fans have been waiting for the Bold for a  long time, ever since being introduced way back in October of last year.  It’s destined to be the ultimate Blackberry since it finally features everything long-time users have been waiting for such as 3G access, a great high resolution screen, and clean styling all finally available on a BlackBerry.

The FCC’s recent ruling against Comcast may have struck a powerful blow against carriers prohibiting Phone As Modem usage, or require more expensive plans to have such utility.

Since carriers started cracking down on users who chose to use their phone as a modem, hackers have fought back. For years, we’ve chronicled ways to bypass Phone As Modem restrictions on Sprint and Verizon. These carriers have required customers to purchase more expensive plans, to have the same functionality that they previously had. Initially, both Sprint and Verizon had no restrictions on using their 3G networks with Phone as Modem utility.

Of course, the legality of said hacks has been questionable, ever since the carriers revised their Terms of Service to ban using phones as modems without lucrative, specialized plans. Enter the FCC…

The FCC last week ruled that Comcast was in violation of its licenses by interfering with BitTorrent traffic. While the FCC’s ruling was nebulous at best, it was the first major win for the Net Neutrality supporters. Essentially, the FCC is taking the position that, so long as network activity is not abusive, that a carrier cannot interfere with such traffic.

And, that appears to apply to wireless as well. Taking the BitTorrent example to wireless, how is a web page different when it is viewed in Safari on a Mac, versus viewed on an Instinct or iPhone? The same pages are loaded, the same data is used.

As such, it appears that you can now feel validated in the eyes of the federal government, for bypassing any restrictions on using your phone as a modem. Of course, several questions still remain, namely, if the FCC has the authority to enforce Net Neutrality, or if that authority falls under the purview of congressional legislation.

But, for now, we will be stepping up our coverage of phone-as-modem bypassing.

Motorola’s developer program, MOTODEV, spent an hour-and-a-half talking up their Linux platform, MOTOMAGX, at LinuxWorld 2008 today. They even had the right people there for questions and answers.

But, the one thing they didn’t do, is answer the question most on our reader’s minds: Where is MOTOMAGX on CDMA? Motorola has said that they intend to bring Linux to UMTS phones, but haven’t said a word about CDMA.

And no, we didn’t even come close to asking about UIQ on CDMA.

In a press release this morning, T-Mobile USA has announced the launch of W-CDMA 3G service in the Las Vegas market as well as the official debut of four previously launched handsets with 3G capability.

W-CDMA 1700 capable phones such as the Samsung T639, Samsung T819, Nokia 3555, and the Nokia 6263 are now able to take full advantage of the faster speeds offered by the currently UMTS-capable network, with the carrier planning to launch 20 further networks on October 1st of this year as well as its first HSDPA-capable handset within an undisclosed time frame.

T-Mobile has also pledged a further commitment to building out its recently contracted HotSpot network outside of the major markets that will be launching 3G service in an effort to provide its customers with equivalent service outside of 3G coverage areas.

Buy a Samsung SGH-t639 from LetsTalk.com

Buy a Nokia 6263 from LetsTalk.com

Buy a Nokia 3555 from Amazon
Buy a Nokia 6263 from Amazon
Buy a Samsung T819 from Amazon
Buy a Samsung T639 from Amazon

Apple’s quick-fix updates to both iTunes and iPhone are now out. Unfortunately, they haven’t fixed the most nagging problem… Apple’s App Store.

The App Store, being Apple’s own official way for installing software for iPhone and iPod touch, was intended to be more stable and faster than third-party installers which preceded App Store. In fact, many of the features of App Store were taken from Nullriver’s Installer.app. But, when launch day came, users were faced with iPhone sync times that lasted hours, and installing applications could take up to 30 minutes in some cases.

Apple has now updated the entire system, both iTunes has been bumped to 7.7.1, and iPhone OS has been updated to 2.0.1. Yet still, these most-complained-about bugs persist.

Worse, the issues appear to be increasing. Yesterday’s wave of software updates that were approved, has caused an isolated issue to spread like wildfire. Essentially, more and more users are reporting in that iTunes and iPhone state that they cannot update an app without completely re-purchasing it. iTunes reports an ominous ”You do not qualify for this price” when using the App Store’s built-in software update mechanism.

Apple has not acknowledge an intention to fix these issues, though from all external expectations, they will in the future. Multiple insiders report that company continues to invest most of its development resources on iPhone internally.

We haven’t talked much about Openmoko. Why? No, it’s not because it runs Linux. And, it’s not because there are other phones that are more stable.

The main reason we haven’t talked about Openmoko phones, are because they lack any form of high-speed data. With only GPRS, even the phone’s maker insists that it’s aimed at developers gearing up for the era of Linux phones. And, while some morons of the year disagree, we tend to listen to the phone’s maker on these things.

However, the makers of the Neo FreeRunner are at the forefront of the coming wave of Linux phones. Be it Android or LinMo, these phones are designed to literally speak the same language. And, kicking off our LinuxWorld 2008 coverage… we thought it would be a good idea to sit down and chat with them today.

So, post away your questions on the state of Linux, the Neo FreeRunner, or anything else you’d like to hear from Openmoko on.

Update: Your questions, answered in the comments. Feel free to keep asking questions, we’ll keep getting them answered.

Awhile back, we asked what you would ask the folks behind Nokia’s N-Series. And now, you can watch their answers. Nokia has uploaded a YouTube reply, and most of the questions answered… were asked by PhoneNews.com readers.

YouTube: N-Series Team Answers Your Questions

The LiMo foundation has introduced seven more headsets to bring its running total to 21 so far.  Unfortunately, only one of which will be available in the US.  The Motorola Motozine ZN5 will see American store shelves, while the other six will only be available in Japan until further notice.

The new line of LiMo-based phones seem to be focused primarily on advanced GPS capabilities and security.  The Motozine ZN5, for example, can track a pedestrian’s course block by block, as well as sports new-age mobile security features that allow for mobile-banking and other financial details to be carried out on devices.

The new devices feature the ability to identify their owners, so if something is going down on the device that it deems un-secure, it will shut itself down to curb any abuse.  While this is needed for advanced mobile functions that are already ubiquitous in Japan and other countries, it will just put LiMo-based devices that much further ahead of the competition when it all hits US shores.