By Brad Reed; BGR ~ Apr 25, 2014

You didn’t really think AT&T was going to sit around and watch Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile gobble up incredibly valuable spectrum on the 600MHz band, did you? Well, neither did the Federal Communications Commission, which earlier this week called AT&T’s bluff and essentially dared it to skip out on what might be the most important wireless spectrum auction we’ll see for years.

As Re/code reports, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler scoffed at AT&T’s supposed threat to boycott next year’s 600MHz auction and said that he had “a hard time envisioning this once in a lifetime opportunity for this kind of beachfront spectrum being something that people throw up their hands and walk away from.”

By Sarah Reedy; Light Reading ~ Apr 23, 2014

AT&T’s user-defined cloud is getting more defined. The carrier announced Tuesday that it has selected Amdocs and Juniper Networks to help design and deploy the cloud-based architecture. (See AT&T Adds Amdocs, Juniper to Cloud Initiative.)

Amdocs Ltd. (NYSE: DOX) and Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) are joining Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), Tail-f Systems , Affirmed Networks Inc. , and Metaswitch Networks as vendors in AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T)’s User-Defined Network Cloud program, which was introduced at the Mobile World Congress in February. The initiative is part of the carrier’s Domain 2.0 supplier program designed to reduce network costs in its move to SDN and NFV. (See AT&T’s Cloud Future Takes Shape.)

By Kate Tummarello; The Hill ~ Apr 23, 2014

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler said he doesn’t believe AT&T will sit out of the agency’s highly anticipated airwaves auction next year.

He pointed to AT&T’s past insistence that it needs more airwaves for its growing mobile business.

“I have a hard time envisioning this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for this kind of beach-front spectrum being something that people throw up their hands and walk away from,” he said Wednesday at meeting of the FCC.

AT&T last week said it would reconsider participating in the 2015 auction based on the FCC’s rules for the auction.

Investor’s Business Daily ~ Apr 23, 2014

President Obama speaks about the status of the Affordable Care Act in the press briefing room of the White House on April 17, 2014. — AP

President Obama speaks about the status of the Affordable Care Act in the press briefing room of the White House on April 17, 2014. — AP View Enlarged Image

Affordable Care Act: President Obama has for a while been bragging that 8 million people have signed up for ObamaCare. But the administration still hasn’t released the state-by-state numbers to back up that number.

You’d think that with such good news, the administration would want to put out as many details as possible, as soon as possible. But judging by previous months, the latest Health and Human Services enrollment report is now nearly two weeks behind schedule.

As a result, we still don’t know where 2.7 million ObamaCare enrollees came from.

Here’s what we do know:

By Jordan Malter; Money ~ Apr 22, 2014

Hidalgo County, Texas (CNNMoney) – About 8 million people have signed up for Year 1 of Obamacare, but millions of others are still falling into the law’s “coverage gap.”

They earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid, yet don’t make enough to get federal subsidies to buy private insurance on an Affordable Care Act exchange.

The human toll of the coverage gap can be found all too easily in Hidalgo County, Texas, where less than half of non-senior adults had health insurance in 2012.

“If Obama did this market so we can get affordable insurance, why are we still having a lot of problems? What’s going on?” asked Anna Covacevich, a 57-year-old home care provider and Hidalgo County resident who made $8,000 last year.

By Marina Lopes; Reuters ~ Apr 22, 2014

NEW YORK (Reuters) – AT&T Inc (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) on Tuesday raised its forecast for full-year revenue growth to reflect its acquisition of LEAP wireless in March and the popularity of a new handset pricing model that charges customers for devices separately from their wireless plans.

Like other carriers, AT&T is seeking growth in a nearly saturated environment, making differentiated strategies such as alternate pricing plans more crucial to attract customers.

The company raised its forecast for full-year revenue growth to at least 4 percent from 3 percent.

By Patrick Howley; The Daily Caller ~ Apr 21, 2014

Tax-preparing companies are getting paid by an Obamacare exchange to enroll people in Obamacare plans, The Daily Caller has learned.

At least 79 tax service providers, including offices of major companies like Liberty Tax Service and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, are listed as certified Obamacare enrollment entities in the state of California, according to state exchange records.

California’s Obamacare exchange, Covered California, pays enrollment entities for signing people up for Obamacare.

“Certified Enrollment Entities are paid a flat-fee of $58 per successful application and $25 per successful annual renewal,” according to California Health Benefit Advisers. ”The Enrollment Entities compensate the individual Enrollment Counselors.”

From The Experts; The Wall Street Journal ~ Apr 21, 2014

After years of saving and planning, no one wants to throw away money in retirement. With this issue in mind, we asked The Experts: What’s the biggest waste of money in retirement?

This discussion relates to the latest Encore Report and formed the basis of a discussion on The Experts blog in March 2014.

Beware the Retiree Timeshare Trap

BUD HEBELER: Those who buy timeshare vacation homes often have second thoughts after it’s too late. Once the purchase money is in the sellers’ hands, it’s virtually impossible to get it back. Worse, timeshares are extraordinarily difficult to sell and sometimes even tough to give away because a lifelong burden of ever-increasing taxes, maintenance and assessments follow.

By Anick Jesdanun; The Associated Press ~ Apr 21, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T plans a major expansion of super-fast Internet services to cover as many as 100 municipalities in 25 metropolitan areas.

The service, called GigaPower, has a 1 gigabit per second speed that is about 100 times what U.S. consumers typically get with broadband. That means faster video downloads and the ability for more devices to connect to the network without congestion.

AT&T currently has such speeds in Austin, Texas, and has committed to offer the service in Dallas. The company is also in advanced talks to bring GigaPower to two additional markets, Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C.

By Jessica Silver-Greenberg, New York Times, Apr 20, 2014

Under federal rules, survivors are supposed to be offered the option to settle the loan for a percentage of the full amount. Instead, reverse-mortgage companies are increasingly threatening to foreclose unless heirs pay the mortgages in full.

The only solace for Isabel Santos as she spends her evenings huddled over stacks of yellowed foreclosure notices is that her parents are not alive to watch their ranch-style house in Pleasant Hill, Calif., slipping away.

Santos, 61, along with a growing number of baby boomers, is confronting a bitter inheritance: The same loans that were supposed to help their elderly parents stay in their houses are now pushing their children out.

“My dad had nothing when he came here from Cuba and worked so hard to buy this house,” Santos said, her voice quivering.