Technologies

AT&T Says It Continued to Grow Despite Giving Promotions the Boot

A second carrier warns that there will be fewer wireless deals in the future.

AT&T ended the year with more phone and internet subscribers, according to results from the last fiscal quarter.

The Dallas telecom company reported its earnings on Wednesday, noting 656,000 postpaid net phone additions in the fourth quarter, a metric used by the industry as shorthand for success and dependable revenue. AT&T said it gained customers even though it had less generous phone promotions and deals than its competitors.

Despite inflation and worries surrounding a recession, AT&T CEO John Stankey was cautiously optimistic about the company’s forecast for the year.

«The good news is, I think we’re through the worst of it,» Stankey said on a conference call, though he noted that geopolitical disruption could be a swing factor changing the carrier’s 2023 outlook.

The results come at a time when wireless carriers are tightening their belts through layoffs and pulling back on the kind of promotions and freebies they once offered to lure in new customers. On Tuesday, Verizon also said it was moving away from aggressive promotions even if meant short-term losses. Consumers can expect to see fewer wireless deals going forward.

AT&T also ended the year by surpassing its goal of covering 130 million people with its midband 5G, with the telecom company hitting the 150 million mark. Midband spectrum runs on a frequency of 5G that brings wider coverage and higher speeds to more places. The spectrum was mostly in its C-band frequency range, which AT&T paid $27 billion to acquire in 2021 and started rolling out last year. AT&T wasn’t clear about whether this number includes the 3.45 GHz frequencies of 5G midband that the carrier paid $9.1 billion to acquire a year ago. The carrier set a new target to cover 200 million people with midband 5G by the end of 2023.

AT&T lost 13,000 net prepaid phone subscribers in the last quarter, including customers for AT&T’s Cricket brand that rivals T-Mobile’s Metro and Verizon’s new Total affordable prepaid offerings.

The carrier posted 280,000 broadband fiber net additions, noting that its fiber customers now outnumber customers with older DSL and other internet services. AT&T touched on its Gigapower fiber joint venture with private equity company BlackRock Alternatives, announced just before the end of 2022, which Stankey likened to an opportunity in the early race for wireless phone service. The venture aims to harness government subsidies to deploy multi-gig fiber in new areas to reach 1.5 million customers.

«The possibility to help close the digital divide and focus on access to affordable high-speed internet is a top priority of AT&T,» Stankey said.

The carrier acknowledged that it will have a new offering this year for fixed wireless, an internet frontier that AT&T effectively ceded to Verizon and T-Mobile in the early days of 5G. In the past, AT&T has confirmed it won’t expand into fixed wireless except on rare occasions to meet specific business needs. So long as fixed wireless delivers less bandwidth than fiber, AT&T isn’t excited about it as an alternative to wired broadband, Stankey said, noting any deployment would have a narrow niche where fiber can’t easily reach.

«I don’t see [fixed wireless] place long-term in dense metropolitan areas, and I don’t see it in reasonably well-populated suburban areas,» Stankey said.

AT&T reported revenues of $31.3 billion, which is around the revenue for the same period last year and slightly under the $31.39 billion expected. The carrier reported 61 cents of adjusted earnings per share, which was better than the 57 cents earned per share expected by analysts polled by Yahoo Finance.

At the start of the new year, AT&T expects wireless revenue growth of 4% and broadband revenue growth of 5% through 2023. The carrier noted it expects to spend around the same for capital expenditures this year, which hit a record $24 billion in 2022 due to expanding midband 5G and fiber rollouts.

AT&T’s stock was up a tenth of a percent to $19.18 in after-hours trading.

Technologies

Ring Finally Goes Wire-Free for Its Latest 4K Video Doorbells

The launch of battery-powered versions of the company’s powerful AI doorbells has been highly anticipated.

Security company Ring on Wednesday announced a significant expansion of its video doorbell line, notably battery-powered versions of both its 4K and 2K models, priced from $80.

Both Amazon’s Ring and Google Nest debuted high-resolution video doorbells with new AI features in the fall of 2025. But they were wired only, and in my tests, I kept thinking, «I sure wish there were battery models available.»

Wireless video doorbells are far better for most front doors than models that require connecting to your existing doorbell wiring, which is often poorly positioned for a security camera. Mine, for example, is located on a wall beside my door that’s useless for any kind of video views, no matter how you angle a lens.

«Enhancing image quality in battery-powered doorbells means customers can enjoy reliable performance with the flexibility to install devices in a way that suits their space, whether renting or living in homes without existing wiring,» a Ring spokesperson said.

At first, I wondered whether the higher 4K resolutions and more advanced AI features would use too much power to support batteries. If so, Ring is the first to fix that issue with this suite of doorbells, including these models available for preorder right now:

Ring Battery Doorbell Pro — $250: This model offers up to 4K resolution and 10x zoom, and Ring says it features a redesigned internal architecture to support battery power.
Ring Battery Doorbell Plus (2nd-gen) — $180: This model includes a quick-release battery pack along with 2K video.
Ring Battery Doorbell (2nd-gen) — $100: This video doorbell includes 2K video, a 6x zoom and what Ring calls a «streamlined, rechargeable design,» which means you take the entire video doorbell to charge it, not just the battery — a design I greatly prefer, since Ring’s battery packs can get fiddly.

There’s also a new version of a Ring wired doorbell with 2K resolution, starting at $80. It wouldn’t be Ring without a plethora of doorbell devices to confuse newcomers, which is why I have a guide specifically for Ring video doorbells that will need some updating once I finish testing these new models.

Resolution plus an intelligence upgrade

Ring’s ordinary subscriptions of the Ring Protect plan give you cloud video storage and intelligent alerts for people, packages and vehicles, which are important but not really advanced AI. But spring for the $20-per-month Ring AI Pro cam, and this new generation of cameras opens up other capabilities.

Ring’s AI features include AI video descriptions, so if you get an alert, you can also get a summary of what the doorbell saw, including people and activities. A similar feature lets you search your video history with specific terms, such as «bike,» «truck» and so on. You also get the beta version of Ring’s Familiar Faces feature, which can ID logged faces of people who approach.

If these AI features make you uneasy and you’d rather protect your privacy, the best option is to avoid a subscription altogether or choose a lower-tier plan that gives you cloud storage without AI.

I also have a guide on how to turn off Ring’s detection and data-sharing features that might make you nervous, so you can keep what you like while ditching what you don’t.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 26

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 26.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Baseball is back! You’ll see baseball images patterned throughout today’s Mini Crossword grid, and when you solve the puzzle, they’ll spell out a certain word. Play ball! Er, read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Degrees for boardroom execs
Answer: MBAS

5A clue: «___ want for Christmas …»
Answer: ALLI

6A clue: What Hamlet holds while giving his «Alas, poor Yorick!» speech
Answer: SKULL

7A clue: Wild, as an animal
Answer: FERAL

8A clue: Sphere
Answer: ORB

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Word after «match» or «mischief»
Answer: MAKER

2D clue: Bit of writing on a book jacket
Answer: BLURB

3D clue: Penne ___ vodka
Answer: ALLA

4D clue: Window ledge
Answer: SILL

6D clue: Bay Area airport, for short
Answer: SFO

Technologies

McDonald’s KPop Demon Hunter Meals Include Bright Purple Nugget Sauce

The Derpy McFlurry mixes popping boba pearls and berry sauce into a soft-serve dessert.

McDonald’s has seen success with themed combo meals, including its holiday Grinch Meal. Now, the fast-food chain is capitalizing on Netflix’s Oscar-winning animated film, KPop Demon Hunters, with new upcoming menu items and both a breakfast meal and a lunch/dinner offering. Let’s hope you like the color purple.

The HUNTR/X Meal, named for the K-pop girl group in the movie, is a 10-piece chicken McNuggets meal that includes a medium drink and three special menu items.

Ramyeon McShaker fries come with a small bag of soy, garlic, sesame and spice seasoning, along with regular McDonald’s french fries. You sprinkle the seasoning into the provided bag, dump in the fries, shake it all up and eat.

The meal includes two new sauces for the fries and nuggets. Hunter sauce is a sweet chili sauce mixing notes of chili, garlic and pepper. But my favorite item on this new menu is Demon sauce, a bold mustard sauce with some heat and a bold purple color. There’s just not enough dark purple food out there.

There’s also a new dessert, the Derpy McFlurry, which blends creamy vanilla soft serve with berry-flavored popping boba pearls, served with a swirl of wild berry sauce. McDonald’s named it for the supernatural feline, Derpy Tiger, from the movie.

If breakfast is your bag, the new morning meal is the Saja Boys Breakfast Meal, named for the movie’s boy band.

It includes a Spicy Saja McMuffin sandwich, which is a sausage McMuffin with egg and a spicy Saja sauce, hash browns and a small drink.

Both meals come with a photocard for one of the bands and a Derpy card. The Derpy card includes a QR code you can scan to unlock online content about the film.

The full KPop Demon Hunters menu should be available at participating McDonald’s beginning March 31.

The McDonald’s Grinch meal (and its accompanying patterned socks) sold out quickly, so KPop Demon Hunters fans may want to mark their calendars and nab a meal when they are released.