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

ChatGPT Ads Coming Soon for Free and New $8 Go Tier Users

OpenAI says that it won’t serve ads based on sensitive topics like mental health or politics.

OpenAI has announced that it’s testing ads for its free tier and new $8-per-month Go memberships, and the ads will be based on a user’s current conversation.

OpenAI says the ads will be clearly marked and appear at the bottom of ChatGPT answers «when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation.»

Meanwhile, the company says the new Go tier enables 10 times as many messages, file uploads, and image creations as the free tier, and also remembers more details about you over time. The new $8 Go tier joins ChatGPT Plus at $ 20 per month and ChatGPT Pro at $ 200 per month.

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The company says it won’t show ads on «sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health or politics.» It also said it won’t show ads to users who tell the chatbot they are under 18 or to users the system predicts are minors. Furthermore, the company says it will keep individual conversations private from advertisers and never sell user data to advertisers.

The company also says that users can turn off personalization and can clear the data used for ads at any time.

Last week, OpenAI announced a new ChatGPT Health service, which enables users to upload their health data. However, privacy experts warned that the company wasn’t covered by a health provider’s privacy protections.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

How to Use Double XP Tokens in Black Ops 7 and Warzone

Double XP is a must, whether you’re grinding Black Ops 7 prestiges or leveling up your Warzone weapons. Here’s how to use your shiny new double XP tokens.

If you’re looking for your next hit of double experience in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, you’re not alone. While developer Treyarch frequently runs double XP weekends for the most recent Call of Duty game, not every player can take advantage of the full event.

When the weekend is over, players are often left looking for ways to keep the speedy XP gain they grew accustomed to. The solution is double XP tokens, which can help gamers level up their player level, weapon levels and battle pass tiers twice as fast.

Many players have an ample supply of Black Ops 7 double XP tokens, thanks to the carryover from previous Call of Duty games. But if you’re a new player, you might feel like you’re falling behind on leveling during Black Ops 7 Season 1 Reloaded. If you know where to look, there are giveaways and promotions that will help you get a head start in the latest Call of Duty game.

With more unlockable guns and melee weapons to catch up on than ever before, and the introduction of the new XP-based Warzone Armory, players will be benefiting from double weapon XP across their entire Call of Duty account.

If you don’t know how to get more double XP tokens to keep leveling up quickly after double XP weekends, we’re here to help. Here’s every way you can use double XP tokens in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 right now.

Can you use double XP tokens on Double XP Weekend?

Black Ops 7 and Warzone players aren’t able to activate double XP tokens during a double XP weekend. When attempting to open the double XP token menu to activate your tokens, they’ll be grayed out and unable to be interacted with for the duration of the event.

Any double XP time that players had activated before the double XP weekend will be frozen and will reactivate once the universal double XP boost comes to an end.

How to earn free XP tokens in Black Ops 7

Most of the ways to earn Black Ops 7’s double XP tokens involve microtransactions or external marketing campaigns, but there are still some ways to earn the boosts without spending a single cent.

Multiplayer prestige

While there are no double XP tokens available for reaching new prestiges in Black Ops 7, there’s still a roundabout way to earn double XP tokens by prestiging your Black Ops 6 account.

Reaching max rank and choosing to prestige your account is the most reliable way to earn double XP tokens in Black Ops 6. Each time you enter a new prestige level, you’ll be rewarded with a 1-hour token for double player XP. Since there are 10 player prestige levels, you can gain a maximum of 10 hours’ worth of double XP tokens through the prestige system — these tokens are automatically carried forward to Black Ops 7, where you can use them in the multiplayer, zombies and Endgame modes.

Seasonal battle pass

As Black Ops 7 enters Season 1 Reloaded, we know that the battle pass will offer double player XP and double weapon XP tokens on multiple unlockable tiers. The premium battle pass requires a Call of Duty point investment from players, but there are double XP tokens on free battle pass tiers that anyone can earn by just playing the game.

Giveaways through official channels

Occasionally, codes for double XP tokens are shared on official Call of Duty communication channels. The best social media account to watch is the Call of Duty X account, which usually runs giveaways before big Black Ops 7 update announcements. It’s worth keeping an eye on Call of Duty’s social media pages to spot future double XP token giveaways.

Paying for XP tokens in Black Ops 7

Opening your wallet and shelling out some cash is the quickest way to nab some double XP tokens to level up your Call of Duty gameplay. These are the most reliable ways to secure some tokens for your account.

Microtransactions

Double XP tokens are included in certain purchasable bundles in Black Ops 7. Bundles contain player and weapon skins, but also include a variety of double player XP and double weapon XP tokens that you can activate as you play Black Ops 7 game modes.

External promotions

Call of Duty is partnered with external brands, including Monster Energy and Little Caesars, which can bring special campaigns to Black Ops 7 players. Buying products from these brands and redeeming reward codes allows gamers to earn Call of Duty Points, exclusive operator skins, weapon skins, weapon blueprints, weapon vinyls, calling cards and emblems. Most importantly, you’ll have a chance to earn double XP tokens to use in the multiplayer and zombies modes in Black Ops 7. There’s currently a Monster Energy promotion running for Black Ops 7 — we’ve included the details below.

How to earn Black Ops 7 double XP tokens now

Monster Energy has partnered with Call of Duty to put together a promotion that will look very familiar to Black Ops 6 fans. Specially marked cans of Monster Energy include codes that unlock Black Ops 7 rewards, including operator skins, weapon blueprints, decals and sweet, sweet double XP tokens. Here’s the order in which you’ll earn Call of Duty Black Ops 7 rewards by redeeming Monster Energy codes.

Energy Flash decal and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the first code.
Peacekeeper MK1 Hyper Green weapon blueprint and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the second code.
Green Fury operator skin and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the third code.
VS Recon Green Thunder weapon blueprint and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the fourth code.
Daylight Ripper operator skin and 15-minute double XP token unlocked with the fifth code.

There are no unique cosmetic rewards to be gained after redeeming the first five codes, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Every subsequent code redemption unlocks an additional 15-minute double XP token to use on your Black Ops 7 account. These promotional codes must be used by March 31 in order to provide the rewards listed above.

When in doubt, use your Black Ops 6 double XP tokens

Black Ops 7 players are able to use any double XP tokens and GobbleGums they kept from Black Ops 6 — so take advantage of that carry forward and utilize these tokens now.

Double XP tokens don’t necessarily carry over forever — Modern Warfare 3 double XP tokens never properly carried over to Black Ops 6 and were only accessible through a Warzone activation loophole. No skins and cosmetics carried over from Black Ops 6 to Black Ops 7. It’s entirely up to Activision whether you’ll keep your double XP tokens for the next Call of Duty game that comes out.

It might be worth using your hoard of Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 double XP tokens early and often, just in case they don’t carry over to the next game in the series.

Black Ops 7 double XP token FAQs

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Jan. 17, #481

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Jan. 17, No. 481.

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

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. The blue group is a bit funny, once you recognize the connection. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Leading the pack.

Green group hint: Football division.

Blue group hint: Like Bridges or Goldblum.

Purple group hint: Blast off.