AT&T todayannouncedthat it will launch its LTE service in five markets beginning Sunday. The news came from a presentation that AT&T CFO John Stephens gave during and appearance at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Media Entertainment and Communications conference. The company plans to spread LTE service out across 70 million subscribers in 15 markets by the end of the year and has said that it plans to have its first LTE smartphone before the year is out as well....

When Amazon’s Android Appstorelaunched on Tuesday, AT&T handset owners found themselves unable to download the application and access the third-party application marketplace. With it thought that the U.S carrier was waiting to see how popular the Amazon Appstore was before allowing it to be downloaded, AT&T kept a block in place that stopped users from installing third-party applications such as Amazon’s new Appstore app. After its customers began complaining, AT&T opened up a signup page viaappstoreaccess....

AT&T announced today that it is now taking pre-orders for the HTC Status, what it’s calling “the first phone with a dedicated Facebook share button”. The phone is exclusive to AT&T customers for $49.99 with a two-year contract and will be in stores on July 17th for $49.99. AT&T is touting the HTC Status as the first phone to feature a dedicated Facebook share button as opposed to a phone that links to the mobile Facebook application....

Tipped off by an anonymous tipster, Engadget brings word that AT&T is planning to axe its Messaging 1000 plan for individual users and leave behind just the unlimited plan,in a bid to simplify its offerings. The new plans are supposed to go into effect starting on August 21, 2011. Come Sunday, Ma Bell intends to offer justthe current Messaging Unlimited plan, where you get unlimited texting for $20 per month, and the pay-as-you-go plans, where you shell out 20¢ for every text message you send and 30¢ for every MMS....

TNW Quick Hit: Word on the street is that AT&T is so serious about its position inside of the world of Windows Phone 7, that it is sending reps to Best Buy stores to quiz the employees over their level of knowledge about the phone line. The quizzes, whichaccording to WinExtraare purely verbal, do include a possible prize: “the winner of the quiz gets a free Windows Phone from AT&T.” We are not sure if this is a per store, or per state deal, but the prize on the line might lead some Best Buy denizens to brush up on what they know....