Wall Street analysts are warning their institutional investors AT&T has broken its promise to end price wars on smartphones with the announcement it will offer a free iPhone 8/8+ with the purchase of another, as long as customers also subscribe to DirecTV.

The promotion breaks a truce among wireless carriers to stop heavily discounting smartphones and other devices in bids to win over subscribers. The deal could cost AT&T between $700-800 per promotion participant, before any dealer discounts are applied. AT&T has not said whether the promotion will also extend to Apple’s ultra-deluxe iPhone X, which starts at $999. It will apply to other phones AT&T offers in its retail stores and online.

AT&T is looking to boost subscriber numbers for DirecTV and get its wireless customers to bundle television service with their phone plan. Getting a customer to commit to a term committed DirecTV subscription, especially if they have not subscribed in the past, is a high hurdle to overcome, but a free iPhone may be enough for some to take AT&T up on its offer. AT&T will even sweeten the deal with an iPad for an additional $99.99, if the customer signs a two-year wireless contract.

The promotion starts this Friday and is the first of what could be several aggressive offers targeting iPhone fans. The popular Apple device attracts scores of high income customers wireless carriers desperately want on their networks. In 2016, a vicious cutthroat price war started by T-Mobile soon dragged in almost every wireless carrier and cost at least $200 per customer in margins.

So far, T-Mobile has avoided a similar offer, content with offering customers up to $300 in trade-in-credit for iPhone 6 or newer smartphones in good condition. That credit can be spent on the iPhone 8/8+ or iPhone X. Verizon has a similar offer. Sprint is offering a “half-off lease” for the iPhone 8/8+ if a customer trades in their iPhone 7 in good condition.

Wall Street worries about equipment promotions because it can challenge carriers’ cash on hand and cut into profit margins. Since rate plans are no longer adjusted upwards to recoup the cost of the promotion, the provider has to eat the expense.

DirecTV Now is continuing to boost the number of live, local stations included in its streaming service with the addition of more than 25 local ABC, NBC and Fox affiliates, most in smaller cities.

The additions bring the station total to nearly 130 stations in 70 cities.

“We’re giving DirecTV Now customers more live local channels to stay connected, with more channels coming,” said Daniel York, senior executive vice president and chief content officer of the AT&T Entertainment Group.

The new stations:

Verizon has told the Federal Communications Commission it should reject a bid from a consumer group to release confidential corporate merger information to the public so it can learn what economic incentives, if any, exist to begin charging content providers extra fees for internet fast lanes and zero rating.

Incompas, which advocates for increased competition in the wireless industry, asked the Commission in July to publicly disclose details of recent telecom mergers obtained in confidence from the companies involved to “interested commenters” in the Net Neutrality proceeding allowing consumers can obtain valuable insight into the “economic incentives and abilities of incumbent broadband providers to curb competition, including through their control of residential broadband connections.”

The group specifically called out AT&T’s merger with DirecTV, Comcast’s failed merger with Time Warner Cable, and Charter’s merger with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. All of the entities involved either operate wireless networks themselves or partner with a provider that does. Incompas believes a document release will show increased concentration and market power and the marked impact that can have on what consumers pay for service and how those companies plan to treat competing traffic.

The information disclosure sought by the group was vehemently opposed by Verizon, which doesn’t want its business secrets revealed to the public.

“There is no legal justification or sound policy basis to justify making this highly sensitive business information available in the Restoring Internet Freedom proceeding,” Verizon countered in its filing. The phone company does not want to publicly release details about its connection agreements with other companies or exactly how many customers it serves. “[N]othing has changed since the adoption of these protective orders that warrants the Commission weakening these protections by allowing this sensitive business information to be disclosed to potentially millions of ‘interested commenters’ in the Restoring Internet Freedom proceeding.”

While some Net Neutrality critics have sought to dismiss the more than 13 million comments received so far by the FCC on Net Neutrality as confused ranting, Verizon takes an opposite position saying the Commission is already bogged down with quality comments on Net Neutrality and does not need more, claiming it would only add to a flood of analysis on Net Neutrality. Verizon claimed among the submissions received by the FCC are “millions of comments, thousands of pages of expert testimony and declarations and hundreds of substantive analyses and submissions with detailed economic, legal and policy arguments.”

Charter Communications did not appreciate the proposal either, claiming it was unfair.

“Such an outcome would eviscerate the core protection of the commission’s protective orders, thereby unfairly punishing Charter’s past compliance and threatening the commission’s ability to obtain sensitive information from private parties in the future,” Charter officials wrote.

DirecTV Now customers in 14 major TV markets will soon have live access to their local CBS and CW affiliates through the streaming service, with 30 additional ABC, FOX and NBC affiliates soon to follow in other cities.

“This is another key milestone in bringing DirecTV Now users access to their favorite entertainment, news and sports from all the major broadcast networks,” said Daniel York, senior executive vice president and chief content officer – AT&T Entertainment Group.

In “the coming weeks” DirecTV Now will also add on-demand access to CBS and CW programming for the benefit of those who live outside of a city where a live station stream will be available. The agreement with CBS includes Showtime ($8 per month), CBS Sports Network (available on packages starting with ‘Go Big’), and Pop (added to packages starting with ‘Just Right’). Customers who subscribe to Showtime on DirecTV Now can also use Showtime Anytime for on-the-go access.

Live streaming CBS and CW stations will initially be available to customers within these markets:

• New York
• Los Angeles
• Chicago
• Philadelphia
• Dallas – Ft. Worth
• San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose
• Boston
• Detroit
• Minneapolis-St. Paul
• Miami-Ft. Lauderdale
• Denver
• Sacramento–Stockton–Modesto, CA
• Pittsburgh
• Baltimore

If you are a DirecTV Now customer, check your email for an exclusive invitation to become a beta tester of the service’s new cloud based DVR service.

Little is known yet about the scope of the service or how many customers have been invited (Stop the Cap! HQ is a subscriber and we were not) to take part in the trial about to get underway.

One of the most requested features from cord-cutters is a suitable replacement for the cable or satellite provider’s DVR. Several services, including PlayStation Vue, Hulu, Sling TV, YouTube TV, and fuboTV now offer DVR-like features, although some don’t allow customers to skip commercials and others come as a costly add-on. AT&T, owner of DirecTV Now, has yet to indicate what, if anything, it plans to charge subscribers for the service or what storage capacity it will offer.

The company has focused efforts on fine tuning its streaming service to resolve the capacity issues and technical faults that were common during the first few months of service.