28
May
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Verizon's Galaxy S4 Will Be The First Device To Operate On The Carrier's AWS LTE Bands

Posted by in Carriers, News, Verizon Wireless

Verizon managed to gobble up national licenses to a wide swath of the 700MHz Block C spectrum a few years back, and it is this slice of electromagnetism the carrier used to deploy its 4G LTE network. That's not Verizon's only plan of attack, though. It has also been putting together a second spectrum range running on AWS. Well, this space is almost ready, and the Galaxy S4 is going to be the first device to access it.

VZW-GS4

The new AWS bands are not going to be a separate network, walled off from 700MHz. Rather, this is a way for Verizon to augment its coverage and speeds in areas of high usage.

08
Jan
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T-Mobile Launching Updated Samsung Galaxy S III With 4G LTE Support, Actual LTE Network May Be Coming This Month

Posted by in Carriers, Galaxy S III, News, Samsung, T-Mobile

T-Mobile is the smallest national US carrier, and it was also the last to announce a cogent strategy for the deployment of 4G LTE. Yes, after years of insisting to no end that HSPA+ is 4G, the magenta carrier is rolling out LTE. As part of that move, new phones are going to be needed. The first device designed for T-Mobile's LTE is a revamped version of the popular Samsung Galaxy S III.

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T-Mobile has not yet said when the updated S III will arrive, but it will likely replace the HSPA+ GS3 in the carrier's lineup. Most of T-Mobile's phones have no support for LTE, thus the new version of Samsung's flagship.

16
Aug
verizonwirelesslogo

Editorial: The $3.6 Billion Spectrum Sale To Verizon That Was Just Approved Is Kind Of Really Shady

Posted by in Carriers, Editorials, News, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless

The US Department of Justice approved a sale of unused wireless spectrum to Verizon today, marking one of the largest spectrum sales to a single corporate entity in history. The unused portion of the AWS spectrum is owned by a number of cable companies (known collectively as "SpectrumCo") that bought it during the FCC AWS auction back in 2008.

Of course, back in the old spectrum heydays of, uh, four very long years ago, those megahertz were a lot cheaper. In fact, $1.3 billion cheaper. The cable company axis of evil consortium purchased the AWS blocks for a comparatively paltry $2.3 billion at the time.

28
Sep
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Editorial: Amazon's Kindle Fire Has Just Made Every Other Android Tablet Manufacturer Look Bad

Posted by in Amazon, Android OS, Editorials, Kindle Fire

All I could think after reading the announcement for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet this morning was: "this is what we've been waiting for." Because it is. Amazon gets tablets, believe it or not. And despite the flagging success of the Amazon Appstore, the company has done what no other tablet manufacturer has even come remotely close to: matching access to Apple's curated content library (iTunes + App Store) at a price nearly everyone can afford.

Living In The Amazon Ecosystem

I buy my music from Amazon. I buy episodes of TV shows. I rent movies. I buy Kindle books - and I don't even own a Kindle.