lte - 3/30 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

T-Mobile Set To Launch LTE Network Within Days In Las Vegas, To Be Followed Soon By Kansas City

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, T-Mobile

Have you heard that T-Mobile is working on an LTE network? It's true. According to an interview with the carrier's USA EVP and CTO Neville Ray over on FierceWireless, the company is "days away" from flipping the switch on its new towers. The initial rollout will take place in Las Vegas (where T-Mo had hoped to debut in time for CES, but was delayed), followed closely by Kansas City.

The carrier intends to follow a similar rollout plan as its initial HSPA+ expansion. The first round of cities included Baltimore, Houston, and Washington D.C., followed by others like Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Portland and many more.

Jan

MetroPCS Shuffles Its Service Plans: Adds More Data To $40 and $50 Tiers, $60 Unlimited Remains

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in MetroPCS, News

Thinking about switching to a prepaid carrier? As the fifth-largest U.S. cellular provider, MetroPCS should certainly be on your list (at least if you live in an urban area). Today they've shuffled up their tiered service plans, adding in some more full-speed data at the lower tiers and consolidating the highest tier into a single plan. For those of you who want the genuine article, don't worry: the $60 plan remains, with real unlimited 4G LTE data. The only stipulation is that you gave to have one of MetroPCS's LTE phones.

At the $40 level, customers can now access the network at LTE speeds for up to 500MB, after which customers are throttled to 3G speeds.

Jan

Verizon: Our LTE Footprint Will Completely Cover Current 3G Areas By Year's End

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Verizon Wireless

If you're a Verizon customer in an area that has yet to receive its share of the company's expansive LTE network, then every month's "new LTE list" is probably a nail-biter for you. Good news, though – you'll be covered by the end of 2013, according to a new post on Big Red's blog.

In its current state, Verizon's 4G LTE network covers an impressive 473 markets, which reaches roughly 273.5 million users. That's pretty massive – about 89 percent of its 3G network, in fact. And other companies haven't even started building out their LTE network yet.

The company also said that it will continue to work with rural communication companies to help them set up and build their own 4G LTE networks – a project VZW refers to as "LTE in Rural America." Isn't that sweet?

Jan

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

Posted by Ryan Whitwam 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.

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.

Jan

Dish Network Ups The Ante And Outbids Sprint For Clearwire By $200 Million

Posted by Jeremiah Rice in News, Sprint

Break out the popcorn, folks, it's time for some corporate drama. As we reported last month, LTE service provider Clearwire is looking to sell itself, with 50% stake holder Sprint Nextel the obvious choice. But while Sprint's $2.2 billion offer (plus another $800 million in staggered investments) sits on the desks of both Clearwire shareholders and the Federal Trade Commission for approval, satellite TV provider Dish Network has made another offer. They're putting $2.4 billion on the table, about $3.30 per share, and an 11% increase over Sprint's initial offering.

For the uninitiated, Dish has been gobbling up the rights to as much LTE spectrum as it can get, though its plans for leveraging those rights isn't immediately clear.

Jan

[CES 2013] Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 Gaining LTE Powers, Coming To Verizon This Month

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Galaxy Note 10.1 (GT-N8000 / N8010 / N8013), News, Samsung

Samsung's on stage today at CES announcing all the devices (TVs, cameras, smart fridges and microwaves... seriously). Among them is a shiny new LTE version of the Galaxy Note 10.1. No word on how much the unit is going to cost but it will be arriving on Verizon sometime this month.

There's also no word yet on how much the plans will cost, but we can likely expect it will launch with comparable prices to the myriad other LTE tablets with Share Everything plans. So, what do you think? Does an LTE modem make you want this slate more?

Jan

[Live Blog] NVIDIA's 2013 CES Press Conference (With Live Video)

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, News, NVIDIA, Project Shield

Android Police is live at NVIDIA's 2013 CES press conference at the Palms Hotel, primed and ready for what we can only assume will include the announcement of the next generation of Tegra mobile processors. Check out the ScribbeLive widget below for our coverage as it happens, starting at 7:45PM PST (that's 10:45PM EST).

Dec

AT&T Launches Several New LTE Markets, Expands In A Few Others

Posted by Cameron Summerson in AT&T, News

Another day, another set of LTE networks. That's how the old saying goes, right? Eh, it's something like that, and when we're talking about the mobile world, I'd say that's pretty damn accurate. Just five days ago, AT&T announced a handful of LTE Market updates and expansions - not to be outdone by Verizon's twofer this month, though, Big Blue has just upped the ante with another set of activations.

Oxford, MS
Tucson, AZ
Melbourne, FL
Springfield, MA
Green Bay, WI

...and a few more expansions, too.

Phoenix, AZ
New Brunswick, NJ
Salt Lake City, UT
Los Angeles, CA

The LTE network should be live in all those areas today, so go outside and use it to celebrate.

Dec

Sprint Lights Up Six New LTE Markets, Including Indianapolis, Santa Rosa, And Hanover, PA

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Sprint

You know the drill by now. It's time for some new LTE market announcements! Woo! Party hard. The network rollouts today are coming to Pennsylvania, California, Indiana, Virginia and Puerto Rico. This comes on the heels of Sprint announcing its intention to purchase the remaining shares of Clearwire that it didn't already own.

Here's the list of new cities:

Indianapolis/Carmel, Ind.
Santa Rosa/Petaluma, Calif.
Vallejo/Fairfield, Calif.
Southern Puerto Rico (including Ponce, Coamo and Guayama)
York/Hanover, Pa.
Franklin County, Pa.
Page County, Va.
Enhanced 4G LTE coverage around Shenandoah County, Va.

Not a bad set of additions. There is still much to be seen in regards to Sprint's LTE network rollout, particularly over the next year.

Dec

Sprint Is Buying 100% Of Clearwire For $2.2bn, Will Invest $80m Per Month For 10 Months While Deal Awaits Approval

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News, Sprint

Today, Sprint announced that it would be spending $2.2bn to acquire the remaining (roughly) half of Clearwire that it doesn't already own. The transaction, which is naturally subject to regulatory approval, will give the carrier ownership of all of Clearwire's significant share of spectrum, which will be a huge boost to Sprint as it attempts to build out an LTE network to compete with Verizon and AT&T.

Of course, these deals can take forever to close, so in the meantime, the two companies have entered into a rather brilliant agreement: Sprint has promised to buy roughly $80m worth of Clearwire stock every month starting in January 2013 for up to ten months (or a total of $800m, and slightly more than 1/3rd of the total Clearwire purchase price).