Carriers - 24/218 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

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

The Pantech Perception For Verizon Shows Its Face, Which Is Surprisingly Not All That Ugly

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Leaks, News, Perception, Rumors, Verizon Wireless

You know, for an underdog, Pantech has been proving it knows how to put out some pretty decent, affordable hardware as of late. Just two days ago, it unearthed the upcoming Discover for AT&T, and now a leak of what appears to be the VZW equivalent – the Perception – just showed up in a leak over at Unwired View.

Much like it's Big Blue-powered cousin, the Perception is said to be packing a 720p display and 1.5GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4. Other details are scant at the moment, but it's probably pretty safe to assume the rest match up with that of the Discover, as well.

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 Galaxy S III Available In Titanium Grey At Best Buy, But For The Love Of God, Don't Buy It Yet

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

If the rather binary choices of blue and white for the current model of the T-Mobile's variant of the Samsung Galaxy S III don't appeal, there's another option available. A Titanium Grey color has popped up on Best Buy's website, at the same subsidized price as the other T-Mobile models, currently $179.99 with a two-year contract and a whopping $700 outright. Just be aware that if you actually buy a T-Mobile Galaxy S III at any time in the next month, your future self may come back Biff Tannen-style and smack you for being so shortsighted.

That's because T-Mobile is finally ready to start rolling out its LTE network, like the rest of the major American carriers, with a launch coming as soon as this month.

Jan

T-Mobile Confirms Unlimited Data Plans For Monthly4G Prepaid Service

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Carriers, News, T-Mobile

We reported a few days ago that T-Mobile was rumored to be implementing an unlimited data option for its prepaid phone service. Well, now the carrier is confirming it. Starting on Wednesday January 9th, customers will be able to sign up for unlimited 4G HSPA+ data, voice, and text on prepaid for just $70 per-month.

This plan replaces the $70 unlimited talk/text plan with 5GB of 4G data. T-Mobile's data plans can be a little confusing because the carrier likes to still call them "unlimited" at times. What T-Mobile means is that all its data plans are technically unlimited if you don't mind downloading at a snail's pace.

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] Hands-On With The Pantech Discover For AT&T (Video)

Posted by David Ruddock in AT&T, Discover, News, Pantech, Videos

Last Updated: January 14th, 2013

Drop this one in the "noteworthy, but not notable" bucket, but we had some time last night to check out AT&T's Pantech Discover, a phone with a pretty impressive specification sheet given its price point - just $50 on contract.

The Discover has a 4.8" 720p display, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 16GB of internal storage, 12.6MP rear camera, LTE, and runs Android 4.0 (OK, that's a bit of a miss). While we wouldn't call this a groundbreaking device in and of itself, the price AT&T will be peddling this particular piece of hardware at is going to make it a very attractive option for the brick-and-mortar crowd (eg, your parents).

Jan

Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) Now Rolling Out To The HTC One X On Rogers

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, One XL (Evita), Rogers

Hey Rogers guys – did you think HTC forgot about you? Turns out they didn't, as the Android 4.1 update is making its way to your variant of the One X as I type this. Exciting, no?

The update – which should clock in at around 635MB – brings all sorts of goodies to the flagship device, including Sense 4+, Google Now, Project Butter, and... some more stuff. Unfortunately, there's nary a changelog in sight so we can't tell you exactly what else to expect. In fact, the OTA is so fresh, even Rogers hasn't updated its OS update page just yet.

Jan

Sprint's LG Optimus G Receiving A Small OTA Update To Build LS970ZV9

Posted by Cameron Summerson in News, Optimus G, Sprint

If you have Sprint's version of the LG Optimus G, you may want to head into Settings > About phone and see if the latest OTA is available on your handset. The update – which bumps the device up to build LS970ZV9 – is just a small one that brings a couple of fairly minor enhancements to the device:

Visual Voicemail update
Battery improvements

This just started rolling out today, so don't stress if it's not yet available to you. Give it a few days – Sprint says that all users should have the update "within 10 days."

[Sprint]