lte

The battle between LTE and WiMax for 4G dominance may soon be over with LTE declared the champ, according to a report out today from IHS iSuppli.

Though WiMax still enjoys a slight edge for now, adoption of LTE (long-term evolution) will surpass that of its 4G rival sometime next year. By 2014, the number of LTE subscribers will hit 303.1 million versus only 33.4 million for WiMax, said IHS.

"With WiMAX enjoying a two- to three-year head start in next-generation network deployments, it presently enjoys a major advantage in market share in the 4G segment," … Read more

Best Buy announced today that it will have an exclusive on the upcoming HTC Thunderbolt for Verizon Wireless. Though it won't arrive in stores until the middle of this month, customers can preorder the Android smartphone starting today.

The Froyo-powered Thunderbolt, which first saw light last month at CES 2011, will be Big Red's first commercially available 4G LTE phone. On the outside it sports a candy bar design with a 4.3-inch WVGA capacitive touch screen and a virtual keyboard.

Other features include a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, messaging and e-mail, an 8-megapixel camera with HD video capture, … Read more

The long wait for the Verizon iPhone is almost over, but consumers are wondering if they should hold out a little longer for Apple's next-generation device.

Will Verizon's eventual version of the upcoming iPhone 5 work on the LTE network? Will that service be cheaper or more expensive than what Verizon is offering with the iPhone 4? These are some of the questions anxious readers are asking themselves. It's hard to predict the future, but I offer my insights and advice.

I tell another reader that I think there will be more deals for AT&T … Read more

Intel has completed its $1.4 billion acquisition of Infineon Technologies' wireless solutions business.

Now that the deal is done, Intel said today, Infineon's former business will be called Intel Mobile Communications and will operate as a standalone business in Intel's Architecture Group "to enable continuity of existing customer sales, projects and support, including ARM-based products."

Intel reported that the division will help bolster the company's existing Wi-Fi and 4G WiMAX products with Infineon's 2G and 3G business. Together, Intel hopes to "accelerate 4G LTE." The new division will work on solutions … Read more

Now that the Verizon iPhone has been introduced, the next question people ask me is if they should get it now or wait until the summer when a new version of the Apple iPhone is expected.

This is indeed the age-old question of buying now or waiting for the new generation of product. It's hard to advise people, because there are so many unknowns. But in this week's Ask Maggie, I do my best to provide some insight.

I also help another reader decide if he should get the Verizon iPhone or one of the new Verizon LTE … Read more

If you read CNET's coverage of CES, you'd know I'm pretty excited for the company's new Atrix 4G and Droid Bionic. So I was even more interested today when Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha announced potential release dates for the dual-core Android handsets.

Jha dropped the news during the Q&A session that followed the company's fourth-quarter 2010 earnings call this afternoon. During the session, Jha said that Motorola expects to ship the Atrix 4G and Xoom tablet next month, with the Droid Bionic and LTE Xoom tablet following in the second quarter of … Read more

I reviewed the LG VL600 4G LTE USB modem awhile ago and conclude that apart from the limited and expensive data plans Verizon offers with it, it makes a great solution for mobile Internet access.

It seems to have just gotten better. Verizon announced today a firmware upgrade for the device that the company calls a "software update." This is not to be confused with the VZAccess Manager, which is used to start the connection.

According to Verizon, the firmware update to the VL600 modem offers the following improvements:

Successful reconnection to the network after the SIM card's activation or reset.

The time and size of LTE Data usage sessions are now accurately recorded in the VZAccess Manager Session Log.… Read more

New details have emerged for what appears to be MetroPCS's first LTE smartphone. Previously known by its model number, the Samsung SCH-R910, the Android-based handset made its first appearance only two weeks back. Based on a recently uncovered Flickr photostream, the phone looks like it will carry the name of Samsung Forte when it's ultimately released.

As seen in the accompanying image, the phone features a four-row sliding QWERTY keyboard under, presumably, a 4-inch touch screen. If the rumored specs pan out, we're also looking at 1GHz Hummingbird processor, a 5-megapixel camera, and a Micro-SD card slot, … Read more

Wireless carriers in the U.S. have turned 4G into a meaningless marketing term, and standards purists are none too pleased about it.

With good reason: All four of the major U.S. wireless carriers are calling their faster wireless networks 4G, but the truth is that none of these networks meets the International Telecommunication Union's specifications for 4G.

Top on the list is the speed requirement. The ITU defines 4G or IMT-Advanced as technology that offers download speeds of 100Mbps on mobile devices or 1Gbps on fixed wireless connections. The technologies used by the four major carriers in … Read more