Carriers

Back at CES 2011, T-Mobile outlined its plans to double the speed of its 4G HSPA+ network and said it expected to roll out its upgraded network to 25 metro markets by mid-year. However, it looks like the carrier is actually ahead of schedule.

Today, T-Mobile announced it is launching its enhanced 4G network in more than 50 new markets, including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Phoenix, and San Francisco. The additions brings the total to 55 markets, where customers can enjoy theoretical download speeds of up to 42Mbps (previously, the max was 21Mbps).

Of course, … Read more

Verizon will launch or expand its 4G LTE wireless coverage to over a dozen new markets on June 16, the carrier announced today in a series of press releases.

Among the cities to receive Verizon's faster data coverage are: Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Wash.; Madison and Milwaukee, Wis.; Hartford, Conn.; Boise, Idaho; Sacramento, Calif.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Springfield, Ohio. Detroit and the San Francisco Bay Area will see expanded LTE coverage at that time.

Verizon has been gradually rolling out its 4G LTE service since the operator's initial December launch.

It's been about two weeks now since Google and Sprint threw open the doors of a partnership they jointly announced at CTIA, a quick and easy way to integrate Google Voice's extensive calling extras on almost all Sprint phones. These extras include visual-voice mail that you can read on the phone or online, personalized greetings, and cheaper international calls. We've spent some time using the conjoined service, and integrating, disabling, and reintegrating it. So far our in-house experience has been pretty good.

Setup Assuming you've got a Google Voice account already, there are two paths for … Read more

A week after Clearwire, Comcast, and Sprint announced their WiMax expansion, Verizon has continued the 4G fun with today's news that its 4G LTE network is now live in what it calls nine new markets.

These are Mobile and Montgomery, Ala.; Greater Fairfield and New Haven, Conn.; Gainesville, Pensacola, and Tallahassee, Fla.; Fayetteville-Lumberton, N.C.; and Bryan-College Station and Temple-Killeen, Texas. Verizon also expanded its existing LTE coverage in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. In total, Verizon says it now offers 4G wireless in 55 U.S. metropolitan areas.

As we learned in early May, the Samsung Infuse 4G will be the first AT&T smartphone to allow for applications outside of the Android Market, and it looks like more are on the way.

Citing a desire to open up a bit, AT&T indicated it would be embracing third-party app stores and the side-loading of apps and games. At the time of the announcement, I was hopeful that the carrier would adopt this policy going forward with all of its Android phones. It appears my suspicions are correct, as AT&T plans to enable this … Read more

Google gets serious about putting an end to fragmentation at its 2011 I/O conference with the official announcement of the next generation of Android: Ice Cream Sandwich. At the same time, the tech giant adds another layer of complexity to its big picture with another big push behind Chrome OS with the announcement of a series of Chromebook devices. Will Android and Chrome OS end up going head to head or can we all just get along? We try to find the answer to that question, plus get hands on with Google's new movie rental and cloud music … Read more

Clearwire, Comcast, and Sprint have jointly announced an expansion of the Clearwire 4G network today. The network now includes much of the greater Bay Area. The communities are San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, Sunnyvale, San Ramon, Fremont, San Leandro, Newark, Campbell, Daly City, Pleasanton, Danville, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Hayward, Walnut Creek, Mountain View, Cupertino, Milpitas, Pleasant Hill, Santa Clara, and San Bruno. The Bay Area 4G coverage is said to cover around 4.4 million people.

Clearly, this is an advantage for those who want to use 4G devices from the aforementioned carriers. Sprint's 4G phones include the … Read more

Last week, I received a notice from the San Francisco Planning Department that AT&T Mobility is proposing to install a "wireless communications facility" (read, cell phone tower) within 500 feet of my house.

The notice says it will consist of 12 panel antennas and won't be visible from the street. I'm also invited to attend an "informational community meeting" with the city and AT&T reps and call an AT&T hotline to leave questions or comments.

In a city like San Francisco where complaining about AT&T is … Read more

HTC Inspire 4G and Motorola Atrix 4G owners, your slow-upload woes are almost over.

AT&T just sent CNET a note letting us know that it has started rolling out an update for the Inspire 4G that will enable the HSUPA radio on the smartphone, along with a number of other bug fixes and performance improvements. The carrier has completed testing on the update for the Atrix 4G as well and will begin deploying the software soon.

The updates will roll out in batches over the coming weeks, and users will receive a message on their phones when it'… Read more