With 55 million customers, the 800-pound gorilla in the world’s most advanced mobile society, Japan, is NTT Docomo. And over the weekend, the company made clear it wants to retain its position in an LTE future: Docomo is ready to invest $3.4 billion in the next three years to build base stations and will start an LTE service in December this year (as the first of Japan’s three major carriers). → Read More
There are perfectly good arguments for and against buying a 3G-enabled iPad. Me? I say buy it with 3G, turn it off, and just have it ready to turn on whenever you really need it. But let’s just say, hypothetically, that you don’t want 3G because you’ve heard about this 4G thing. Sprint loves you, my friend, and that is why they have put out this special iPad case just for you. → Read More
Are you as excited as I am about LTE and the blazing fast data speeds it promises? Sure you are. And while you’re undoubtedly holding your breath waiting for 4G service and handsets, AT&T is moving forward with field trials after announcing that Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson will be providing its equipment. What’s in store for AT&T in the near future? → Read More
Sprint currently only offers its 4G services in Baltimore, but that’s going to change this month when it rolls out the wicked fast service in Portland, Atlanta and Las Vegas. To harness the power of the new network, Sprint announced two new 4G routers today, the Sprint Personal Hotspot PHS300S and Cradlepoint MBR-1000. (There’s also the 3G/4G USB Modem U300.) → Read More
From downloading videos and high-resolution photos, to online gaming and chatting with friends over instant-messengers, the mobile broadband networks of today are strong – but they’re starting to feel ancient. Today, AT&T clarified their plans to upgrade their network to deliver considerably faster mobile broadband speeds by way of HSPA (High Speed Packet Access). HSPA roll outs… → Read More
Did you just lock yourself into a 2-year mobile phone contract like me? Good timing, because AT&T just announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday that it would be rolling out Long-Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband technology by 2011. This would replace the current 3G service, which is apparently not good enough. Verizon will probably beat them to the punch, considering… → Read More
The promise of Wi-Max is nothing less than high-speed wireless internet practically anywhere you go. Of course, the reality falls short, as it often does, but it still shows itself a worthy successor to normal 3G and wi-fi. This industrious tester zoomed around Baltimore and tested it out in different areas (70% of the city is covered at the moment), finding that speeds were generally on the order… → Read More
Even as some US carriers are just rolling out their 3G network, TELUS has announced that they will have their HSPA (“3.5G”) upgrades up and running with a “full national” launch in early 2010. This comes as part of a network sharing agreement with Bell, allowing them to get things up and running faster and cheaper than if they had to front it alone. It’s no cheap… → Read More
Oh my! Three of the biggest laptop makers out there all announcing 4G/WiMAX/XOHM service. All on the same day, too. It’s almost as if it was planned. Acer has it in their big ones, Toshiba has it in their little ones, and Lenovo has it in just about their entire line. Boy, with all these laptops sucking up the signal, they might want to put those WiMAX points on higher ground! → Read More
It’s real, ladies and germs. Sprint’s much anticipated and often thought vaporware service has finally gone live in Baltimore. The WiMAX service dubbed Xohm is 4G and boasts download speeds of 2-4 Mbps. Samsung is offering a Xohm-branded Express air card for $60 and ZyXEL has a Xohm modem for $80, which are both available starting today online or at select independent Baltimore retailers. You… → Read More
If you don’t own a Nano, get one of these. If you do, you can probably do to wait. The improvements to this model are manifold but not amazingly compelling, especially considering we haven’t had much time to play with the genius features yet. → Read More
Verizon Wireless is running a large, nation-wide 3G network. This much is known. They don’t yet have a 4G network, though we know they’re doing trials now of LTE, or Long Term Evolution, a GSM variant, but it’s not open to the public. Reader Jonathan snapped this shot of a Verizon Wireless reseller advertising 4G service. “4G Premium Retailer,” it says. Of course… → Read More
He’s installing the 4G network by himself. Flickr’d. No love for CDMA. Alltel, which this map shows as being popular in what us latte-drinking, east coast elite call “fly-over country,” has committed its 4G future to LTE, a GSM technology. While the transition is still a ways away—like, three to five years away—the corp’s COO cautioned that “you… → Read More
How’d you like to have maximum rates of 100 Mbit/s down and 50 Mbit/s up on your phone? It’s coming to certain test areas next year and, if successful, should be rolled out by 2010 at the latest. → Read More
Let’s talk about WiMAX, friends. WiMAX, the Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a fairly new wireless standard currently being used by companies like Clearwire to provide internet access “wirelessly”. It can also be used as a fourth-gen standard for cellphones, and we know that Sprint is rolling out its 4G WiMAX network right now. What’s we’ve heard… → Read More
On the surface, the Nokia N800 is a fairly simple device. It’s an Internet applicance, or an “Internet Tablet”, as Nokia likes to call it. With it’s built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it allows you to browse the Web and email pretty much anywhere you’d like, if you’ve got a phone you can tether it to or a hotspot. If not, you’re out of luck. In the near future… → Read More
. On Monday, Microsoft filed a mystery application with the FCC for an enigmatic wireless device that could be used to talk over the Internet. Sounds like a VoiP device, right? Not really. The device is described as being used for “consumer broadband access and networking,” which doesn’t sound like vanilla VoIP to me. Microsoft goes on to say that the device would use OFDM as its… → Read More
you’ve also got the world’s first active 4G mobile network. Thanks! Yah, we know that your handsets on the Chinese network in Shanghai can now get up to 100MB/s (!?) for streaming video in HD. We know that video calling is part of the package, too. We heard you when you said that phone-based email servers might even be possible, among other things. You don’t need to brag. Thing… → Read More
DSL Reports is running a piece that finds Sprint’s WiMax system is progressing splendidly. It reports that the 4G network will be rolled out in Chicago and DC in early 2008 and should enable users with speeds around 2 – 4Mbps. What’s more, it will purportedly cost just $55 a month and will support an open access system. That means you’d be able to hook it up to a router in… → Read More
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