4g lte

AT&T believes customers will stick even tighter to its wireless service over the next few years.

The company expects to hit a record-low rate of customer turnover by 2015, according to Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T's mobility arm. He was speaking today at the company's investor conference in New York.

De la Vega was his usual bullish self and threw out several stats to back up his optimism. In addition to the customer turnover rate estimate, he said he expects 90 percent of its customer base to own a smartphone by … Read more

AT&T today laid out a broad plan to upgrade both its wireline and wireless networks and keep its growth moving.

Project Velocity IP, or VIP, consists of an investment of $14 billion over the next three years -- $8 billion for wireless and $6 billion for wireline -- and is designed to expand the company's 4G LTE coverage on the wireless side and faster service, more fiber-optic lines, and expanded U-Verse availability on the landline side.

Project VIP is significant because it represents the first time in many years that AT&T has significantly ramped up … Read more

With Hurricane Sandy due to hit the East Coast in a couple of days, Verizon Wireless executive Mike Haberman tested his house's back-up generator and ended up finding a faulty circuit that he quickly fixed. So when the outage hit his house in Morristown, N.J., he was able to get enough power to his laptop and phone to work from home last week.

That's a good thing, because Haberman was one of the key people coordinating the carrier's efforts to keep service going at a time when massive power outages wreaked havoc on the East Coast. … Read more

For all the wonderful hardware and software that comes with the new Nexus 4 and the rejiggered Nexus 7, there's one glaring feature that keeps them from being truly leading-edge: lack of 4G LTE support.

That means that as of today, early adopters who want the latest and greatest in Android will have to be content with an HSPA+ network. Yes, T-Mobile's HSPA+ can sometimes be as fast as LTE, but unlike with the iPhone, Android has always been good about including cutting-edge features. That's why this one hurts. Cue snickering from the Apple crowd.

Google did … Read more

Starting today, Verizon will offer the LG Spectrum 2, an LTE Android phone. Priced at $99.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate, the Spectrum 2 packs quite a punch for the money.

The phone boasts a 4.7-inch HD IPS display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 16GB internal storage, and up to 32GB in microSD expansion. What's more, the Revolution 2 also comes with an 8-megapixel camera, NFC (near-field communication), Bluetooth 4.0, wireless charging capability, and a host of other Android requisites.

If there's one knock against the budget-friendly Android, it'… Read more

MetroPCS, the fifth largest cellular network in the U.S., has posted strong third-quarter earnings, along with more than 1 million LTE subscribers on its network.

The cellular network today reported third-quarter net profit of $193 million -- more than double the $69 million profit it recorded a year ago -- on revenue of $1.3 billion, or 52 cents a share. Revenue was up by 4 percent year over year.

Analysts had expected revenue of $1.25 billion for the third quarter.

MetroPCS did have a net loss of 312,000 subscribers during the quarter, dropping its total subscriber … Read more

One day after Apple finally announced new iPads that would run on Sprint's network, the wireless carrier announced a set of new data plans it says offers up to 20 percent more data than Verizon or AT&T at the same price.

Beginning November 11, Sprint customers will be able to choose among four no-contract rate plans for 4G LTE-enabled tablets, Sprint announced this evening. Plans start at $14.99 for 300MB of data per month and increase to $34.99 for 3GB, $49.99 for 6GB, topping out at $79.99 a month for 12GB of data. … Read more

Sprint Nextel's super-fast 4G LTE network may not show up in major markets such as New York and San Francisco until as late as March, CNET has learned.

When Sprint said in September that it would launch in 100 markets "in the coming months," many customers were left scratching what exactly that meant. Internally, coming months refers to a period of three to six months, according to a person familiar with the company's roll out plans.

So the best-case scenario is a December launch, while the worst-case scenario calls for the service to be turned on … Read more

Sprint Nextel said today that it now covers 32 markets with its higher speed 4G LTE network.

The network now blankets several communities outside of Chicago, collectively known as Chicagoland, well as Wichita Falls, Texas, Hutchinson and McPherson, Kan., and New Bedford/Fall River, Mass.

Sprint is racing to catch up to larger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which last week week exceeded its 400-market target and has more markets covered than every other carrier combined. With consumers demanding a faster connection for Web browsing, music, and video, 4G LTE has become a bigger selling point.

The capabilities … Read more