hspa

Study: Verizon fastest among 4G networks

Verizon's 4G network proved the fastest and most consistent among those of the four major U.S. carriers, according to a study (PDF) out today by mobile testing company RootMetrics.

With the four (but soon to be three, what with yesterday's surprise announcement that AT&T plans to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion) major carriers all trumpeting the respective performance of their own high-speed mobile networks, RootMetrics set out to determine which was truly the speediest by testing 4G-capable phones from each one.

Included in the study were the HTC Thunderbolt running on Verizon's LTE network, … Read more

T-Mobile USA CEO dishes on new strategy (Q&A)

T-Mobile USA's new CEO, Philipp Humm, has been on the job a little over six months and he's already made some aggressive moves to get the smallest of the four major U.S. operators back in the game.

Last week, Humm joined Rene Obermann, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile's parent company, to present the company's turn-around plan to Wall Street. He outlined the company's strategy, which includes expanding the company's network coverage and increasing speeds on its network. T-Mobile has also launched an aggressive marketing campaign to call its HSPA+ network 4G.

The 4G … Read more

Has '4G' lost its meaning?

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

Verizon Wireless CTO dishes on 4G claims (Q&A)

LAS VEGAS-Verizon Wireless unveiled a slew of devices for its new 4G service here last week at the Consumer Electronics Show. But what does the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier think of its competitors' 4G claims?

CNET caught up with Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone after the company's press conference here Thursday to get the dirt on what he really thinks about rivals' pronouncements that they're offering 4G wireless services that are comparable to Verizon's new LTE 4G service. Verizon Wireless announced its 4G LTE service in December. The new network gets average download speeds of … Read more

The 411 on AT&T's 4G strategy (FAQ)

AT&T took another step toward filling out its 4G wireless broadband strategy with the announcement yesterday that it plans to spend $1.9 billion to buy wireless spectrum from chipmaker Qualcomm.

The new spectrum will be used to help build the carrier's next generation LTE network. This is the same technology that Verizon Wireless is using to build its 4G network.

In some ways, AT&T may seem a little late to the 4G wireless party. Competitors Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile USA have already been touting their fourth generation networks.

Verizon just launched its service earlier this month. … Read more

ITU blesses U.S. data networks as 4G

For most of this year, "4G" has became the latest war-of-words battleground for U.S. carriers. But even as Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless rushed to outboast each other with claims of operating the best high-speed data network, the International Telecommunication Union declined to officially acknowledge their respective technologies as 4G.

The carriers, of course, never acknowledged that tidbit--admittedly, "not quite 4G" doesn't sound as exciting--but two weeks ago the ITU decided to cut them some slack anyway. At its December 6 meeting in Geneva, the ITU, an international standards body that officially designates wireless … Read more

Which 4G service is right for you? (FAQ)

If you hadn't noticed from all the advertisements on TV, the age of 4G wireless is here.

Verizon Wireless will be the latest company to launch its shiny, new 4G network. Starting Sunday, roughly 110 million people in 38 cities will have the opportunity to subscribe to this new generation of wireless service from the nation's largest cell phone operator.

But Verizon isn't the only wireless carrier with a next-generation wireless network. T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel also have new networks they are aggressively marketing. And AT&T, which has upgraded 80 percent of its network … Read more

Verizon reignites ad wars with 4G claims

The wireless marketing wars rage on as Verizon Wireless claims the "most advanced 4G" wireless network in the world and takes more potshots at rival AT&T.

It's not easy to be a consumer these days with wireless operators all claiming to have the fastest and most robust network in the U.S. Verizon Wireless is the latest operator to launch a new advertising campaign that promotes its soon-to-be-launched 4G LTE wireless broadband network. The commercial (embedded below), which features a young man using Verizon's 4G wireless network to throw a lightning bolt into the … Read more

Will the real 4G please stand up?

Earlier this week, T-Mobile USA, the fourth largest cell phone operator in the U.S., launched a marketing campaign calling its newly upgraded network "America's Largest 4G Network."

The claim has ruffled more than a few feathers at T-Mobile competitors, namely Sprint Nextel, which has been helping its partner Clearwire build a nationwide network using a technology called WiMax that it claims is 4G.

Verizon Wireless is also building a "4G" network using a different technology called LTE or Long Term Evolution. It plans to launch this network in 38 markets by the end of the year.… Read more