Verizon

Japan's NTT Docomo plans to offer 112.5Mbps LTE speeds

BARCELONA, Spain--Think Verizon Wireless or AT&T's 4G LTE network is fast? Check out Japan.

NTT Docomo's CEO, Kaoru Kato, said he plans to offer download speeds of 112.5Mbps to his company's customers. The higher speeds should come shortly, he said. NTT Docomo is Japan's largest wireless carrier by customer base.

By comparison, Verizon and AT&T boasts speeds of 20Mbps on a good day and an uncluttered network. In practice, the speeds are more in the high single or low double digits.

LTE, Kato said during a keynote address at Mobile World … Read more

FCC documents out Pantech Perception for Verizon

A new Pantech smartphone may be headed to Verizon Wireless.

Documents found on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Web site reveal the Pantech Perception, which has not been announced by Verizon.

The Pantech Perception appears to be a standard slab touch smartphone with an 8-megapixel rear camera. Additional details confirmed in the FCC filing include NFC, 4G LTE, as well as CDMA and GSM roaming. A glance through the drafted user manual also yields references to microSD expansion, DLNA, HDMI, and Wi-Fi Direct. Judging by the screenshots, the Perception will run at least Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Based … Read more

Vodafone chief unsure about changing Verizon ownership -- report

Vodafone, the European wireless carrier that owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless, isn't sure if its stake will change in a year's time.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal in an interview published today, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said "I don't know" if it's possible for Vodafone's stake to be changed a year from now, but he's willing to keep an open mind "on everything."

Vodafone and Verizon Wireless combined forces in 2000. Since then, Verizon has watched its star soar and its need for help from Vodafone wane. Verizon … Read more

Turns out Verizon's Galaxy S3 isn't global ready after all

When the Galaxy S3 came to Verizon last June, those who wanted to use it globally were promised that feature would come after launch. It did, in January, six months later. But customers remain frustrated that their supposedly global-ready phones can't do data outside the U.S.

The issue is that despite the upgrade in January allowing Verizon Galaxy S3s to accept SIM cards from non-U.S. carriers, there's no way to establish a data connection on those phones through non-U.S. carriers.

In technical talk, you can't create the needed APN (Access Point Name). As one … Read more

Verizon details HTC Droid DNA bug fixes

Verizon will issue an update for the HTC Droid DNA in the near term that tackles some of the more frustrating user problems encountered by customers so far.

In a blog post, Big Red promises to update the HTC Droid DNA. Sorry, but this isn't the Android 4.2.2 update currently rolling out to the Nexus line; this is far less ambitious.

Once installed, the handset will benefit from better connectivity and added functionality. There is very little new in the software, but most of the features outlined are listed with "improvements."

While the phrasing is opaque, … Read more

Wireless carriers again brace for massive Northeast storm

Wireless carriers hope they can weather Nemo better than Sandy.

With a massive blizzard hitting the Northeast region just months after superstorm Sandy devastated the area, the carriers are working to avoid the same kind of mass outages that previously struck their networks and left hundreds of thousands of people without service.

AT&T said it has an "arsenal of disaster response equipment and personnel on standby." The company has topped off its fuel generators at various cell sites, installed and tested high-capacity backup batteries, as well as "Quick Connect Generator Plugs," and staged additional … Read more

J.D. Power: Verizon again tops in customer care survey

For the fourth consecutive time, J.D. Power and Associates has named Verizon Wireless as the leader in customer care among full-service wireless providers.

The semiannual report is based on feedback from thousands of consumers, scoring carriers based on three contact channels: telephone; walk-in (retail store); and online.

Verizon leads all full-service providers with a score of 766, just ahead of AT&T's 759, however both were above the industry average. Verizon credits social networking efforts for the high marks, touting the active and light-hearted online personality.

J.D. Power also found the carrier to do particularly well … Read more

Sprint Q4 loss widens to $1.32B as Nextel customers flee

Sprint probably can't wait to excise the Nextel part of its business.

The Overland Park, Kan., wireless carrier reported hefty fourth-quarter subscriber losses on the Nextel side, with more than 1 million customers leaving the service, easily offsetting the gains made on its core Sprint business. In total, it lost 337,000 net customers.

Sprint posted a loss of $1.32 billion, or 44 cents a share, compared with a year-ago loss of $1.3 billion, or 43 cents a share. Revenue, however, rose to $9 billion.

The results were better than expected. Analysts, on average, forecast a per-share … Read more

Verizon's HTC M7 could come to life as a Droid DNA refresh

Verizon may soon debut a refreshed version of the HTC Droid DNA smartphone, according to newly uncovered details leaked by software developer and HTC insider @LlabTooFeR.

Hardware specifications for a model known as "DLXPLUS" suggest that the nation's largest wireless provider could be readying a device with details that are not unlike the rumored HTC M7.

The hardware list points to an Android Jelly Bean device with Sense 5.0, a 4.7-inch 1080p display, a 13-megapixel camera, and a quad-core 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 processor. Said to also have 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage, the … Read more