4g

Sprint expands LTE to 21 new markets, including Los Angeles

Sprint has expanded its 4G LTE network to 21 new markets, the CEO said Thursday, boosting the carrier's footprint with the high-speed network.

Chief exec Dan Hesse, speaking at the Competitive Carriers Association trade show in New Orleans, said the new markets include Los Angeles; Charlotte, N.C., and Memphis, Tenn. He also noted that customers are seeing LTE in cities that haven't been officially announced yet, such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

Sprint has been playing catch-up in terms of 4G LTE, lagging far behind rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T. It … Read more

Verizon sold 4M iPhones in Q1

Verizon Wireless sold 4 million iPhones in the first quarter.

The breakdown of iPhone sales was split evenly between the iPhone 5 and older iPhones, Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said during a conference call Thursday.

The company sold 7.2 million smartphones in the period, with 28 percent going to customers new to Verizon. Shammo declined to provide a figure for Android sales.

In total, Verizon sold 9.7 million devices on a contract basis, with 87 percent of those being phones of some sort.

The 4G LTE push continued in the first quarter. Verizon activated 5.9 million … Read more

Huawei Premia 4G review: Great price, lousy battery life

An inexpensive off-contract Android phone is hard to find, and for $99 after a $50 mail-in rebate, MetroPCS' Huawei Premia 4G has a particularly attractive price tag for a 4G Android 4.0 phone.

There are some very decent features for the price point, including a 5-megapixel camera with flash, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor.

Yet, something has to give, and in this case it's the phone's battery life, and to a lesser extent, its voice quality. MetroPCS' 4G LTE network, while steady in my tests, also produces speeds you'd … Read more

Leaked Sprint memo tips major 4G LTE expansion for April 12

Sprint may be announcing the launch of 4G LTE services in over 20 new markets on Friday, April 12, if a leaked memo proves to be accurate.

According to details obtained by Phone Arena, LTE speeds will soon arrive in 21 markets spread across ten states. Among the cities listed in the memo are Los Angeles, Ca., Charlotte, NC, Memphis, Tn., and Virginia Beach, Va. Should all of these cities go live on Friday, Sprint will have just shy of 100 LTE areas.

While Sprint has not officially announced the rollout of 4G LTE in these cities, the carrier is … Read more

Sprint ups Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE to Android 4.1

Sprint today announced the Android 4.1.2 update for the Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE.

Sprint, on a bit of a roll, has begun rolling out Jelly Bean to the budget-friendly smartphone. Available starting today, the software update brings the standard suite of Android 4.1 features to the notifications, camera, and to the OS as a whole.

With the update, Victory users will gain access to Google Now, expandable and actionable notifications, and an updated Android Beam that now shares files as well as URLs and maps. Also present are Jelly Bean's lock screen widgets, smarter home … Read more

AT&T adds six LTE markets, unveils plan for 77 more

Six more AT&T markets have access to its 4G LTE network, bringing its total to 182, the carrier said today.

Meanwhile, seven existing AT&T markets have snagged expanded LTE coverage. The company also unveiled plans to bring the super-fast wireless connection to 77 additional markets by the end of summer.

AT&T is racing to catch up to market leader Verizon Wireless, which offers LTE in nearly 500 markets and plans to wrap up its deployment by the middle of the year. With the increasing consumer awareness over 4G LTE and the need for a … Read more

U.K. carrier to push download speeds to 80Mbps in 10 cities

U.K. carrier EE is planning to double the download speeds for its 4G LTE customers in 10 cities as it continues its nationwide rollout of the high-speed data service.

The company, which operates under the brands EE, Orange, and T-Mobile in the U.K., said it will double the speeds in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, and Sheffield to offer top download speeds of up to 80Mbps.

Overall, the network aims to deliver an average download speed of 20Mbps in the 10 chosen cities before summer's end of. The speed doubling exercise will run … Read more

AT&T's 4G LTE hits 175 markets

LTE coverage bragging rights are usually a numbers game, and with the rollout of fast 4G in 14 new markets, AT&T has brought its total numbers up to 175.

Alphabetically, the new markets are:

Beaumont, Texas Binghamton, N.Y. Carbondale-Marion, Ill. Fort Pierce, Fla. Fort Smith, Ark. Fresno, Calif. Houma, La. Jefferson City, Mo. Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla. Las Cruces, N.M. Montgomery, Ala. Mount Vernon, Wash. Palm Coast, Fla. Temple-Killeen, Texas

Verizon, meanwhile, covers 486 markets with 4G LTE.

In terms of absolute population coverage, AT&T expects to supply fast 4G to 250 million people by … Read more

T-Mobile said to provide LTE on unlocked iPhones on April 5

Unlocked iPhone 5 owners on T-Mobile's network might be able to update their devices to LTE a bit earlier than expected. According to TmoNews, the carrier is said to be sending out an update on April 5 that will enable LTE, Visual Voicemail, and more.

"The T-Mobile Carrier Update is a minor iOS software update that enables official iPhone support by T-Mobile," a notice sent to TmoNews says. "When installed, the software update enables a handful of capabilities like Visual Voicemail, MMS Settings, and Network/Device optimizations that customers do not have access to today. On … Read more