ctia

A petition asking President Obama to oppose a new rule restricting cell phone owners from unlocking their devices has passed the 100,000 mark, meaning the White House is now obliged to respond.

The petition, which passed the threshold last night and now stands at more than 102,000 signatures, protests a regulation from the Library of Congress that prohibits unlocking phones without the carrier's permission -- even when a customer's contract with the carrier has expired.

"I think it's terrific," said Derek Khanna, a Yale visiting fellow who was previously a Republican Hill staffer … Read more

Wireless trade group CTIA said today that it will go from two shows a year to a single conference in the fall starting in 2014.

The group, which is primarily focused on the U.S. wireless industry and includes carriers, handset manufacturers, and other related companies, has traditionally held two shows each year: a larger main show in the spring and a smaller, more business-focused event in the fall called MobileCon. The group will continue to hold both events this year.

Pressured by competing trade shows and its own members, CTIA will merge the conferences into a single "super … Read more

Brace yourselves: 2013 is upon us, and that means a whole new generation of Android devices, rumors, and expectations.

Android will have a strong showing at CES, and the next few months will be littered with new smartphones and tablets. Let's take a look at some of the trends we can expect in the Android space over the coming year.

This article will touch on many trends in the Android ecosystem, including hardware advancements, vendor decisions, and key events of the year. Given the sheer number of players in the space, there will be much to look forward to … Read more

SAN DIEGO--We knew all along that MobileCon, with its enterprise focus, would be a quieter show for consumers, but what we didn't know was how the players who did show up would engage us.

LG used the event to showcase the midrange LG Optimus L9, which it announced just before the show, and the LG Mach, a dual-core QWERTY device for Sprint, which it announced on Day 1.

Later, at a launch party, LG pleasantly surprised with goody bags containing one Optimus G flagship phone each for AT&T and for Sprint. Bravo, LG, and we'll have … Read more

SAN DIEGO--A year ago at CTIA (now known as MobileCon), Huawei announced plans to become a top-five vendor in three years' time. A year into its push to crack the U.S. market, Huawei is only baby steps closer to reaching its goal.

When I met with Huawei in San Diego earlier this week, company spokespeople said that consumers' brand awareness grew from 6 percent in 2011 to 9 percent in 2012.

The 3 percent growth isn't much to crow about, not when brand awareness hovers at 49 percent in the South Pacific region, 29 percent in northern Latin … Read more

SAN DIEGO--CNET has spent enough time with LG's new flagship, quad-core LG Optimus G to portend great things for LG's image, especially now that the Android 4.0 powerhouse will come to both AT&T and Sprint.

There's just one early snag. Yesterday, I spent some time with the 13-megapixel camera. The controls all looked fantastic, and are part of a redesigned OS. However, I wasn't happy with some of the photos I took for practice.

It definitely didn't help the camera's cause that I shot all photos in a closed demo room … Read more

Verizon Wireless plans to launch voice over LTE services by late 2013 or early 2014, according to a networking executive for the carrier.

Consumer trials will begin in late 2013, with service to follow, likely in the subsequent year, Nicola Palmer, vice president of network and chief technical officer for Verizon Wireless, said in an interview with CNET. The target date is a bit more specific than previously announced, with Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo calling for a rollout in 2013. The company was originally expected to launch the service this year.

Voice over LTE, or VoLTE, moves the … Read more

Verizon Wireless said today that it would surpass its year-end goal of blanketing 400 markets with 4G LTE two months ahead of schedule.

On October 18, the company will have covered 417 U.S. markets with its super-fast wireless network, extending its overwhelming lead over the other carriers. Its 4G LTE was the focal point of the carrier's presentation at the MobileCon wireless trade show this week.

Despite the speedy work, it's sticking with its target of completing the full upgrade by the end of next year, in which its 4G LTE coverage will be comparable to its … Read more

Sprint Nextel expanded its lineup of 4G LTE devices, nabbing the LG Optimus G quad-core smartphone, the LG Mach QWERTY slider, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 tablet, and a 4G USB stick.

Apart from the previously announced LG Optimus G, Sprint announced the new devices at the MobileCon wireless trade show today. No pricing or availability information was available.

The brand-new LG Mach features a full QWERTY keyboard and is expected to be a more affordable device. The smartphone runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, has a 5-megapixel rear camera and VGA front-facing camera, and is … Read more