LTE

AT&T has announced today that it's added support for new cell sites in downtown San Francisco, a city notorious for its infamously stringent network-building rules.

Coverage in San Francisco has been a thorn in AT&T's side since the carrier's exclusive iPhone launch back in 2007, when the carrier received sharp criticism for poor reception and dropped calls.

How could it be that the big city for high-tech products like Apple's iPhone also offered some of the worst coverage in the nation? It doesn't help when it takes years to approve a … Read more

Today, MetroPCS and Huawei announced their latest collaboration, the Huawei Premia 4G.

Powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, the Huawei Premia 4G is the carrier's second smartphone to feature 4G LTE connectivity.

Hardware details include a 4-inch display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and a 5-megapixel camera. Falling somewhere between the ZTE Avid 4G and the LG Spirit 4G, the Premia 4G should appeal to first-time smartphone buyers.

While the handset does run an older version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich is still modern enough to hold its appeal. As an affordable smartphone capable of … Read more

AT&T may not have the largest 4G LTE network but it has the fastest, at least according to new data from Root Metrics.

Among the top four U.S. mobile carriers measured by Root Metrics, AT&T took the top spot with an average LTE-only download speed of 18.6 megabits per second and an average upload speed of 9Mbps. Its maximum download speed averaged 57.7Mbps, while its fastest upload speed averaged 19.6Mbps.

Root's researchers were able to connect to AT&T's LTE network 81.7 percent of the time, a rate … Read more

Verizon Wireless' shift to voice over LTE may ultimately usher in fundamental changes in the carrier's handsets and sales strategies.

Verizon, which revealed plans late last year to launch voice over LTE services by early 2014, could begin selling LTE-only phones as early as next year, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said today at Deutsche Bank's Media, Internet, and Telecom conference. Shammo said the transition to "pure LTE" handsets -- handsets that lack CDMA chips -- would result in lower costs and subsidies for customers.

"We will ultimately get to voice over LTE, probably end of … Read more

Sprint has added nine cities to its burgeoning 4G LTE network.

The carrier said today that it launched LTE coverage for Altoona, Pa.; Asheville and Statesville, N.C.; Columbus and Elkhart/Goshen, Ind.; Hammond, La.; La Crosse, Wis.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Temple, Texas.

In addition, Sprint expanded its LTE network in four cities in Puerto Rico: San German, Yauco, Salinas, and Santa Isabel.

The nine new markets follow news that Sprint turned on LTE last month for certain areas of San Francisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Bob Azzi, Sprint's senior vice president for Network, said … Read more

LG Electronics announced today it has sold more than 10 million LTE-capable smartphones worldwide as the company grapples with dwindling market share.

The milestone comes a little more than six months after the company announced it had surpassed 5 million sales of LTE-enabled phones.

"Aggressive pushing forward with 4G LTE technology allows LG [to] satisfy the needs of consumers and is a huge factor in our growing success in global LTE smartphone sales," LG CEO Jong-seok Park said in statement. "Having established ourselves as a major industry player, we will continue to expand our footprint in the … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Here's the good news: the U.S. wireless industry is working to ensure that you'll eventually be able to take your LTE-enabled phone from one carrier to another and get the same experience.

The bad news: it likely won't happen for a few years.

That's according to T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray, who spoke to CNET in an interview at Mobile World Congress. Ray says the industry is keen on phones that can operate on different carriers, but that there remain a lot of complexities.

The advent of 4G LTE technology was supposed to … Read more

U.S. Cellular subscribers can now add Samsung's 4G Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet to their shopping lists.

As of today, the 4G Note 10.1 is available at U.S. Cellular retail outlets and the carrier's online store. The tablet sells for $499.99 when paired with a plan offering 2GB or more of data per month.

The Note is the latest Samsung 4G device to join U.S. Cellular's lineup. The carrier already sells the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy Note 2, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Outfitted with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the … Read more

Virgin Mobile today announced that the Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE has joined the carrier's smartphone portfolio. Priced at $299.99, the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean handset is Virgin Mobile's first LTE smartphone.

Also available through Sprint, the Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE includes a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 5-megapixel rear camera (HD video capture) and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. As is the case with many of today's Android smartphones, the Galaxy Victory 4G LTE also features NFC, Wi-Fi, microSD expansion card slot (up to 32GB), and Bluetooth 4.0. On top of that, Samsung'… Read more