lte

Verizon's big plans for 4G next year

Verizon Wireless is keeping its foot firmly planted on the pedal when it comes to 4G LTE.

Verizon has an aggressive slate of 4G products in the works for next year--including the vast majority of its smartphones. The carrier also plans to make more 4G devices affordable, further driving adoption.

That'll be key to Verizon's effort to further extend its edge over the competition. The carrier was largely racing against itself when it came to 4G LTE this year, but 2012 will be different as rivals work quickly to roll out their own next-generation networks. Verizon, for its … Read more

Comcast, Time Warner preparing to bid farewell to Clearwire

Cable providers Comcast and Time Warner Cable will stop reselling Clearwire's 4G wireless service following their agreement to hand off their unused mobile spectrum to Verizon Wireless for $3.6 billion, CNET has learned.

Part of the Verizon deal gives the cable companies the right to resell Verizon's wireless service, which will become the cable providers' exclusive partner once the spectrum aspect of the agreement goes through, said Time Warner Cable spokesman Alexander Dudley.

Both companies will slowly wind down their Clearwire business over the next six months, and plan to move their existing customers to other options. … Read more

LG Nitro HD first impressions: LG's time to shine?

This year has been the year of the superphone, but LG seems to have missed the memo the first time around, offering some solid Android handsets, but very little to cut into Samsung, HTC, and Motorola's Android dominance.

With the premium LG Nitro HD phone for AT&T, the handset-maker hopes to close out the year with a bang.

AT&T ruined its own surprise by announcing the Nitro HD a full four days ahead of its launch event in New York, but it wasn't until then that we got a chance to see it in the flesh.

Design The Nitro HD starts things off right with a 4.5-inch "true HD AH-IPS" display and a 326ppi-pixel density. As with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the HTC Rezound, the Nitro HD has a 1,280x720-pixel resolution. Much is made of screens these days (as it should be), and LG is claiming that the Nitro HD's screen will pack 500 nits of luminance, a measure of brightness. (The LG Marquee has an extremely bright 700-nit screen.)

The screen was large, bright, and beautiful indeed, and colors looked vibrant, and true to life. We won't be able to get really down and dirty with screen comparisons until we lay the Nitro HD, Rezound, and Galaxy Nexus side by side and put them all through their paces for color, brightness, and clarity. … Read more

Sprint rescues Clearwire with up to $1.6B in funding, revenues

Clearwire made good on a $237 million interest payment due today and announced it has finalized a funding and resale agreement with Sprint Nextel worth up to $1.6 billion to keep the company afloat.

For months, Clearwire's future has been anything but clear as the company scrambled to line up cash to fund daily operations and finish a nationwide 4G wireless network. Last month, the company said it might miss its scheduled debt payment due to its tight financial situation. It had been unclear whether Sprint, Clearwire's largest investor and also its biggest wholesale customer, would bail … Read more

AT&T debuts 4G LTE-capable LG Nitro HD

AT&T today introduced its next Android smartphone, the 4G LTE-capable LG Nitro HD.

Expected to arrive online and in stores on December 4 for $249.99, the LG Nitro HD boasts a 4.5-inch True HD AH-IPS display, a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor, an 8-megapixel camera, and 4GB internal storage. What's more, the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread smartphone comes with a 16GB microSD card and support for Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA connectivity, matching up quite nicely with Korea's recently announced Optimus LTE. … Read more

Verizon's Galaxy Nexus price: $199.99?

A holiday-themed Flash ad makes it appear that Samsung's Galaxy Nexus, the phone that's carrying Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" to market, will cost $199.99 through Verizon.

The phone has gone on sale in the United Kingdom, but has yet to appear in the United States. The phone has a large 4.65-inch touch screen, a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, a 1080p videocamera and 720p screen, and 4G LTE speeds on Verizon's wireless network, but its most notable feature is the next-gen operating system from Google.

Android Police spotted the ad, noting that … Read more

LG expected to launch Nitro HD on December 1

LG has scheduled a press event for December 1 in New York where it is expected the handset maker will announce its first smartphone to feature an HD display.

Rumored to carry the name of LG Nitro HD, the phone should boast a 4.5-inch 1,280x720-pixel resolution screen, much like the one on Verizon's recently announced HTC Rezound.

The first sign of the LG P930 came way back in late spring when the model number was spied in an XML file. At the time it was uncovered, 720p displays were not part of general smartphone discussions, so it … Read more

Clearwire in a bind as debt payment looms

Clearwire is considering whether or not to make a major loan payment as the cash-strapped wireless provider looks for financing options.

The company is supposed to make a $237 million payment on December 1. With $698 million in cash and short-term investments as of September 30, it can certainly meet the obligation, but at the cost of a significant chunk of its remaining war chest. As a result, the company is debating whether to skip the payment, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Clearwire, which operates a 4G WiMax network used by Sprint Nextel and other wireless resellers, is at … Read more

Rumor: Qualcomm 4G LTE Gobi 4000 chip likely for iPad 3

Now that Apple has its full holiday lineup for this year, rumors of next-gen products should start heating up. One such rumor follows a press release from Qualcomm, which makes the 3G chips in iPhones, saying that it seems likely that its 4G LTE Gobi 4000 chip is destined to be included in the iPad 3.

"Embedded modules based on our new Gobi 4000 technology are designed to give consumers an uncompromised mobile connectivity experience, both in terms of download speeds and flexibility," said Cristiano Amon, senior vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

Though Apple was not specifically mentioned in the press release as a partner for the new chip, Qualcomm did list several of Apple's competitors in the mobile space including Windows and Android, and noted that the Gobi 4000 API is perfect for personal computing as well as tablet and e-reader operating systems.… Read more

Verizon Wireless presses its 4G LTE edge into new markets

Verizon Wireless plans to roll its 4G LTE network into an additional 14 markets and expand its coverage in four cities tomorrow, as the carrier hopes to press its speed advantage further.

The company will have covered 179 markets across the country with its super-fast wireless network, by far the most widespread 4G coverage out of any of the carriers.

With 4G a major selling point and source of bragging rights, Verizon has undertaken an impressively rapid deployment. Beyond the iPhone, 4G has been effective at drawing in new customers. It has only put its foot on the pedal further, … Read more