LTE

Motorola will start upgrading existing Xoom tablet owners to 4G LTE within the next week, but the initial pilot program will target only business and government customers, says enthusiast site Droid Life.

According to an e-mail reportedly received by a Droid Life reader, Motorola is "piloting" the initial upgrade just to business and government customers before it starts rolling out 4G en masse to individual Xoom owners.

In late July, Verizon confirmed that the Xoom's 4G LTE upgrade would kick off sometime in September following several months of delays. As reported earlier this year, the upgrade to 4G is free, … Read more

The allure of 4G wireless service has drawn in a number of new players, including satellite-TV provider Dish Network.

Dish applied yesterday for a waiver to the Federal Communications Commission that would allow it to use its recently acquired spectrum to build a wireless network, according to Credit Suisse analyst Jonathan Chaplin. The company plans to build a 4G LTE Advanced network, Chaplin said yesterday in a research note, adding that it has committed to a "realistic" build-out schedule.

The FCC application provides some clarity on what Dish had planned to do with a recent wave of acquisitions, … Read more

Apple's latest developer builds for iOS 5 contain a snippet of code that mentions LTE, according to enthusiast site MacRumors, prompting speculation that the company may be testing 4G internally.

Peeking into the iOS 5 firmware for a couple of developer builds, MacRumors found a property list (.plist file) that points to LTE, or Long Term Evolution. Uncovered only in builds for the GSM iPhone 4 and CDMA iPad 2, the LTE.plist file was found to be related to an application that Apple uses for field testing.

The apparent discovery follows reports from Boy Genius Report a week … Read more

Sprint Nextel is in talks with the cable companies over a new round of investment that may lead to a full takeover of 4G partner Clearwire, according to Bloomberg.

Sprint is in discussions with investors Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks, Bloomberg reported today, citing anonymous sources. The report said Sprint is weighing using the investment to fund the acquisition of the remaining stake in Clearwire that it doesn't own.

Such a scenario could provide relief to cash-strapped Clearwire, which is seeking funding to stay alive and expand its network with a newer, faster 4G technology. The … Read more

Launching in 15 new cities and expanding in 10 other cities today, Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network will now reach 160 million Americans, more than half the nation's total, the company said. In just under eight months, the 4G rollout has ramped up to provide coverage to 117 cities.

The cities getting 4G today include Tucson, Ariz.; Fayetteville/Springdale/Rogers, Ark.; Bakersfield and Salinas/Monterey/Seaside, Calif.; Fort Collins, Colo.; Frederick, Md.; Worcester, Mass.; Omaha/Council Bluffs, Neb.; Albany, Ithaca, and Syracuse, N.Y.; Altoona and Johnstown, Pa.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Provo, Utah.

Verizon is also expanding its LTE … Read more

We celebrate the patent wars with Zynga while Google's stock gets downgraded. TV Studios think its a good idea to pull back their content on the Web and if you've ever faked a phone call on your cell phone, you're not the only one.

A major Apple store may be testing 4G LTE equipment supplied by AT&T.

That's according to a report from Engadget, citing an anonymous source. Engadget posted an image of LTE equipment being installed at the store, although the picture was later removed.

The equipment supports the 700 megahertz band of spectrum, which is what AT&T plans to use to roll its LTE network out, as well as the AWS bands, which is what T-Mobile owns, according to Engadget.

An AT&T spokesman declined to comment. An Apple representative wasn't available for comment.

Reports … Read more

The first pictures of an Android-powered Samsung Celox have arrived online, providing an early look at the rumored LTE Galaxy S II device.

Word of the smartphone first surfaced last week when it was reported that Samsung was readying the device for Korean carriers. Specifications included a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, a 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, 16GB storage, an 8-megapixel camera, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Keeping in line with other recent Samsung releases, the Celox was listed as running Android 2.3 Gingerbread with TouchWiz 4.0 UI.

Unlike the first pictures we saw of the Colex, … Read more

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE (Verizon) has the same thin, iPad 2-like design as the Wi-Fi-only version of the tablet. So the question is, are blazingly fast 4G speeds worth being stuck in a two-year commitment?

Sure, you could forgo the contract and pay extra for the tablet, but in that case you might as well plop down cash for the Wi-Fi only Tab 10.1.

No, if you're interested in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 4G LTE (Verizon), then you're obviously interested in your tablet always being connected. Well, depending on Verizon's … Read more