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Verizon Wireless says it has identified the cause of a nationwide outage that's affected its 4G LTE network for most of the day. In a statement originally released to Engadget, the carrier said, "We have determined the cause of our issue and are working with our major vendors to restore connections."

The statement went on to say that until problem is fixed, Verizon customers will be unable to activate any LTE handset. Subscribers with such a phone will be able to make calls, though they may experience 2.5G 1xRTT data speeds. According to CNET senior associate … Read more

The iPhone 5, expected later this year, likely won't have 4G capability--or what is more precisely described as LTE. Here's why.

First, a quick preamble. Because of the liberal use of the term by carrier marketing departments, the definition of 4G is fuzzy, meaning different things (e.g., performance, specifications) for different carriers. For the sake of this discussion, 4G will be described as LTE, or Long Term Evolution, which offers, among other things, higher download and upload speeds compared to 3G.

I asked Will Strauss, president of wireless chip market research firm Forward Concepts, why the iPhone … Read more

Remember the Samsung 4G LTE smartphone that was announced at CES 2011 for Verizon Wireless? Well, it's finally got a new name (thank goodness) and a release date and pricing.

Verizon Wireless revealed today that the Samsung Droid Charge will be available on April 28 for--brace yourselves--$299.99 with a two-year contract. The 4G-capable Droid Charge will ship running Android 2.2 and features a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, mobile hot-spot capabilities, and a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus touch screen, which has 50 percent more subpixels than the original Super AMOLED touch screens (read: improved outdoor visibility and … Read more

LightSquared, a company that most cell phone subscribers have never heard of, is building a nationwide wireless broadband network that it hopes will rival the nation's largest providers AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

The company has gotten a lot of buzz lately as the Federal Communications Commission and others see it as the answer for more competition in the wireless market. AT&T's announcement last month that it will acquire T-Mobile USA for $39 billion has raised eyebrows among regulators and consumer advocates concerned about too much consolidation in the wireless market.

LightSquared, which plans to sell its service wholesale instead of directly to consumers, has already signed up Leap Wireless and Cellular South as customers. Retail chain Best Buy has also committed to testing the service, and rumors are floating around that the company may be signing a deal with Sprint Nextel to share network resources.

And even though the network won't be up and running until early next year, there's already talk that the company may go public this summer.

But what is LightSquared exactly? And what are its chances of success? And finally, what does the potential success of this company mean for the average consumer? … Read more

Sprint Nextel and Clearwire have settled their dispute over wholesale pricing, the companies announced today. Sprint uses the nationwide Clearwire network for its 4G WiMax wireless broadband service.

Under the new deal Clearwire will receive at least $1 billion from Sprint in 2011 and 2012. The minimum 4G usage commitment for this year is $300 million and $550 million next year. Sprint will pay $175 million in pre-payment for the service that will be used later this year and beyond.

The companies also worked out an agreement for devices that use both Sprint's 3G network and Clearwire's 4G … Read more

The $39 billion proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA won't close for at least a year, but some T-Mobile customers are worried about what the potential changes might mean for them.

In this week's Ask Maggie column, I clear up confusion around whether T-Mobile USA customers will be forced to upgrade their handsets after AT&T completes its acquisition. I also offer my prediction on whether new LTE smartphones that will be introduced later this year will have similar battery life issues to the HTC Thunderbolt. And I offer some advice to new iPad2 … Read more

If you have been having a good time with the Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot and now want a similar device that offers much faster 4G speeds, the answer is here.

Verizon Wireless teamed up with Samsung to announce today the availability of the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot.

This is a mobile, supercompact Wi-Fi hot spot that offers an Internet connection similar to that of the LG VL600 LTE USB Modem, up to 12Mbps. This type of bandwidth is typically found in high-end broadband connections such as cable.

According to the companies, the Samsung 4G LTE Mobile … Read more

The HTC Thunderbolt is one of the first 4G LTE phones available on the Verizon Wireless network and, as we've seen in our review, its download speeds are superfast. However, as users are starting to note, you'll pay for that speed with abysmal battery life. This is even more frustrating for users who operate in areas where 4G hasn't yet been rolled out. Unfortunately, it would seem that there is no obvious way to toggle between the Thunderbolt's juice-sapping 4G mode and its more battery-friendly 3G antenna. There is, however, a hidden menu that will let … Read more

ORLANDO, Fla.--LightSquared, a company that is building a nationwide 4G wireless network, said Wednesday that it has signed a deal with Best Buy to offer 4G wireless service.

The announcement follows a roaming agreement LightSquared announced Monday with wireless carrier Leap Wireless.

LightSquared is building its new wireless network using spectrum that had been designated for satellite communications. The company received a waiver from the Federal Communications Commission in January to use the spectrum to build its LTE-based network. And it plans to offer the service commercially by the end of the year. The service will offer both a … Read more