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MetroPCS plans to follow the release of the LG Optimus M handset with its first Android-based LTE smartphone in the first quarter of 2011. Due as early as February, this handset will be the first of as many as six Android phones for the carrier in the coming year.

MetroPCS CEO Roger Linquist highlighted Android at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference today and teased handset prices that could start as low as $150 unsubsidized, up to the $400-$500 range. Currently, MetroPCS offers a feature phone, the Samsung Craft, as its only LTE-capable device.

If you had asked … Read more

If you hadn't noticed from all the advertisements on TV, the age of 4G wireless is here.

Verizon Wireless will be the latest company to launch its shiny, new 4G network. Starting Sunday, roughly 110 million people in 38 cities will have the opportunity to subscribe to this new generation of wireless service from the nation's largest cell phone operator.

But Verizon isn't the only wireless carrier with a next-generation wireless network. T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel also have new networks they are aggressively marketing. And AT&T, which has upgraded 80 percent of its network … Read more

Editors' note: This chart was originally published December 2, 2010. It has been updated with new information.

With the iPhone 5 and all top Android phones utilizing 4G LTE, network speed and robustness have become major selling points for carriers competing to win over customers. Long Term Evolution, or LTE, is the latest iteration of the so-called fourth-generation (4G) cellular wireless standards, boasting speeds that meet -- or in some cases beat -- that of Wi-Fi.

However, as carriers continually expand their 4G LTE coverage every few months, it's hard to keep track of just how wide the scope and scale of each carrier's 4G network vary. Some cover a lot of ground while others cover barely any at all. As a result, it can take a lot of effort to determine where in the country you can find high-speed data access and how the different carrier networks contrast and overlap.… Read more

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Verizon gets ready to turn on its 4G network

YouTube lets you skip ads you don't care for

Microsoft launches an Xbox Live Rewards program to repay your loyalty

Amazon.com adds Wikipedia pages to its site to help you make more informed shopping choices

Dish Network lets you watch content from your cable box on your iPad via a Sling Media device

Netflix gets new indie films in its streaming video service from film studio FilmDistrict

Google updates its mute feature in Gmail

A new Michael Jackson song debuts exclusively on Ping, … Read more

Verizon's launching its LTE network on Sunday, the FCC is proposing a plan for Net neutrality tomorrow, and Google is about to take over the world EVEN MORE with its e-book venture (we're sure the EU is going to love that). Also, that deafening silence you hear on Twitter is the sound of a bunch of celebrities playing dead to raise money for AIDS. New meme: celebrity zombie impersonator accounts! Get yours today! --Molly

Verizon Wireless grabbed headlines with its LTE announcement today, but MetroPCS always will be able to claim the first commercially available LTE in the United States. And today it expanded that coverage to CNET's hometown of San Francisco.

The "4G" service, which launches today, will overlay about 80 percent of the carrier's existing CDMA footprint in the Bay Area. Indeed, a quick check of MetroPCS's map shows the carrier's LTE coverage stretching from Santa Rosa to southern Santa Clara County with extensions eastward to Livermore, Fairfield, and Antioch.

San Fransisco is the carrier's … Read more

It's finally here: Verizon will launch its LTE network this Sunday.

After more than a year of hype, the company is finally launching its so-called 4G wireless network that uses a network technology known as Long Term Evolution or LTE. Starting December 5, the new network will be live in a number of markets including New York, Chicago, LA, and San Francisco, among others.

About 70 percent of the 38 markets that Verizon is launching in initially will get the service starting Sunday. The company will have street view maps available on its Web site starting Sunday to show … Read more

The wireless marketing wars rage on as Verizon Wireless claims the "most advanced 4G" wireless network in the world and takes more potshots at rival AT&T.

It's not easy to be a consumer these days with wireless operators all claiming to have the fastest and most robust network in the U.S. Verizon Wireless is the latest operator to launch a new advertising campaign that promotes its soon-to-be-launched 4G LTE wireless broadband network. The commercial (embedded below), which features a young man using Verizon's 4G wireless network to throw a lightning bolt into the … Read more

Cable carrier Cox Communications is branching out with a new wireless service.

The company today launched its Cox Wireless mobile phone and high-speed Internet service with the enticement of what it's calling the "Unbelievably Fair" MoneyBack Minutes program. Mobile subscribers who use the service can get up to $20 per month back on any unused minutes.

Banking on consumer dissatisfaction with existing mobile phone plans, Cox said it's the first wireless carrier to make such a money-back offer. More than that, the addition of the wireless service to Cox's existing package of video, Internet, and … Read more