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T-Mobile boosts 4G coverage in attempt to lure iPhone users

T-Mobile today added Baltimore, Houston, and Washington, D.C. to the list of U.S. cities served by 4G (HSPA+) on its faster 1900 network.

"As a part of our $4 billion plan to transform our network, T-Mobile continues to strengthen an already fast and competitive 4G experience in major metro areas across the country by installing new equipment and retuning our 4G airwaves to work with more devices," T-Mobile USA Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray said in a statement today.

One of the devices that the carrier specifically highlighted to get the faster 4G coverage is the … Read more

Qualcomm's Q4 shows gap between mobile, PC chipmakers

In case the market needs more evidence of the strength of mobile versus PCs, all it has to do is look at Qualcomm.

The wireless-chip maker, which helped popularize the CDMA technology used in cell phones, today reported quarterly financial results that were better than it had anticipated, and it provided bullish projections for the current period and year.

Its strong results -- which sent shares up about 8 percent in after-hours trading -- contrast pretty sharply with the dismal forecasts from many other semiconductor companies, most notably PC chip giant Intel. Intel last month gave a fairly grim outlook … Read more

AT&T Mobility CEO sees record customer loyalty by 2015

AT&T believes customers will stick even tighter to its wireless service over the next few years.

The company expects to hit a record-low rate of customer turnover by 2015, according to Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T's mobility arm. He was speaking today at the company's investor conference in New York.

De la Vega was his usual bullish self and threw out several stats to back up his optimism. In addition to the customer turnover rate estimate, he said he expects 90 percent of its customer base to own a smartphone by … Read more

AT&T will spend $14B to pump up wireless, wireline networks

AT&T today laid out a broad plan to upgrade both its wireline and wireless networks and keep its growth moving.

Project Velocity IP, or VIP, consists of an investment of $14 billion over the next three years -- $8 billion for wireless and $6 billion for wireline -- and is designed to expand the company's 4G LTE coverage on the wireless side and faster service, more fiber-optic lines, and expanded U-Verse availability on the landline side.

Project VIP is significant because it represents the first time in many years that AT&T has significantly ramped up … Read more

LG Nexus 4 vs. Samsung Galaxy S3: Does LTE really matter?

When choosing a smartphone or a wireless carrier, it's important to know what your deal-breakers are.

There are so many choices today when it comes to picking out a new smartphone or even choosing a service provider. Devices come in different sizes, with different software and even different network support. And wireless carriers, which all have different strengths when it comes to network coverage, offer different packages with different prices for their services. When it comes to choosing a device or a carrier, which of these things is most important to you?

In this edition of Ask Maggie, I … Read more

How Verizon kept wireless service going after Sandy hit

With Hurricane Sandy due to hit the East Coast in a couple of days, Verizon Wireless executive Mike Haberman tested his house's back-up generator and ended up finding a faulty circuit that he quickly fixed. So when the outage hit his house in Morristown, N.J., he was able to get enough power to his laptop and phone to work from home last week.

That's a good thing, because Haberman was one of the key people coordinating the carrier's efforts to keep service going at a time when massive power outages wreaked havoc on the East Coast. … Read more

U.S. Cellular expands LTE to more than 30 new markets

U.S. Cellular is expanding its 4G LTE coverage area to more than 30 new markets on Monday, extending the carrier's footprint for the high-speed network to more than half of its customers.

The rollout will bring LTE to select cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Oklahoma, and brings new LTE coverage to some of U.S. Cellular's markets in Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The next wave of market launches will follow shortly in Rockford, Ill., Medford, Ore., Yakima, Wash., and Knoxville, Tenn., the company said today.

By the end of … Read more

With no 4G LTE support, new Nexus devices irk early adopters

For all the wonderful hardware and software that comes with the new Nexus 4 and the rejiggered Nexus 7, there's one glaring feature that keeps them from being truly leading-edge: lack of 4G LTE support.

That means that as of today, early adopters who want the latest and greatest in Android will have to be content with an HSPA+ network. Yes, T-Mobile's HSPA+ can sometimes be as fast as LTE, but unlike with the iPhone, Android has always been good about including cutting-edge features. That's why this one hurts. Cue snickering from the Apple crowd.

Google did … Read more

LTE Spectrum 2 joins Verizon's $99 Android portfolio

Starting today, Verizon will offer the LG Spectrum 2, an LTE Android phone. Priced at $99.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $50 mail-in rebate, the Spectrum 2 packs quite a punch for the money.

The phone boasts a 4.7-inch HD IPS display, a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 16GB internal storage, and up to 32GB in microSD expansion. What's more, the Revolution 2 also comes with an 8-megapixel camera, NFC (near-field communication), Bluetooth 4.0, wireless charging capability, and a host of other Android requisites.

If there's one knock against the budget-friendly Android, it'… Read more