Sprint’s Dan Hesse told us point-blank back in July that he was penning a “great story around 4G” for this fall, and it looks as if October 7th will be the date that it “all becomes clear.” We just received an invitation to quite the atypical event — a “strategy update” for the press to cover in New York City. All we’re told is that presentations by senior management will be on tap, with a sure-to-be-lively Q&A session to follow. ‘Course, this may all be a ploy to waste our precious time on a precious Friday in autumn, but something tells us Sprint ain’t exactly in a position to be blowing cash on a Hot Air session. So, what’s on deck? Let’s count the possibilities: more details on its side regarding the iPhone 5? A full-on acquisition of Clearwire (plus a shift to LTE-Advanced)? More details on that elusive LightSquared arrangement? A merger with AT&T&T to create the largest telecommunications provider this side of Pluto? We’ll be there to find out, but for now, hypotheses are being accepted in comments below.
AT&T’s 4G LTE network went live this past weekend in the Chicago area, and initial speed tests reveal impressive download speeds. AT&T has yet to announce the availability of LTE service in Chicago or any other launch market, but BGR has obtained exclusive images and speed test results from a source who has tested the network there. Ahead of an official launch, AT&T 4G LTE service is likely to be available only intermittently during testing, though it is also possible that Chicago has been soft launched following the launch of AT&T’s first two 4G LTE devices last week. Read on for more.
Verizon’s latest LTE network expansion may be a tad small compared to some previous ones — encompassing 15 new markets, plus some additional coverage in ten existing ones — but it was enough to push the carrier over one significant milestone. It now says that the network encompasses some 160 million Americans, or more than half the US population. As Verizon is quick to point out, that’s a feat it managed to accomplish in just eight months.
Head on past the break for the press release with the complete list of markets covered.
Verizon Wireless has just released a list of more cities and areas that are now covered under their 4G LTE service. It’s nice to see that some of these areas being covered now are mid sized towns. This is a great sign that 4G is not too far off from reaching rural communities and small towns. Keep in mind that some of the cities listed below already had 4G but have been expanded even more.
Following Sprint’s confirmation that it has chosen not to move forward in releasing a 4G WiMAX-enabled version of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, RIM said it has decided to focus instead on LTE. “RIM has decided to prioritize and focus its 4G development resources on LTE,” RIM said in an emailed statement on Friday. “We remain excited and committed to delivering innovative and powerful 4G tablets to the US market together with our carrier partners. Testing of BlackBerry 4G PlayBook models is already underway and we plan to enter labs for network certifications in the US and other international markets this fall.”
AT&T senior vice president of mobility and consumer markets Pete Ritcher took the stage during the Oppenheimer Technology and Communications Conference on Wednesday, where he confirmed that AT&T will launch its first 4G LTE smartphone by the end of this year. Ritcher reaffirmed AT&T’s intention to deploy its LTE network in 15 markets covering 70 million people by the end of 2011, and it hopes to continue its roll-out on a market-by-market basis, Fierce Wireless reported. AT&T will initially only offer laptop cards alongside the new LTE network, and AT&T is expected to launch 4G LTE in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio this summer. “We are the only carrier with LTE and HSPA+,” Ritcher said. “When you don’t have LTE you will fall back to faster speeds than our competitors,” he added, noting that Verizon’s 4G customers fall back to the slower EV-DO network when LTE is not available.
With the upcoming introduction of its LTE network and vast fall smartphone lineup, US Cellular’s a regional carrier with a lot to look forward to. But its efforts over the second quarter, paired with the hopes of a bright future ahead, weren’t enough to keep a few thousand customers from parting ways. While most of the reported figures were quite pleasant year-over-year — service revenues bumped up three percent to $1 billion, percentage of smartphones sold skyrocketed to nearly 40 percent, ARPU increased to $51.84, and total operating income shot up a whole 61 percent — the company also experienced a loss of 58,000 customers over the course of three months. The carrier doesn’t seem too worried about this particular figure, however, as it stated its excitement about the launch of its 4G service later this year. Will the bleak and cold winter become warm and toasty because of a blazing-hot network? We’re eager to find out. Hit the source link for the full quarterly earnings.
This is an odd ball leak… We knew about the BlackBerry Curve 9360 was coming but the 9370 has been pretty much in the dark. These two devices will probably be the 6th and 7th of the 7 devices RIM promised this year since the Curve Touch Orlando and Curve Bellagio 9790 haven’t really been leaking as much or having prerelease devices passed around.
The odd thing about this Verizon leak from IGN is that it shows the BlackBerry Curve 9370 as being a 4G BlackBerry. It could be RIM found a way to put LTE in a BlackBerry 7 device but its news to us. It could just be a typo with Verizon’s big push into LTE but only time will tell. You excited? The PlayBook is also on the leaked image but still has a TBD launch date.
Clearwire on Wednesday announced its intent to adopt LTE across its network. The 4G wholesaler says it may add LTE Advanced-ready technology to its network that will provide up to 120Mbps download speeds according to network technology trials. ”Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO, in a statement. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.” Clearwire confirmed that it does not intend to discontinue support for its 4G WiMAX network in the near term, and it will continue to build out its WiMAX network. The company did not put a timeline on the plans, however, saying that its entire LTE deployment strategy is “subject to additional funding.”
Amidst all these new BlackBerry devices being announced, we mentioned that the BlackBerry Curve series was missing and speculated on some reasoning as to why. It being the more cost effective device in the line up comes to mind first, with the other devices being top tier devices but walk with me here while we take a look at the latest leaked Verizon document.
It is of course littered with Android devices but if you look carefully you can see a BlackBerry Curve 9370 listed amongst the mix and looking to the far right, ignoring the launch date of 9/8/11 for a second you’ll see a section that says “new to report 4G smartphone”. Now, this could be a typo or it could be dead on accurate — either way, it’s interesting and has us rethinking why the new BlackBerry Curve devices were not announced like all the others.
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Night Hawk Computers Blackberry Alliance 