Posts tagged 4g
AT&T agrees to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion
Mar 20th
AT&T and Deutsche Telekom just announced the sale of T-Mobile USA for $39 billion — $25 billion cash and $14 billion in AT&T stock, giving Deutsche Telekom an 8% stake in the U.S. telecom giant. If the deal passes regulatory approval, which the companies estimate will take up to 12 months to complete, the combined subscriber base would exceed 130 million, making AT&T by far the largest mobile operator in America (followed by Verizon and Sprint). Moreover, since AT&T and T-Mobile are the country’s only major GSM operators, AT&T would gain a monopoly on GSM cell service in the U.S.
AT&T says the deal will bring “straightforward synergies” due to ”complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations.” The company also claims the deal will expand the footprint of its LTE 4G service by 46.5 million people, to 294 million, or 95% of the U.S. population. T-Mobile USA itself had no clear plans to migrate to LTE, however, suggesting that AT&T intends to use T-Mobile’s AWS spectrum (1700/2100 MHz) for LTE, alongside its own 700 MHz bands.
If the deal does not receive regulatory approval, AT&T will have to pay T-Mobile a $3 billion “breakup fee,” transfer AWS spectrum it is currently not using for LTE deployment to T-Mobile, and sign a roaming agreement to give T-Mobile access to its network.
Read on for more about the deal.
The Verizon iPhone 4
Jan 7th
It’s finally here– after years of speculation, Apple’s iPhone has at last launched on Verizon’s CDMA network in the U.S. Executives from both companies presented the new device, an iPhone 4 with a CDMA radio instead of GSM/HSDPA, at a media event in New York this morning. The device is otherwise the same and will launch on February 10 for the same price as on AT&T (16GB for $199, 32GB for $299 on a 2-year contract). Verizon is, however, tossing in a Wifi mobile hotspot feature, which will allow up to 5 local clients to access the internet through the phone’s CDMA 3G connection.
Being a CDMA phone, the Verizon iPhone 4 will not be able to use voice and data simultaneously on 3G, nor will it be able to roam outside the United States. On the upside, it does have a redesigned antenna that sounds like it may fix the “deathgrip” issue plaguing the standard iPhone 4 (gripping the phone from a joint on the side causes it to entirely lose its cell reception).
The end of AT&T’s exclusive hold on the iPhone should allow Apple to significantly boost its U.S. sales as it battles an onslaught of competitors running Android and other mobile OSes. From Verizon’s perspective, the iPhone could have made a great introduction to its 4G LTE network, but integrating today’s first-gen LTE chipsets into the iPhone 4 would’ve required significant re-engineering, which Apple wasn’t willing to do.
More info: Verizon Wireless
Press release after the break.
T-Mobile HSPA+ beats Sprint 4G WiMax in speed test
Jun 12th
T-Mobile’s taken some flak recently (particularly from AT&T) after it claimed that its newly upgraded 3G service (HSPA+) offers “fourth generation speeds.” The carrier’s now been vindicated by a series of tests conducted by Phone Scoop, which surprisingly found that T-Mobile souped-up 3G matched and sometimes noticeably outpaced Sprint/Clearwire’s WiMax-based 4G service.
T-Mobile delivered particularly strong upload speeds and low latencies, and more importantly, T-Mobile’s service already works on nine different phones, including the HTC HD2, Touch Pro 2, myTouch series, G1, and others, while Sprint’s only works on the HTC EVO 4G. See Phone Scoop’s full report for more details. T-Mobile says it hopes to have its upgraded HSPA+ service up and running in 100 major metro markets by the end of 2010.
Next-Gen iPhone 4G Rumors: iPhone HD?
Mar 30th
Front panel from the iPhone 3GS (left) vs. alleged iPhone 4G (right)
As expected, Apple is currently working on its next-generation iPhone. Following the company’s yearly cadence, the fourth-gen iPhone is apparently due for release on June 22. According to the latest rumors, the phone may be called “iPhone HD,” packing a new processor from the same family as the 1 GHz Apple A4 found in the iPad (which is likely an ARM Cortex A8), along with a 960×640 display (4x higher resolution than the current iPhone’s 480×320) and possibly a front-facing camera for video chat. iPhone OS 4.0 may introduce multitasking for third-party apps, as we reported earlier.
As usual, there are also rumors of a CDMA-based variant for Verizon. The Wall Street Journal reports that the GSM iPhone would continue to be produced by Hon Hai (Foxconn), but the new CDMA version would be made by Pegatron, a subsidiary of the Taiwanese firm ASUSTeK Computer. No word on whether the iPhone 4G will include 4G wireless support (Sprint’s WiMAX or Verizon’s LTE), but given that America’s 4G networks are still in their infancy, we’re guessing Apple will stick with 3G.
There’s also a new video out of a screen, apparently from the 4G iPhone, that seems to match the photos we saw earlier. If accurate, we’re looking at a slightly larger screen (3.7″ vs. 3.5″) and slightly taller body than the current iPhone.
Video after the break.
Sprint unveils HTC EVO 4G Android Superphone
Mar 24th
Sprint just unveiled its upcoming Android smartphone, the HTC EVO 4G. Formerly codenamed HTC Supersonic, the EVO 4G will be Sprint’s first 4G (WiMAX) phone when it launches sometime this summer. The EVO 4G packs impressive hardware, building on HTC’s already top-spec HD2 with Google’s Android OS onboard. It sports the same 480 x 800 4.3-inch TFT LCD as the HD2, a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor (QSD8650 – the CDMA version of the QSD8250 in the HD2/Nexus One), 512MB RAM, an 1GB ROM.
The camera crams in 8 megapixels, 720p video recording, and dual LED flash. The EVO 4G has a slightly larger battery than the HD2, an HDMI video output, and even a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chatting. Also on board are 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, and a microSD slot (shipping with an 8GB card). The OS is Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI on top.
The EVO 4G’s most distinctive feature, of course, is its 4G (WiMAX) support. It has a combination of EV-DO Rev. A and WiMAX– the phone makes calls over CDMA and accesses the Internet through EV-DO and WiMAX. This means the EVO 4G might very well become the first non-GSM provider to allow simultaneous voice and data usage.
No word on a specific launch date or pricing yet.
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