LTE

AT&T flips the switch on LTE in 15 new markets

After adding five more cities to the list of LTE-covered places and announcing a major expansion of its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network, the nation's second-largest wireless carrier AT&T Mobility on Tuesday announced fifteen new LTE markets across ten U.S. states.

If you live in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Texas, you could be seeing increased download speeds provided AT&T's LTE expanded to your area. Go past the fold for the full breakdown...

Six new cities get the AT&T 4G LTE treatment

AT&T is making good on its promise to blanket the country with its 4G LTE coverage. Earlier this month, the mobile carrier said it plans to spread its service to more than 200 million new customers by the end of 2013. Just last week, AT&T added five more cities to the list of LTE-covered places. Today, the company has announced the addition of six new cities, plus the expansion of service in four more cities, to its list of areas supported by LTE...

T-Mobile planning to leapfrog LTE competition with 3x faster LTE Advanced

T-Mobile is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the United States and also the furthest behind of the four major telcos in terms of deployment of the fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) cellular technology.

You'll recall T-Mobile has only begun testing its LTE last month, ahead of its April 12 iPhone distribution deal with Apple.

Right now, T-Mobile has LTE towers in just seven cities and their coverage plans call for 100 million LTE users by the end of the summer and 200 million by the end of the year.

Despite the slow pace of LTE deployment, the carrier thinks it can do better and take its rivals by surprise by deploying LTE Advanced fast, tapping its existing hardware already in place...

Sprint, Verizon and AT&T announce major LTE expansion

Sprint and AT&T, respectively the nation's third and second-largest wireless carriers, announced availability of their fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio technology in new markets. Sprint confirmed its customers in 21 new markets can take advantage of high-speed cellular downloads, including Los Angeles, Contra Costa County, California, Charlotte, North Carolina, Norfolk, Virginia, and Memphis, Tennessee. AT&T on its part announced it has turned on LTE in Florence, Massachusetts, Cushing, Oklahoma and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Verizon flipped the switch on LTE in two new markets...

I’m sorry Verizon CEO, but you didn’t talk Steve Jobs into bringing LTE to the iPhone

Apple has long been criticized for not making an LTE iPhone at a time when most Android handsets boasted high-speed cellular networking capability. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has come out of the woodwork to take credit for personally persuading Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs to add LTE connectivity to the popular smartphone.

He also shared interesting stats regarding the technology, saying that half of all wireless traffic on Verizon's network is now related to video content. McAdam remarks he's expecting that video will comprise two-thirds of all wireless traffic on the Verizon network by 2017, thanks to the company's capital expenditure in deploying LTE technology. As for his comment regarding an LTE iPhone, I'm not buying it and here's why...

AT&T to light up LTE in 79 new markets by the end of summer

T-Mobile may be two years late to the LTE party, but it has some ambitious rollout plans for its 4G network. In a press release yesterday, the carrier said it hopes to cover 200 million+ subscribers with LTE by the end of 2013.

But not wanting to give up any ground to the Deutsche Telekom-owned company, AT&T announced today some enterprising rollout plans of its own. The carrier says it will add LTE to 79 new markets by the end of the summer...

T-Mobile iPhone carrier bundle is now available for download

We reported last Friday that T-Mobile had begun deploying a special over-the-air (OTA) update which enables support for its LTE, HD Voice, the 4G indicator, Visual Voicemail and other network-related features on the existing (and unlocked) iPhones the company has been hosting on its network.

But soon after, the Deutsche Telekom-owned wireless carrier pulled a support document highlighting all of the changes that the OTA delivered, leading us to believe it prematurely rolled out the update.

Looks like we were right as it's just been reported that both Apple and T-Mobile have officially pushed the carrier bundle (IPCC) to enable LTE and other T-Mobile network service on iPhones...

T-Mobile’s iPhone carrier update is out with support for LTE and Visual Voicemail [updated]

Following up its iPhone 5 pre-order earlier today, T-Mobile has begun rolling out a carrier update to unlocked iPhone customers on its network. The carrier is preparing to officially launch the popular handset next Friday.

We'd heard last week that the OTA (or over the air) update was going to include Visual Voicemail support and LTE support for compatible devices. But it looks like there's more to it then that. Keep reading for the full details...

14 new markets receive AT&T’s LTE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCb6pz0G_gE

Last time we checked, AT&T’s fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio technology covered 288 million people in the United States. Today, the telco is flipping the switch on LTE in fourteen new markets as part of its ongoing network expansion, so that number is bound to go up in the following days.

Unfortunately, AT&T (for now) shows no sign of updating its sales policies to match T-Mobile's new installment payment offering which entices people to buy the iPhone 5 separate of their wireless service for $99 down plus $20 per month over 24 months...

T-Mobile will update your unlocked iPhone 5 with LTE and Visual Voicemail on April 5

This is quite noteworthy. Following a jailbreak hack which purports to make your unlocked AT&T iPhone 5 (model A1428) work on T-Mobile’s LTE by way of loading a custom carrier firmware, a new report claims the Deutsche Telekom-owned wireless carrier itself will be sending out a carrier update designed to officially enable T-Mobile's LTE and Visual Voicemail, among other features, on unlocked GSM devices.

The update is scheduled for delivery beginning April 5, a week ahead of T-Mobile's official April 12 roll-out of its LTE-ready iPhone 5. The patch is good news for AT&T customers looking to jump ship as they won't be required to buy a newly tweaked iPhone 5 model from T-Mobile in order to enjoy T-Mobile's 4G LTE speeds. There's more to know so go past the fold for full details...

Jailbreak hack lets you enjoy T-Mobile LTE speeds on your iPhone 5

Yesterday, iDB reported that T-Mobile's iPhone 5 is actually a factory tweaked version of the existing AT&T model A1428 device, with support for T-Mobile's LTE AWS bandwidths. As a result, existing AT&T customers cannot use their iPhone 5 to take full advantage of T-Mobile's LTE speeds until after the Deutsche Telekom-owned telco launches its iPhone 5 on April 12, at which point Apple will replace the existing A1428 hardware with this re-tooled version.

But a hack has come along claiming to make AT&T's A1428 iPhone 5 - jailbroken and unlocked (officially or unofficially) - work on T-Mobile's LTE on the 1700MHz band. It accomplishes this by using a custom carrier firmware that enables support for T-Mobile's LTE AWS bandwidths. However, it won't make your AT&T device compatible with T-Mobile's speedy 3G DC-HSDPA on the 1700MHz band nor will your Verizon iPhone be fooled into accepting T-Mobile's LTE bands...

T-Mobile testing LTE in major U.S. cities ahead of official launch later this month

With all the necessary regulatory approvals concerning T-Mobile’s merger with MetroPCS under its wings, the Deutsche Telekom-owned carrier is expected to accelerate its 4G LTE plans. It's a tad surprising that T-Mobile has put itself in a position where it remains the sole major U.S. telco without high-speed LTE cellular radio technology.

Be that as it may, its LTE situation is about to change later this month. Just last week, a curious user spotted super-fast data speeds on T-Mobile's network in Astoria, Queens, a New York City suburb.

Shortly after, the carrier officially confirmed that it will begin providing 4G LTE service by the end of this month and now more LTE spots have been discovered in as much as nine major U.S. cities ahead of the official launch...