LTE

Apple expanding LTE support to 36 new carriers next week

iPhone 4s

During Apple's quarterly earnings call yesterday, Tim Cook announced that Apple would be adding 36 additional carriers to the list of compatible LTE providers for its iPhones and iPads next week.

The good news is, Cook says these carriers will be in countries that are not currently supporting LTE. So for those of you who have a 4G iPhone or iPad and don't currently get LTE, be on the lookout...

Sprint rolling out LTE to 28 new markets

Great news today for Sprint subscribers who have been lusting for LTE. The carrier just announced plans for a major expansion of its new 4G network, that will see the service added to 28 new markets over the next few months including Branson, Missouri, and Columbus, Georgia. We've got the full list of cities after the break...

Smartphones top tablets as hungriest data gadgets

For carriers, the name of the game is data consumption. The more data consumed, the more revenue. For observers, data consumption also provides a clue to how new devices are used.

For the first time, smartphones are outpacing tablets as the "hungriest" mobile devices.

In 2011, tablets comprised two out of three of the devices consuming the most data. By 2012, all of the top three mobile devices were smartphones, led by the iPhone 5.

According to Arieso, a European company helping optimize networks to meet changing demand, iPhone 5 users consume four times as much data as the iPhone 3G users, and 50 percent more than the iPhone 4S owners. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S III and the HTC Sensation XL rounded out the most voracious devices in Europe...

Nearly 50% of Verizon’s data traffic travels over LTE

iPhone 4s

Although LTE may not be available in some corners around the world yet, it's certainly taken the US by storm. Three out of our four largest carriers have live LTE networks, and the fourth one, T-Mobile, will have one up shortly.

In fact, Verizon, who was first to market with LTE technology back in 2010, has its 4G network lit up in close to 500 markets. And the company says that it's now seeing nearly 50 percent of its data load travel over that network...

Verizon brings LTE service to 29 more markets

Carrier Verizon Wireless Thursday morning announced another wave of expansion, bringing its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network to 29 more markets in the United States, including Selma, Alabama; Clarksburg, West Virginia; and Port Angeles, Washington.

With the addition of these 29 cities, Verizon's LTE is now available in 470 markets to more than 250 million people in the United States...

FCC approves AT&T acquisition of WCS spectrum

The Federal Communications Commission made good on its promise this week, and has approved AT&T’s acquisition of licenses to the underutilized 2.3GHz WCS spectrum from Comcast, Horizon, NextWave and others. In all, the licenses cover 82% of the population, across 608 markets, and the carrier plans to use it to beef up its LTE network...

AT&T’s LTE launches in Green Bay, Springfield, Tucson, Melbourne and Oxford

Another week, another expansion of AT&T's fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network. Having rolled out LTE to customers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Nashua, New Hampshire and Grand Rapids last week, the Dallas, Texas-headquartered US wireless company Tuesday morning announced the addition of five new LTE markets.

Customers in Green Bay, Springfield, Tucson, Melbourne and Oxford should start seeing AT&T's LTE on supported devices. These latest additions expand the carrier's LTE coverage to 125 metropolitan markets. By contrast, rival Verizon Wireless claims 470 LTE-enabled markets...

AT&T adds 7 more cities to its LTE network

Following T-Mobile's lead, AT&T has just expanded its high-speed network to 7 new markets. Earlier this week, the carrier launched LTE in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Nashua, New Hampshire, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. And now it's available in Reno, Nevada and a handful of other cities...

UK’s Everything Everywhere announces LTE expansion to 17 new markets by March 2013

Everything Everywhere (EE), a joint venture between Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile and France Télécom’s Orange, launched UK's first commercial 4G LTE network on October 30 and today the company has announced a network expansion to seventeen new markets in the country, to be finished by March of next year.

The carrier powers UK's sole 4G LTE network so would-be iPhone buyers should be delighted to learn that its 4G density is “being increased on a daily basis"...

iPhone 5 helps Apple grab a quarter of the world’s LTE device market

In less than three months the iPhone 5 has been available, Apple has laid claim to more than 26 percent of the LTE device market.  While rival Samsung still is the LTE leader, its position fell by nearly 11 percent following the iPhone 5's September 21 launch, researchers say.

Smartphones from by Apple and Samsung are leading an explosion in LTE use. While 2011 ended with nine million 4G subscriptions, 2012 will exit with fifty million LTE users, according to Strategy Analytics. Asia appears to be a hotspot for LTE use, the research firm noted...

AT&T’s 4G LTE goes live in Wilkes-Barre, Nashua and Grand Rapids

Carrier AT&T this morning announced an expansion of its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) radio technology to three new markets. Beginning today, customers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Grand Rapids, Michigan should start seeing greater download and upload speeds when using LTE-enabled smartphones, tablets and other devices on AT&T's network.

Although Consumer Reports ranks AT&T the worst of major US telcos in terms of customer satisfaction and voice/data service quality, it's also the nation's leading LTE carrier overall even though in terms of coverage AT&T trails Verizon, which claims the nation's most robust 4G network...

AT&T’s LTE now available in Albuquerque, Reading, Salt Lake City and Puerto Rico

AT&T, the nation's leading carrier, Monday morning announced its fourth-generation Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network is now available in Albuquerque, Reading, Salt Lake City and Puerto Rico markets, with the latter including Yauco, San German -Cabo Rojo and Guayama. Consumer Reports last week ranked AT&T worst of major U.S. carriers when it comes to voice and data service quality.

However, AT&T emerged as the nation's leading carrier in terms of LTE deployment, though Verizon still has the most robust 4G network. AT&T doubled its LTE coverage in 2012, which as of mid-November covered more than 150 million people in a total of 103 markets. And as part of the ambitious $14 billion LTE network expansion project, AT&T’s LTE will expand to 250 million people by year-end 2013 and to 300 million by year-end 2014...