While Apple has been busy bragging about the fact that its new Series 3 smart watch has integrated cellular communication capabilities — meaning you don’t need to connect it with your phone anymore — just before it starts shipping those devices, the company is admitting that they’re having LTE connectivity problems. [More]
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Apple Pushes Out Update To Fix Verizon Customers’ iPhone Connection Issues
By 10.17.16
Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless users complained that they were experiencing connection issues with the newly released iPhone 7. In an attempt to fix this issue, Apple has just released an update to the iPhone’s operating system.
Study: Ads On The Mobile Web Don’t Just Suck, They Suck Up Valuable Data
By 3.17.16
You’ve got a limited allotment of monthly LTE data to use, so you’re careful with it. You just load up the news and read it — on a reputable website — while waiting for a coffee or the bus, let’s say. And yet at the end of the month you’ve used way more data than you feel like you should have. The culprit? Those annoying ads that get in your way anyway. [More]
Wireless Companies Have A Plan To Make Your Mobile Data Faster And Better… But It Might Break WiFi
By 10.19.15
Over the last couple of years we’ve all finally gotten used to 4G LTE being the mobile standard our phones use… so of course, the next network tech is already in development. The wireless companies’ plans for expanding LTE networks sound simple: piggyback off spectrum that’s sitting right there, available for anyone to use, so the metaphorical pipes can be bigger. Except that could cause big problems for basically all the wireless tech we already use. [More]
T-Mobile Announces Family Plan Promo With More Data Than You Probably Need
By 7.14.15
How much LTE mobile data does your family (or just the unrelated people on your mobile phone plan) really need? 10 GB? 20? 40? It depends on what you do with your mobile device and where you use it, but most people don’t use that much. Today, T-Mobile announced new plans designed to compete with similar offerings from Verizon, but that include more data than most people could need. [More]
Lawsuit From Ericsson Wants To Ban Apple From Importing iPhones, iPads
By 2.27.15
Another day, another lawsuit against Apple: This time around, the company’s facing a lawsuit from Ericsson that seeks to ban imports on all iPads and iPhones amidst a dispute about licensing fees for several patents. [More]
Verizon Expanding LTE Networks, Ever-So-Slowly Doing Away With 3G
By 12.4.14
It’s the end of an era! Or at least, the beginning of a process that will eventually lead to the end of an era. 3G was once the great new hotness that made everyone run out and buy an iPhone, but over the years it’s been left in the dust by faster 4G LTE service. Now Verizon, the country’s largest wireless carrier, has started down the road that will eventually kill off the venerable 3G once and for all. [More]
Make Sure You Get The Right T-Mobile iPhone Or You’ll Get Stuck In The Slow Lane
By 4.15.13
Not all 4G networks are created equal. The iPhone 5 officially hit T-Mobile on Friday, April 12, but not all T-Mobile iPhones are created equal. You can buy a phone from T-Mobile itself, or an unlocked one from Apple that comes with a T-Mobile SIM, but not every iPhone for sale is compatible with T-Mobile’s 4G network. Many customers are going home with an older version that’s not compatible with T-Mobile’s network, defeating the point of owning a 4G LTE device. The problem is that many T-Mobile and Apple Store employees aren’t aware of the difference. [More]
AT&T Decides To Open Up FaceTime Over Cellular To More iPhone Users
By 11.9.12
Facing criticism — and consumer complaints to the FCC — over its decision to limit the non-WiFi use of Apple’s FaceTime video chat app to customers who have shared data plans, AT&T announced yesterday that it will allow folks with the iPhone 5 (but without unlimited data plans) to use the app over its network. [More]
Sprint Scoops Up U.S. Cellular’s Midwestern Airwaves & Its Customers, Too
By 11.7.12
Sprint already explained that even though it’s in third place among U.S. wireless carriers, it meant to get ditched by about 459,000 of its customers in order to move its network from 2G to LTE. And now it’s gained a significant chunk of new customers by buying up a bunch of spectrum and customers from U.S. cellular in a new deal the company just announced. [More]
Sprint Is Upgrading Its Network Here, When Should I Upgrade My Phone?
By 9.13.12
Erica and her family are Sprint customers who are eligible to upgrade their phones in a few months, but they have a dilemma. In the market where they live, Sprint’s 4G service is the older WiMax network. An upgrade to LTE is coming…sometime in the next year. They have their choice of phones that can use one network or the other, but not both. Yes, this is the very definition of a first world problem, but it’s a gamble. Do they choose faster data now and being forced to use 3G after the upgrade comes, or the other way around? [More]
Sprint Customers In Texas & Georgia May Now Have Access To 4G LTE Service
By 7.16.12
With Verizon already touting its 4G LTE roll-out and AT&T claiming that LTE is currently available in 47 markets around the country, third-place wireless competitor Sprint needs to do everything it can to compete. Over the weekend, the company finally flipped the switch on its LTE network, but unless you live in some parts of Texas, Georgia and Missouri, you’ll probably still be waiting. [More]
T-Mobile To Invest Money From AT&T Debacle In LTE Network
By 2.23.12
When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. And when life hands you $4 billion in cash and wireless spectrum because your merger with AT&T couldn’t pass regulatory muster, you build out a 4G LTE network. [More]
CTRL-H Replace, Voila! AT&T's 3G Network Is Now 4G!
By 1.6.11
“AT&T Inc. flipped a switch and turned on its 4G wireless network Wednesday,” reports the WSJ. “The switch, however, was in the company’s marketing department.” Taking advantage of loose definitions for what qualifies as 4G, AT&T has simply relabeled its existing, and much-maligned, 3G network as 4G. [More]
Verizon Wireless May Follow AT&T, Drop Unlimited Data Plans
By 6.22.10
When Verizon Wireless begins to introduce plans for its next generation data network later this year, don’t expect to see any all-you-can-eat unlimited offerings. In an interview with BusinessWeek, the company’s CFO said the company will likely have to change how it bills for data consumption as more data-hungry smartphones and apps enter the marketplace–and that means tiered data plans similar to the ones AT&T has introduced to help control data consumption. [More]
Verizon To Go GSM
By 12.2.07
Verizon’s next generation of devices will run on the GSM network that will be used by AT&T and T-Mobile, meaning that in a few years, customers with unlocked phones will be able to move between the three providers without purchasing new equipment. Verizon currently uses a CDMA network along with Sprint, but last week announced that it would use the GSM-protocol LTE (Long Term Evolution) for their fourth-generation data services. Note, Verizon’s LTE phones will not be backwards-compatible with the current GSM networks run by AT&T and T-Mobile. Both are expected to support LTE. And don’t expect to see the new phones anytime soon…
