If you walked up to any non-techie, technologically inept individual and tried to explain why an iPhone on AT&T — regardless of cell signal strength, coverage, etc – is still better than an iPhone on Verizon, they’d probably laugh at you and walk away. At least here in the US, AT&T’s image has become synonymous with sub-par quality, coverage, and performance. Verizon on the other hand has benefited from AT&T’s foibles. On the surface, their brand image has actually increased. Many people look to them as the saving grace of the iPhone in the US.
But there’s one big shortfall of Verizon’s CDMA network that current AT&T iPhone users would miss — simultaneous voice and data. AT&T’s UMTS network supports it. Verizon’s CDMA doesn’t — until now.
The MyTouch HD has been one of the more interesting handsets to follow in recent memory, mainly due to it’s lofty goals and brag-worthy hardware specs. Speaking of which, those specs were only rumored to be beastly as we didn’t really have any real concrete evidence to chew on. But alas, a marketing flyer for the MyTouch HD has slipped, and in doing so raises a few eyebrows.
First and foremost, it mentions a “dual processor”. That likely means “dual-core” as the poor sap writing it probably didn’t have the slightest clue what they were typing. On the other end of the spectrum (read: sure to cause someone to get their britches in a bind), you have T-Mo tossing in “Runs on the nations largest 4G network” as a bullet point. Their HSPA+ network, while fast, is not 4G. A few other carriers have brought up T-Mo’s 4G claims in the past, with said claims not being as bold either. So it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Rounding out the flyer’s list of hardware is 5mp rear/VGA front cameras, video calling over 3G, HSPA, and WiFi, , 4GB built in memory w/ 8GB sd card, and a 3.8″ display (resolution?). We’ll keep following this one. Stay tuned…
LTE is the only thing mobile broadband nuts can focus on. But with promised speeds of 25Mbps+, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, here in the States we have to deal with a lot of landmass which inherently slows down major network upgrades to the point of being several years behind European markets. Though Verizon’s LTE network is rumored to be going live a tad earlier than expected near the end of this summer/early fall. Though that release would not be accompanies with any LTE smartphones initially — mobile broadband cards only for now.
But the fine folks over in Belgium have bigger and better fish to fry. The country’s second largest mobile provider, Mobistar, is testing a small network in the Evere-Diegem zone capable of speeds up to 60Mbps with latency all the way down to 18ms. Compare that to the more or less “standard” mobile network around the rest of the world which hits the pipes at 7.2Mbps down and 70ms latency. Clearly Belgium has some hot stuff in the making.
Currently, there hasn’t been any mention of when this LTE test network will be unleashed to the general public. Though there are a few tasty treats to hold over speed obsessed Belgian by way of a few incremental updates. Starting with 14.4Mbps by the end of this summer, expect speeds to climb to 28.8Mbps by years end. These updates will be rather painless with the majority of cell sites needing nothing more than a software update combined with a little TLC on backhaul lines. After that, they may or may not be another small update or two before the full force of 60Mbps LTE is let loose. Regardless, sitting here in the states with my super not speedy 7.2Mbps HSDPA leaves me yearning for relocation.
Any Belgian readers looking forward to late 2010/early 2011?
4G pundits be dammed, Tmo will have the last laugh…or so they hope. T-Mobile has long been “the underdog” against the other three larger (AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon) carriers in regards to network size, coverage, and even speed. But Tmo is in a unique position to one-up the competition for relatively cheap. Currently, AT&T and Verizon are in the progress of rolling out and testing their next generation LTE-based 4G networks — costly and time consuming network upgrades that will ultimately require all new hardware on the consumers’ end to enjoy.
Meanwhile, Tmo is pushing ahead with their HSPA+ upgrade that piggybacks on their existing HSDPA network. All that will be needed are some minor cell site upgrades. So far, they’re been able to hit 21Mbps in testing (with average real-world speeds hovering around 4-6Mbps down). But a new threshold is coming, with Tmo claiming the new HSPA+ upgrades will push the theoretical limit up to 41Mbps! The best part of it all is that all of Tmo’s HSDPA hardware will be able to work this faster HSPA+ network (albeit, still at their HSPA speeds) meaning $0 upgrade cost to customers. Score!
I’ve been waiting for years for Tmo to climb up to the top. Finally, it looks like their network will finally be boast worthy. If only they’d get some hardware that I really wanted.
Consider me a tad shocked. PhoneScoop ran some tests comparing Sprint’s new WiMax network against T-Mobile’s HSDPA+ network to see who really was the fastest in Philly. After all was said and done, T-Mobile actually came out on top with peak download speeds of 5,442 kbps and 1,888 kbps! Course, very little people are using T-Mo’s HSPA+ network at this point so of course the speeds are going to be up there. On the low end of the spectrum, T-Mo puttered out at 976 kbps down and 938 kbps up, with average speeds sitting right at a rather slick 2,960 kbps down and 1,283 up — still pretty damn decent.
Sprint’s WiMax on the other hand topped out at 4,066 kbps/978 kbps down/up with low end speeds falling all the way to 748 kbps / 60 kbps down/up. Sprint’s Wimax range is somewhat disheartening, though it all averages out to a more respectable 2,785 kbps down and 589 kbps up. Still as stoked with 4G?
It’s worth highlighting that in the 6 locations tested around Philly, speeds did vary quite a bit. As such, when expanding to a national scale (in the few markets Sprint’s WiMax and T-Mo’s HSPA+ are available), speeds will fluctuate fairly often and in pretty large amounts. So don’t get too bummed when you’re not hitting 5.5Mbps down.
First it was Verizon. Now it’s T-Mobile. AT&T just can’t stay happy, can they? Instead of Christmas cheer, raindeer, and dudes with glowing noses mocking Big Blue, it is T-Mobile ruffling a few of AT&T’s stiff feathers. The reason for distress: AT&T is unhappy with T-Mobile labeling their HSPA+ rollout as offering “4G-like speeds”.
It almost seems like a new Android device is caught, spied, or released on a weekly, if not daily basis. Being an Android junkie myself, I certainly have no problem with this. Especially considering a new, Android slider is in the making…
At first, it seemed like Dell’s ambitions with Android were lackluster at best. So far, what they’ve shown us was drawing nothing but yawns on my end. However, the tides changed quite drastically today with the unveiling leak of the Android-powered “Thunder”. A cousin of the Windows Phone 7 “Lightning”, the Thunder aims to usher in the next generation of Android on all new, classy looking hardware. And yes, the body the Thunder is rocking is helluva sexy.
But as much as we like them, looks aren’t everything. And that’s perfectly fine as far as the Thunder’s concerned…
Regardless of your opinion on Windows Mobile, you have to admit that the HTC HD2 — all 4.3″ of it’s glass faced frontal beauty — is a drop dead gorgeous phone. Currently however, US citizens are left without any official channels to pick up a subsidized or even a US version of the device. That’s all set to change in the not too distant future.
A video (below) showing a new “2.0.1″ ROM showcases among other things, a very familiar magenta boot image that goes “Stick Together” — a TMO slogan. And this isn’t the Euro-TMO slogan mind you, but the burly chested American verison.
Without any official confirmation from TMO or HTC, this technically is still nothing more than a rumor. But with a boot image showing a US based GSM carrier in full garb as well as countless other murmurings and rumors that have centered around this very same device and carrier pairing make it a rumor that is hard to discredit.
We can pretty much bet on seeing this soon, 1H 2010 for sure.
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If you walked up to any non-techie, technologically inept individual and tried to explain why an iPhone on AT&T — regardless of cell signal strength, coverage, etc – is still better than an iPhone on Verizon, they’d probably laugh at you and walk away. At least here in the US, AT&T’s image has become synonymous with sub-par quality, coverage, and performance. Verizon on the other hand has benefited from AT&T’s foibles. On the surface, their brand image has actually increased. Many people look to them as the saving grace of the iPhone in the US. 
