Archive for: rollout
T-Mobile USA’s future may be up in the air as we await the various government committees’ decisions regarding an AT&T take over, but that hasn’t stopped T-Mobile’s will to fight. Today, the nation’s fourth largest carrier announced the addition of 10 new cities to T-Mobile’s HSPA+ network:
- Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado
- Lawrence and Manhattan, Kansas
- Battle Creek, Benton Harbor, and Jackson, Michigan
Also announced today, T-Mobile confirmed their impending release of 42Mbps service in a handful of markets by mid-2011. Said markets include Las Vegas, New York, and Orlando. By late 2011, Chicago and northern New Jersey are scheduled to join the 42Mbps HSPA+ party as well. Guess they’re going out with a bang, huh?
How about some high speed lovin’? No, not that lovin’…I’m talking about LTE lovin’. Specifically, Verizon’s LTE network. Though other carriers may with to contest, Verizon’s LTE rollout will bring one of the largest and fastest (to the tune of 50Mbps peak downloads/ 25Mbps peak uploads) mobile networks to 25-30 lucky markets by later this year. So far, real world speeds in the test cities of Boston and Seattle have seen 5-12Mbps download speeds — still nothing to shake a stick at by any stretch. According to VZW, those 25-30 markets make up roughly 1/3 of the US population. Unfortunately, my little northern Indiana town won’t be included — initially anyway.
But it gets better! We could see a massive country-wide LTE network in play as soon as 2013…
You know, I’ve always wanted to travel the world, see the sights, and meet new people. Maybe, just maybe I’ll take a pitstop in NZ sometime around 2020. The reason? Fiber.
Last year, the NZ government set up a plan that will see roughly NZ$1.5 billion invested in a country-wide fiber rollout. One of the best stipulations is that the fiber has to be truly “open” so that any ISP can come in and use it, providing end users with fair competition and choices. When all is said and done, the ending result will ensure Kiwis get access to 100Mb/50Mb down/up service.
It all sounds like a win-win for consumers to me. Fiber, competition, low prices, and oh yeah — speed!
I’ve been hitting the Android news hard the last couple of days and for good reason. Google had plenty to dish out at their I/O conference. This week was indeed a great week for Android fiends. First up on the list, the HTC Vision. What is the vision you ask? Think of it as the HTC Desire — but with a keyboard. As you may know, such a combo is my favorite form factor of choice. Unfortunately, all of the touchscreen + keyboard Android devices that have rolled out so far are mid-range, lackluster units save for of course, the Droid. But that could all change very soon…
4G by way of WiMax is more of niche market here in the US. Currently, the places you can go and consume such speed are few and far between. Coupled with higher costs and relatively little marketing means adoption is slow with no real outlook of a speed increase…
Those crazy ninjas of the VZW underground…. Somehow BGR always gets the low down dirt. Today’s edition of ultra secret news could potentially hit Moto DROID users pretty hard. A new rumor now confirmed development has the Moto DROID 2.1 update that was scheduled to start rolling out day, delayed. According to the source, a last minute bug that wasn’t discovered until late last night/wee hours of the morning is the culprit. I’d be interested to know exactly what the cause for the hold up was. Though in the end, it doesn’t really matter.
Some interesting info can be gleaned when skimming through the comments on BGR however. One comment in particular by a Jason Grier puts the blame not on VZW or Google but on the company who owns the systems that actually “push” out the update. Call me crazy, but I thought VZW would handle something like that? Anyone care to shed some light?
Those waiting rather impatiently for the legit 2.1 upgrade may have another sleepless night or two in store.
BGR
How about some self horn tooting to round out the night, eh? Tonight’s grand display of self love is brought to you by Verizon Wireless. Mind you, their back patting session is could actually be warranted. With AT&T’s less than stellar year, Verizon has been boasting of not only being better coverage wise for 3G, but also being lightyears ahead of the competition when it comes to 4G. Specifically, Verizon claimed that by the end of 2010, 25-30 markets would be fully blanketed with 4G. By 2013: look for the entire 3G footprint to be converted to 4G. Will they deliver?
According to VZW’s CTO, Tony Melone, the 2010 4G goals are “looking better and better each day, not worse”. Well, someone sure is confident aren’t they? Cutting through the PR fluff, VZW does have a robust and massive 3G footprint, so the talk we’re hearing from them now concerning their next gen network is pretty plausible.
If something in the form of a “con” must be taken away from all of this, it’s the simple fact that these early 25-30 4G markets won’t see any form of 4G voice — it’s all data baby. Verizon is up front about it, saying that they’re unsure at the moment if the 4G network will be able to handle both data and voice. Kudos to VZW for not sugarcoating/lying about network capacity. Personally, I never actually “talk” on the phone. Text/email/IM is really the best/only way to get a hold of me. Many people are not like me however and live by the spoken word. Fair enough. Yak it up all you want. Just know that for the foreseeable future, voice traffic on VZW is strictly 3G.
That’s ok though, more 4G goodness for what really matters — data. 
Engadget
- December 18, 2009 7:56 am
T-Mobile’s rollout of 3G continues at break neck pace, blanketing even more swaths of land with 3G goodness. The fine inhabitants of Louisville, Kentucky | Redding, California and Vineland, New Jersey are now free to surf the mobile web much faster than previous GPRS/EDGE coverage allowed. Just think of all the things you can now do with all of that extra speed pumping through the local airwaves. Light it up guys and gals!
IntoMobile > @TMobile_USA
- December 17, 2009 2:32 pm
It’s that time again. Time to look across the deep blue see to lands far away wishing upon a star that we were in that place. The place to wish ourselves to is Japan – the tech hub of the world. It is here where local carrier NTT DoCoMo has begun upgrading their current 3G network to an LTE based 4G network with plans to flip the switch by the end of 2010. Their goal is might speedy mind you as U.S. carriers aren’t set to begin such upgrades until that same time. DoCoMo’s approach is a smart one at that with two plans of attacks. Roughly half of their current 3G towers and stations will simply be upgraded to support the new 4G network while the remaining stations will have a piggy back “remote station” that allows simultaneous 3G/4G support as to allow seamless transition between said services.
The frequency being recruited to carry all of the 4G goodness will take place on the current 2GHz band used by DoCoMo’s 3G network. Though the 4G upgrade will take over half of their available 3G spectrum with future goals of course being a complete transition to 4G technology. Further down the line, the goal is to reach download speeds of 300Mbps and 75Mbps up for all 4G users — *drool*. Overall it’s a rather ingenious plan that will help reduce upgrade costs and maintenance. 4G couldn’t come soon enough.
Electronista
