Novatel’s USB551L LTE modem for Verizon in the wild, does Mac support out of the box
How many dedicated LTE -capable USB modems does Verizon need? At least three, apparently, because we've just been sent shots of Novatel's upcoming USB551L that looks perhaps a tad glossier and sleeker than the Pantech and LG models that have preceded it . Hard to say from the spec sheet here, but it looks like there's at least a chance this is LTE-only without CDMA / EV-DO fallback since there's no explicit mention of it; unlikely considering how small Verizon's LTE footprint is for the time being, but you never know.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: date-or-pricing, entry, from-the-spec, gallery, lte, mac, modems, novatel, Sheet, support, time, usb, usb modem, verizon
Verizon’s LTE details go live: December 5th, 38 markets, 60 airports, and 2 USB modems
Verizon has a press conference lined up in a few minutes to officially drop all these details, but they've thrown their official LTE site live already where you can see almost everything you want to know: chiefly, that the initial 38 markets (and 60 airports) will go live this Sunday, December 5th with two USB modems in tow -- one from LG and another from Pantech. We've already heard all of that in one form or another, but it's nice to see it spelled out officially on Verizon's site. The one crucial detail we're still missing, of course, is plan pricing -- so we anxiously await that here in the next few minutes, but in the meantime, feel free to play with Big Red's LTE coverage locator.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: airports, anxiously-await, breakingnews, engadget, Few Minutes, minutes, modems, officially-drop, result, still-missing, verizon, verizon-wireless
MetroPCS launches LTE network in Las Vegas, Samsung Craft along for the ride
MetroPCS was quite serious when it said it wanted to have commercial LTE up and running in 2010 -- and indeed, it has made good on its word today with an official launch in Vegas.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: breaking-news, cdma, craft, good-on-its, las, lte, metro, metropcs, modems, result, samsung-craft, tables, time
Sprint rolls out 4G-only U1901 USB modem
It seems a little early in the game to be going to WiMAX -only gear when dual-mode EV-DO / WiMAX modems are readily available -- but if you're feeling confident that your town's 4G rollout is rock-solid, you might want to take a crack at Sprint's new U1901 USB stick. Interestingly, it's got an accessory docking cradle (not included) with an external antenna to boost reception a bit if you're in shaky coverage, so you might be able to pull a signal with this setup in places where you otherwise wouldn't -- but still, not having EV-DO as a cushy fallback would take some stones
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: antenna, available-now, data, external, modems, pcd, release, result, sprint, usb
Telus launching North America’s first 42Mbps dual carrier HSPA+ network
Australia's Telstra already claimed the title of World's First on this one, but Telus up in Canada isn't far behind, becoming the first carrier in North America to push HSPA+ up to 42Mbps through the magic of dual carrier technology.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: australia, customers-some, hspa, hspa evolution, landline-modems, magic, modems, modems-at-first, network, north, north-america, press, quarter, release, result
Verizon’s 2010 LTE launch: ‘it’s looking better each day, not worse’
By and large, Verizon hasn't flinched once in its march to LTE -- the proof is obviously going to be in the pudding, but leading up to the first commercial launches, they're talking as confidently as they ever have. Take last weeks Network World interview with the company's CTO Tony Melone, for example, where he's once again reiterated the carrier's intention to bring 25-30 markets live commercially this year and achieve roughly a complete overlay of its 3G network in 2013 . That's nothing new or particularly interesting, but Melone's choice of language is encouraging, saying that they're "ahead of where [they] thought [they'd] be as far as site readiness goes," going on to report that the 25-30 market goal for 2010 is "looking better each day, not worse each day." That's bold, but he got a little less bold when talking about LTE voice: "The question for us will be whether our footprint will be sufficient at that point to provide customers with a good experience for voice over LTE, or whether we'll be better off offering 3G coverage for voice and 4G for data." The hesitation has us believing that an initial round of dual-mode handsets is basically a forgone conclusion, but at least we'll have the modems up and running in the meantime.
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: commercial, experience, footprint, intention, interview, launches, mobile, mode, modems, result, verizon, verizon-wireless, vzw, world
Nokia Siemens, LG hit LTE speed record
What, 43Mbps not good enough for you? Well, clean room testing doesn't really say much about what kinds of data speeds we'll be seeing in the real world -- but for what it's worth, LG and infrastructure joint venture Nokia Siemens have announced that they've hit a new speed record for an LTE Class 3 device: 100Mbps.
Categories: Mobile Phone, Other Tags: fraction, infrastructure, joint, modems, nokia, nokia-siemens, siemens, speed, speed-record, venture, world
Indonesia’s Smart Telecom deploys world’s first commercial EV-DO Rev. B network
You might think that the world's network operators have already sworn off EV-DO's development path as they move forward on 4G deployments, but that's not quite the case: Smart Telecom -- in the Indonesian isle of Bali, of all places -- has just secured its spot in history as the world's first carrier to roll out EV-DO Rev. B
Categories: Mobile Phone Tags: 1mbps, bali, cdmadevelopmentgroup, deploys-world, engadget, equipment, laptop, laptop-modems, mobile, modems, smart