AT&T 4G LTE Goes Live In Four More Cities

Fast indeed just got a little faster for AT&T customers in four more cities across the U.S. LTE is now live in the following cities:

• Tucson, AZ
• Melbourne, FL
• Springfield, MA
• Green Bay, WI

Do you live in one of these areas or an area surrounding it? If so, let us know what kind of speeds you’re getting now that sweet LTE service is live in those areas.

MetroPCS announced upgrade Samsung Admire 4G, available for $169

Today MetroPCS has refreshed their Samsung Galaxy Admire, adding 4G LTE, a better screen, more processor power, and a bigger battery. It features a 3.65-inch TFT display, 1GHz CPU, and a 3MP camera. For $169 without a contract, though, that’s not too shabby. It does come preloaded with Android 2.3, which is likely to be a deal breaker for some. MetroPCS offers a service called joyn that supposedly integrates all of your mobile communications in one place, which is a neat idea. If you’re interested, hit the break for the press release.

Nexus 4 has functional LTE (in Canada)

I’m sure we’re all aware of the Nexus 4′s lack of LTE, and some of us are more than a little disappointed about it. Well, depending on what carrier you’re on and what part of the world you live in, we’ve got good news for Nexus 4 owners and potential buyers. Thanks to our Canadia friends, we’ve some videos of the Nexus 4′s hidden LTE chip working on the Telus network with a simple carrier menu code.

It’s a simple tweak that only involves dialing *#*4636#*#* and changing the preferred network type to LTE. Now, here’s the bad news; this only works if your carrier uses band 4 LTE. Reports are that it isn’t working in the UK, or on AT&T’s LTE network. T-Mobile customers are in luck, as that is exactly the type of LTE T-Mobile will be rolling out soon.

Any Canadian Nexus 4 owners having luck trying this out?

source: Engadget

Verizon now offering Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 for $499

Samsung and Verizon announced today the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 will be available for $499 through Verizon, fully equipped with LTE. The specs are similar to the WiFi version we’ve already reviewed, but it does come with a little less memory and is likely to be slightly heavier to account for the cellular radios. It packs a dual-core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal memory, and a 7000 mAh battery under the 10.1 inch HD screen.

The $499 is the retail price, as Verizon no longer offers tablet subsidies. Not a bad tablet to add to your Verizon plan, but it’s not going to blow you away, either. Anyone planning on picking up one of these?

source: Verizon Wireless

AT&T Announces $14 Billion Network Expansion

AT&T announced it will invest $14 billion to expand its wireless and wireline broadband networks. AT&T cited anticipated expansion of IP data growth and new services. The wireless giant plans to expand its 4G LTE network to cover 300 million people by the end of 2014. It had previously planned to cover 250 million LTE customers by the end of 2013. Hopefully customers will not see any new mystery charges to cover this expenditure.

The huge financial investment is great news for those waiting for LTE coverage but it’s the company’s wireline broadband services that will see the biggest expansion. AT&T expects to increase its wired IP broadband network to cover 75% of its customer locations. It will also increase fiber deployment to an additional million business customers.

Hit the source for a detailed breakdown of the planned investment.

Source: AT&T

Sprint to launch LTE Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 November 11th

November 11th will be a busy day for the folks at Sprint. About three weeks ago, Sprint announced four new LTE devices to be added to their stable, one of them being the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1. Today we’re learning that the LTE-enabled Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 will launch on November 11th for $549.99 on a month-to-month plan. You can check out our review of the 10.1 here, but for a quick recap, here are some of the vitals:

• Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich
• 1.5 GHz dual-core processor (Qualcomm MSM8960 chipset)
• 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 display
• 1 GB RAM, 8GB ROM and microSD card slot
• 3G / 4G LTE mobile hotspot capability supporting up to 10 Wi-Fi enabled devices simultaneously
• Face Unlock uses state-of-the-art facial recognition technology to allow the user switch on the phone and look at it to get past the lock screen – no passwords to remember, nothing to type or swipe
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n

Are there any Sprint customers that are lucky enough to be within range of LTE service that may be eying this device?

MetroPCS hits the 1 million LTE customer mark, makes $193 million profit in third quarter

In news that I’m sure will be pleasing to T-Mobile, MetroPCS has hit the one million mark in subscribed LTE customers (about 11% of its customers) and have also turned a profit of $193 million, even though they lost over 300,000 customers in the third quarter. How does one manage to turn such a profit while losing so many customers? MetroPCS credits “cash-saving exercises”, timely investments, and reducing a top priority of cell companies – churn. I’m sure a lot of MetroPCS and T-Mobile customers alike are wondering what the merger has in store for them. Hopefully it’ll end up benefitting the customer in some form or fashion.

source:  MetroPCS

EE Announces Additional Rollout Of 4G LTE Service To 11 Additional Markets

It’s no secret that 4G LTE has been a luxury only to a select few in the UK, but now more customers will be able to get in on the action thanks to wireless carrier EE. It has announced it will launch the incredibly fast network service to its customers in 11 markets including Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton. While that’s a major start, EE doesn’t stop there as it has announced it plans to bring 4G LTE service to an additional 5 markets by year’s end. This means that those of you who plan on owning the Galaxy S III or HTC One XL will have a lot to look forward to— especially since you’ll likely be taking advantage of cutting edge features like streaming high-quality audio or video and the ability to access much more content or download faster on the go.

Sprint announces 22 new LTE-enabled cities

Today Sprint has unveiled a whopping 22 new LTE enabled cities. These cities are:

• San Francisco, CA, San Mateo-Redwood City, CA
• Cape Coral-Ft Meyers, FL
• Dyersburg-Union City-Martin, TN
• Emporia, KS
• Fort Wayne, IN
• Greenwood, MS
• Joplin, MO
• Kokomo, IN
• Lafayette/West Lafayette, IN
• Lexington Park, MD
• Marion, IN
• Napa, CA
• Naples-Marco Island, FL
• Ottawa-Streator, IL
• Punta Gorda, FL
• Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
• Sarasota-Bradenton, FL
• Sebring, FL
• South Bend-Mishawaka, IN
• Terre Haute, IN
• Vallejo-Fairfield, CA
• Warsaw, IN

Anyone living in any of these cities notice LTE speeds on their LTE enabled device yet? If so, let us know what speeds you’re getting!