The assumption is that AT&T has built up a strong enough infrastructure with its LTE network to now support the increased load necessary to handle its GoPhone prepaid service too. This support will open up next week on June 21st. If you’re a GoPhone user and you have an LTE-compatible device, you should be able to connect starting then.

If you’re on the GoPhone service (or want to sign up) and don’t have an LTE device, AT&T is helping with that too. The budget-oriented Samsung Galaxy Express has the looks to stay in line with the Galaxy line but at a more affordable price. Selling for $249.99 sans contract, the Galaxy Express has a 4.5-inch WVGA AMOLED display, 1.5GHz dual core processor, 5MP camera and 8GB of storage.

As far as the LTE-compatible GoPhone plans go, they all include international texts from the US to Canada, Mexico and about 100 other countries. The cheapest plan is $25/month for 250 minutes, but you need to tack on $5 for 50MB of data. Going through 50MB on LTE is really fast, so you might consider the higher plans. For $40/month, you get 200MB, 500 anytime minutes and additional data at $5/100MB. The highest plan is $60/month and it has 2GB of data with unlimited calling. Add more data at a rate of $10 per gig.

[Source]

The post AT&T GoPhone Prepaid Getting Access to 4G LTE Network Next Week appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Sprint has also started to roll out more 4G LTE coverage in other cities across the United States too, including New York City and Washington, DC, as well as some parts of the state of New York, plus select cities in Florida like Jacksonville, Miami and Tampa. The San Francisco coverage has been spotty at best, so hopefully this added rollout will help. That said, Sprint isn’t ready for a full commercial launch until they can get “a density of sites to indicate that our customers should consistently have a great 4G LTE experience,” according to company spokesperson Kelly Schlageter.

You can check the Sprint website directly for coverage maps to see if you’ve got any 4G LTE happening in your area. As this coverage expands, the secondary hope is that FreedomPop–which uses the Sprint network–can make the leap from WiMAX to LTE too. Sprint has indicated that it is slightly behind its original goal of “near nationwide” LTE by the end of 2013, but they should have coverage for 250 million Americans by early next year.

[Source]

The post Sprint 4G LTE Coverage Expands in SF, New York, DC and Florida appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

4G LTE: It’s fast, it’s reliable, and it’s hitting the world by storm. However, this doesn’t mean anything to a potential new 4G user when competing mobile networks are touting their complicated 4G data plans that stand upon precarious usage policies. Because of this, finding a valuable 4G service has so far not been so easy.

MetroPCS hopes to change this, and have since brought out a range of simpler 4G plans, and what’s more is that the prices are relativity low without any strange usage limits or barriers stopping 4G data usage.

The first of the range offers full unlimited 4G data, texts and calls for just $60 a month, and nothing more. In the mid-range MetroPCS is offering unlimited everything with the first 2.5GB at 4G speeds for just $50, and at only $40, the same is being offered but with a 500MB 4G limit.

This does seem to sound a lot easier to understand than a few deals out there, but would you choose it over your current provider?

[Source]

The post A simpler outlook on 4G LTE from MetroPCS appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Christmas comes early for 29 new Verizon markets that now have LTE services turned on in their area. Adding the new markets to the list, Verizon now covers 470 markets with 4G LTE technology. To put that into perspective, the next biggest competitor is AT&T with just 146 LTE markets.

While this latest LTE push has been in the pipeline for a while now, it is exciting to finally see the new LTE markets go live.

Here’s the full list of newly added markets:

• Hastings, Neb
• Kearney, Neb
• McCook, Neb
• Oskaloosa, Iowa
• Mason City and Charles City, Iowa
• Marshalltown, Iowa
• Clarksburg, West Virginia
• Farmington, NM
• Gallup, NM
• Prewitt, NM
• Flagstaff and Williams, AZ
• Casa Grande, AZ
• Prescott and Prescott Valley, AZ
• Saddlebrook, AZ
• Payson, AZ
• Ruidoso, AZ
• Mayer, AZ
• Sedona and the Village of Oak Creek, AZ
• Cottonwood, AZ
• Lamar, CO
• LaJunta, CO
• Price, UT
• Richfield, UT
• Klamath Falls, OR
• Roseburg, OR
• Sutherlin, OR
• Kennewick, WA
• Pasco, WA
• Richland, WA
• Port Angeles, WA
• Sequim, WA
• Port Townsend, WA

Do you live on one of the markets in the list, if so do you plan to rush out and get a 4G LTE-equipped device in time for Christmas, or not?

[ source ]

The post Verizon Launches 4G LTE In 29 New Markets, Just in Time for the Holidays appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Did you miss the Black Friday deal on this phone? No problem, because you can still pick up the awesome Nokia Lumia 920 for just seventy bucks if you pick it up from Amazon right now.

This is the AT&T-locked version of the Nokia Lumia 920, so it can take full advantage of their 4G LTE network for faster downloads and smoother web surfing. As you probably already know, the Lumia 920 is the flagship Windows Phone 8 device from Nokia and is the company’s best selling phone in years. There’s a 4.5-inch ClarBlack OLED display with 332ppi to go along with the dual core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 32GB of internal memory.

Other notable specs include the front-facing 1.2MP f/2.0 camera, the 8MP rear camera with 1080p video capabilities, SkyDrive cloud storage, Wireless-N, Bluetooth 3.0, and GPS navigation. It’s a high-end Nokia phone, so you know the build quality is up to snuff too.

You can find the Nokia Lumia 920 on Amazon.com for $69.99 when you sign up for a qualifying two-year service agreement with AT&T.

The post Nokia Lumia 920 Windows Phone 8 Deal for Just $70 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The LG Nexus 4 is finally here, at least for those that managed to actually get one ordered and didn’t end up with a back order notice. Despite the shortage of devices, it seems that iFixit has managed to get ahold of the phone and have made some pretty interesting observations, including the discovery of what appears to be a 4G LTE chip inside the phone.

That’s right 4G LTE. For those that were bummed at the lack of LTE in the LG Nexus 4, don’t get too excited here. The chip might be present, but it is dormant. The LG Nexus 4 is based on the LTE-equipped LG Optimus G and so the chip ended up in the Nexus 4 re-design of the Optimus G hardware.

The Qualcomm WTR1605L is a seven-band LTE chip. What’s holding it back from working? The chip is said to have no LTE power amplifier and is lacking the 4G LTE antenna that it would need to get an LTE signal. Other discoveries noted by iFixit include that the phone had a repairability score of 7 out of 10 and that the battery is in fact non-removable. From what they’ve seen, attempting to do so is practically impossible without damaging your phone.

Are you planning on purchasing the LG Nexus 4 or does its lack of 4G LTE make you want to consider another phone instead?

Source: iFixIt via the Droid Guy

The post LG Nexus 4 Tear Down Reveals an Unusable 4G LTE Chip Inside appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

You don’t have to wait until Black Friday to get the best deal on a new smartphone. In fact, you can get the DROID RAZR MAXX 4G for just $50, which is a significant savings from the regular price of $749.00.

Not surprisingly, the RAZR MAXX 4G can only be had for the $49.99 asking price if you sign up for a qualifying two-year service agreement with Verizon Wireless. As far as specs, you get a 4.3-inch AMOLED display, 4G LTE capabilities, dual core 1.2GHz processor, and a massive 3300mAh battery that they say will provide up to 21 hours of talk time and up to 380 hours of standby.

Other key features include the 8MP camera with 1080p video, Bluetooth stereo music, 16GB storage, microSD expansion slot, front-facing camera, GPS, and MOTOPRINT for wireless printing to any postscript printer via Wi-Fi. And yes, it’s compatible with the Lapdock 100 for a 10.1-inch netbook-esque experience too, but that’s an optional additional purchase.

You can get the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX 4G on Amazon for $49.99. If you want to go a little bigger, they also have the Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX HD for $199.99 on contract, giving you a 4.7-inch 720p display and Android 4.0 ICS.

The post Motorola DROID RAZR MAXX 4G for just $50 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Continuing with the extra large superphone trend that led to phablets like the Galaxy Note II and LG Intuition, the HTC J Butterfly also has more to offer than just its super-sized Super LCD 3 display. Under the hood is a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor (1.5GHz), a full two gigs of RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSD expansion, 2020mAh battery, Wi-Fi tethering for up to 8 devices, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, HDMI out, and BEATS audio. It also ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, overlaid with HTC Sense 4+.

The camera on the back looks like it’s going to be really good too, following in the footsteps of the flagship HTC One X superphone. There’s an 8MP CMOS shooter back there with a wide F2.0 aperture for better low-light performance. There’s also a front-facing 2MP camera for video chats and self portraits. All of this is housed in a phablet that’s just 9.1mm thick and 140 grams.

That’s all good news, except it comes with one giant caveat. It appears that the J Butterfly is being offered exclusively in Japan via KDDI. It’ll use their 4G LTE network that is capable of download speeds of up to 75Mbps. HTC might offer a variant to other markets eventually, but the Japanese model will ship in early December in your choice of black, white or red.

[Source]

The post HTC J Butterfly 5-Inch Android Phablet Rocks 1080p Display appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

You might say that UK didn’t miss the bus for 4G LTE, but they certainly were late. Just now we are seeing LTE speeds with the EE network, and the rest of the carriers are still many months away from 4G LTE speeds. That being said, the United Kingdom is determined not to be late to the party again.

The “5G Innovation Centre” is now being set up at the University of Surrey to help push forward mobile broadband speeds and ensure that UK is one of the first to flip the switch onto higher speed networking next time around.

The government will put up £11.6 million (roughly $18.6 million) in funding for the effort, but it doesn’t end there. Several companies like Samsung, Telefonica, Fujitsu and others are also pitching in for a combined investment of £24 million (around $38.5 million). The hope is that such a large investment will allow the researchers to go behind theoretical looks at 5G and instead will allow them to truly develop and standardize 5G solutions in the near-future.

The 5G technology isn’t just about speed, it will also focus on energy and spectrum efficiency. At least in its earliest form, the goal is to provide around 10Gbps per-tower target, which means connections of about 200Mbps for each connection.

How soon will such tech reach the UK? Considering where they currently stand, it is likely a decade away. Even though there is still a lot of time between 4G LTE and 5G, it is good to see that the UK is being very proactive about making the jump early next time.

[ source ]

The post The UK’s University of Surrey Already Looking Ahead to 5G? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This has now been confirmed by the Verge. If you go out and buy the iPhone 5 from Verizon, assuming that you can find stock, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to hear that the iDevice comes fully unlocked right out of the box. What this means is that you can go ahead and replace that Verizon nanoSIM with one from AT&T or T-Mobile and have it work too. This is particularly useful if you are traveling internationally, because it means that you can pick up a prepaid SIM at your destination and avoid those nasty roaming charges. Of course, many carriers don’t have prepaid nanoSIMs yet, so you may have to break out the scissors and carefully snip the regular SIM or microSIM down to nano-sized proportions.

The good news is that the Verizon iPhone 5 should be fully compatible with the 3G network from AT&T. The bad news is that it won’t work with AT&T’s 4G LTE, since it uses different bands that Verizon. This also means that you’re likely stuck with 2G/EDGE if you pop in a SIM from T-Mobile, though Old Magenta is reportedly rolling out some iPhone-happy 4G HSPA+ coverage in cities like Seattle, Las Vegas and New York.

[Source]

The post No Jailbreak Needed: Verizon iPhone 5 Ships Factory Unlocked for GSM Carriers appeared first on Mobile Magazine.