There are a couple of pretty huge differences, though. First, instead of the tiny Photon 4G, you’ll need to invest in the $89 Hub Burst, a unit that combines a router and modem in one. It plugs into the wall like how most routers would, but you don’t need to run a cable into it. Instead, the Hub Burst connects to the same WiMAX network as its mobile counterpart. In this way, you are best advised to put the Hub Burst as close to a window as possible.

Second, while the mobile plans provide you with 500MB of free data each month, the home plan will give you 1GB of free data for free. That’s a nice little top-up, but realize that 1GB won’t go that far with your regular home web traffic unless you’re really light with your usage. Thankfully, they offer pretty great upgrade plans too, starting at $10 a month for a 10GB cap. You can also pay for faster speeds, bumping up from the complimentary 1.5Mbps to get a much better 8Mbps at $19 a month.

Check the FreedomPop home Internet page to see if you have service in your area. They’re not going to have LTE up and running until at least Q3, so it’s still worthwhile to consider this unit in the meantime. You can always upgrade, after all.

[Source]

The post Free Home Internet from FreedomPop Officially Launches appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

And then I came across FreedomPop, which has only been in beta for the last little while. The kicker here is that I don’t have to pay a dime; FreedomPop gives out 4G wireless Internet for free, including providing you with a mobile hotspot. To give them a try, I ordered the FreedomPop Photon 4G mobile hotspot and here are my impressions.

What Is FreedomPop?

Backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, FreedomPop aims to provide Americans with free Internet access. The “free” account is limited to just 500MB a month (you can pay for more), but it is free. All you have to do is get the USB dongle or the mobile hotspot, but both of those are free too; you just have to put down a (refundable) security deposit. On paper, this sounds better than the NetZero 4G offering which only provides 200MB/month for a first year and you have to buy a wireless device from them.

The FreedomPop Photon 4G mobile hotspot is exactly the same as the CLEAR Spot Voyager, except it has been re-branded. This is because FreedomPop is an MVNO that is currently utilizing the CLEAR WiMAX network. What this means is that while you get “4G WiMAX” speeds, coverage is not nearly as good as the majors. Thankfully, FreedomPop has signed a deal to use the Sprint LTE network and they should be rolling that out some time in 2013.

Setup and Configuration

So, what about the Photon 4G itself. It’s actually a lot smaller than I expected, measuring about half the size of a modern smartphone at about 2.6″ x 2.6″ x 0.5″. There’s a 1830mAh battery inside that’s reportedly good for up to six hours of continuous use. It has a range of up to 100 feet and can connect with up to eight Wi-Fi devices simultaneously.

There are three indicator lights on the front: Power, Wi-Fi, and 4G. In case you ever forget what any of the colors mean, there is a handy guide printed on the back of the Photon. The power light, for instance, is solid green when the battery is close to full, changing to amber and finally red as it starts to drain.

The setup process couldn’t be easier. Also printed on the back of the device is your default SSID and password. You turn on the Photon 4G by holding the power button, give it a minute to start up, and then connect to it with your smartphone, tablet, laptop or whatever other WiFi-enabled device the way you would connect to any access point. Assuming you have 4G signal, you are now connected to the web.

The Mobile Admin Page

The Photon 4G acts more or less like a regular router, so after connecting to it, you can use your mobile browser and enter 192.168.1.1 to get to the mobile admin page.

This is significantly stripped down from what you’d get from your wireless router at home, but you do have access to all the basics that you need. This includes monitoring the battery level and 4G signal, as well as easily changing the SSID and password (which you’ll probably want to do). Curiously, you cannot access your FreedomPop account from here to see how much data you have consumed. This can become troubling if you’re getting close to your quota and run the risk of overage fees.

Coverage and Speed Tests

So, how does this perform in the real world? It’s a bit of a mixed bag. I had previously borrowed my friend’s T-Mobile 4G hotspot and I had coverage just about everywhere I went. Speeds were generally very good too. FreedomPop is a little different.

My testing took me from Bellingham to the edge of Seattle in Washington state. I did not have any 4G signal between the US-Canada border and Bellingham, but I did pick up a signal when I got into town. It was mostly fine when I was outdoors or near a window, but the signal did begin to fade out when I got into the mall and it fell out entirely when I got into the concrete behemoth known as Costco.

The speed test on the left was performed inside a store in a strip mall in Bellingham. It’s not exactly blazing, but if all you need is some mobile access to e-mail and Facebook, almost 3Mbps is more than adequate. The signal dropped out again as I hit the Interstate, coming back periodically but mostly falling out. It wasn’t until I got to Lynnwood (about 15 minutes north of Seattle) that I got a solid signal again. It was here that I performed the speed test on the right, which is much better at over 6Mbps down and with about half the ping time at 79ms.

I can’t say for certain what the coverage and the speed will be like in your area, but based on my experience, the CLEAR WiMAX network is really only useful when you’re in bigger cities and it’s barely usable in smaller towns. It also has a hard time penetrating dense foliage or buildings and this is likely due the 2500MHz band that it utilizes. It’s good to have some free Internet, but it’s not nearly as reliable as what I was able to get with T-Mobile or AT&T.

Conclusion

Given the price, I suppose I can’t really complain. All I had to do was put down the $100 security deposit and I had a “free” 4G mobile hotspot in my hands. When I was able to get a solid WiMAX signal, the resulting speeds are perfectly adequate for casual use, but it’s getting that solid signal that is such a challenge. I imagine performance with the USB dongle or the iPod touch sleeve would be much the same.

Battery life was pretty close to the claimed six hours, though I wasn’t actively using the connection the whole time. Of course, the Photon was constantly hunting for a 4G signal too. Build quality is good–it has this nice soft finish–and it really couldn’t be any easier to use. I think that FreedomPop is really onto something here, but it just won’t do with the CLEAR WiMAX network. I look forward to what Sprint’s LTE network can bring, but until then, I would not recommend relying on the FreedomPop 4G as your primary mobile Internet service.

The post FreedomPop Photon 4G Mobile Hotspot Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

According to the news, WiMAX will continue to expand through 2012, so if you already have something like the HTC EVO 4G, you’re still good for another couple of years. By the end of 2012, Sprint’s WiMAX coverage will be able to provide service to about 120 million people across the country. However, they won’t be expanding any further beyond that and, presumably, they’ll start to scale back on support in the enusing years.

Right around that same time frame, Sprint will start rolling out its 4G LTE coverage. The deployment will start around the middle of next year and will be “largely completed” by 2013. Sprint plans on picking up some more spectrum to supplement the existing 1900MHz spectrum, like some 1600MHz spectrum through the LightSquared deal. They’ll also use Clearwire’s 2500MHz spectrum if it needs it too. By the end of 2012, Sprint expects to have LTE covered for 123 million and that grows to 250 million by the end of 2013.

As if the WiMAX and LTE transitions weren’t enough, Sprint looks like it’s going to phase out iDEN in favor of CDMA PTT instead, completing the migration by 2013. The push tech could also be used for push-to-text, push-to-Facebook, and so on, since they’re calling the push-to-talk Android app a “gamechanger.”

So, the long and the short of it is that while WiMAX will be fine and dandy for another couple of years, you should realize that LTE is just around the corner for Sprint. In any case, the iPhone 4S supports neither, but at least Sprint gives you $10 unlimited data on that.

The post Sprint to Kill WiMAX in Favor of 4G LTE appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The official Google phone is now rocking some 4G connectivity… depending on your exact definition of what it means to have 4G. The Google Nexus S has been available since December of last year, but the American version only played friendly with T-Mobile’s bands. That’s changed, since Sprint has picked up its own version in the form of the Samsung Nexus S 4G.

Just like its T-Mobile compatible counterpart, the Sprint version has pretty much the same feature set. You still get Android 2.3 Gingerbread out of the box in a vanilla form; no TouchWiz or carrier-specific skinning here. You also get that four-inch Contour Display (Super AMOLED, none of that S-LCD stuff), as well as a 5MP rear camera, 1GHz processor, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GPS, and NFC tech.

This is the fourth “4G” phone to launch through Sprint and the 20th 4G device overall in the carrier’s lineup. They’re going to have to bring in the heavy firepower now that T-Mobile and AT&T are combining into a Devastator-sized mega-provider. Then again, given the pending rise of dual core smartphones, is a 4G “vanilla Google” experience enough?

Maybe. Maybe not. In any case, the Nexus S 4G is set to hit Sprint this spring for $199.99 on a new two-year contract.

[Sprint]

The post Samsung Nexus S 4G Offers Pure Google Experience to Sprint appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This is an invitation-only event and it is here that we’ll be able to “see what Sprint has up its sleeve.” Not surprisingly, CEO Dan Hesse is going to be there, but Sprint isn’t coming forward with any more specific details. It’s possible that they’re announcing that the newly revealed CDMA iPhone 4 is on its way to Sprint, but that’s not exactly an industry first. Verizon beat them to that punch.

So, this leaves me with a couple of possibilities. On the one hand, it’s possible that Sprint has managed to lock down the first 4G-equipped iPhone, working with Sprint’s WiMAX network. It’s also possible that the CDMA iPad is coming to Sprint. Going even further, there might even be a WiMAX iPad for all I know.

Then again, it might have absolutely nothing to do with Apple at all. Is there a secret Android phone that was not being shown off at CES? And what on Earth does David Blaine have to do with this thing?

The post Sprint to unveil CDMA iPad with WiMAX on February 7? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Using the last major news day of CES as a platform to garner some early attention for that event, Samsung’s mobile business President, JK Shin, said that eyes should be on Samsung February 13^th for an announcement on dual-core smartphones and new tablets. Perhaps feeling a bit sheepish for showing up to the CES tablet fight with a tablet-PC hybrid, Samsung seems quick to let the market know that they still have some artillery in store for the next big show.

Saying Samsung is “in a position to supply 4G smartphones and tablets to all the carriers in the US”, Shin said, indicating that they would provide hardware capable of running on both LTE and WiMAX 4G networks.

Unsurprisingly, Shin pointed to increasing growth in the smartphone market indicating they expected the market to continue to grow over 2011 as feature phone sales taper off. They also expect the tablet market to grow but at the sake of lower-end laptop and netbook sales.

[PC Mag]

The post Expect dual-core smartphones and tablets from Samsung at Mobile World Congress 2011 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Just because you want to join in on the all the tablet fun doesn’t mean you need to break the bank. I’ve never heard of Enspert before, but the company’s new line of Android tablets just might catch your eye.

Announced at CES 2011, the IDENTITY line of tablets from Enspert are supposed to bring affordability to the Android realm without sacrificing much in functionality or quality. If you only need WiFi, you can get the IDENTITY tab E201, for example.

Adding 3G to the mix is the IDENTITY E301, while the E302 does the WiMAX thing for Europe and Asia. Both the E301 and the E302 come preloaded with Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Yeah, there’s no Honeycomb here, but you knew you had to sacrifice somewhere.

Enspert is based out of Korea and they didn’t offer anything in terms of pricing in the press release. They do mention that the E201 will be ready in early 2011 with the E301 following up “shortly after.” They plan on offering that through “a leading US wireless carrier in time for the 2011 back-to-school season” too.

[Enspert]

The post Enspert Identity tablets with Android, WiMAX, affordability appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Having a mobile hotspot is pretty useful when you’re traveling across the country with your laptop (and iPad) in tow. Having a mobile hotspot capable of latching onto the 4G WiMAX network from Sprint is even better, and that seems to be happening with the Novatel-sourced Sprint 3G/4G MiFi 4082 pictured here.

At least we think it’s a real product shot and not some enthusiast’s attempt at PhotoShop. As you can imagine, the new MiFi will work in much the same way as the countless other MiFi devices that have now infiltrated the market. You turn it on, it connects to the cellular network, and you get WiFi access to the interweb on your preferred mobile device.

Aside from the obvious appeal of 4G connectivity, it’s also nice that the MiFi 4082 looks a little sleeker than the current plain plastic numbers making their way through most other carriers. It looks like you’ll get some brushed aluminum and a shiny chrome bezel, assuming this photo holds true. The indicator lights above the power button don’t look too bad either.

No word on price or availability, of course, but the Sprint 3G/4G MiFi 4082 has reportedly finishing jumping through the hoops at FCC, so it should be in the clear any day now. You know, assuming Sprint is ready to go.

[Engadget via ]

The post First look at Sprint 3G/4G MiFi 4082 from Novatel appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Maybe you’re digging the higher speeds afforded by Sprint’s WiMAX network. Maybe you want to get ino on the action with a QWERTY-equipped smartphone and the Samsung Epic 4G isn’t exactly your cup of tea. If that’s the case, it looks like you’ll soon be in luck with the HTC EVO Shift 4G.

Despite its name, this isn’t really a slightly modified version of the existing HTC EVO 4G from Sprint. Instead, it gets a slightly smaller 3.7-inch display. As a trade, you gain a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which will satisfy folks like me who prefer hardware keyboards over virtual touchscreen ones. The rest of the specs are similar to the T-Mobile G2, including the 800MHz processor under the hood.

According to the early rumors, the HTC EVO Shift 4G for Sprint will come preloaded with Google Android 2.2, but since the Nexus S has been outted with the new 2.3 Gingerbread action, it’s possible that the newer OS will find its way onto the EVO Shift 4G before launch. Chalk this up to an unconfirmed leak for now, but it’s looking pretty promising.

[Gizmodo, Android Central via Sprint Users]

The post HTC EVO Shift 4G for Sprint gets slide-out QWERTY keyboard appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The idea from Sprint, it seems, is to start luring “traveling enterprise users away from notebooks.” By tempting them with tablets, Sprint has another way to cash in on their wireless data needs. In reference to tablets, Sprint president of business markets group Paget Alves did say that he couldn’t “think of anything that’s moved this quickly.”

The exact details of the upcoming 4G tablet have not been revealed, but Alves does mention that they are moving beyond just the Android platform for tablets. In the context of business, they might be going with a Windows 7 tablet, for example. Perhaps more interestingly, it’s possible (though unlikely) that a Sprint-exclusive version of the RIM PlayBook could be rocking WiMAX.

For now, Sprint only has the Galaxy Tab from Samsung on its shelves, but Alves fully expects to pick up several from the “at least 12 different tablets” being unveiled at next month’s CES in Las Vegas.

[Fierce Wireless]

The post Sprint 4G tablet being placed for 2011 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.