Tag Archives: rollout

T-Mobile lights up LTE in seven markets nationwide

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TMobile lights up LTE in seven markets nationwide

T-Mobile's LTE rollout has been a long time coming, but as of today that network is finally live. At an event in New York City, the carrier made its initial batch of LTE cities official -- seven markets in total. Now, subscribers in Baltimore, MD; Kansas City, KS; Houston, TX; Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; San Jose, CA and Washington D.C. will be among the first to take advantage of the UnCarrier's fully-fledged 4G network and its newly revised unlimited talk, text and data plans. As for New York City, a market many assumed would make this first LTE round, CEO John Legere says that's coming soon, mostly likely by early summer. Speeds on this new network, as we saw demoed just a little over a week ago, should range between 10 to 20Mbps down and 8 to 12 Mbps up -- at least, during this intro phase -- with a fallback onto HSPA+ when LTE isn't present. When T-Mobile gets around to repurposing that MetroPCS spectrum it's so close to acquiring, expect to see even more robust LTE speeds and wider coverage across its footprint.

To kick off adoption of this nascent network, T-Mobile's offering up a pretty attractive portfolio of handsets and high-end ones, at that. So Magenta subs or prospective carrier-switchers looking to sign up for T-Mobile's LTE can choose from the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S 4, iPhone 5, Galaxy Note II and BlackBerry Z10 -- that latter two of which are currently available. And now that the UnCarrier's removed the contract chains we've all come to know and loathe, subscribers can opt to snag one of these handsets outright with an accompanying Simple Choice plan. If you're excited by all of this change or just want to see it laid out in the company's official terms, head past the break for official PR.

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Sony Xperia Z rolling out to 60 countries worldwide this week

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Sony Xperia Z review

If you've been salivating at the thought that Sony's latest flagship would eventually arrive on your turf, then Kaz Hirai just threw a teasing softball into your field of view. At Sony's Mobile World Congress press conference, the company chief said that the Xperia Z would soon be arriving in 60 countries across five continents this week. Of course, without any PowerPoint slides showing which locations it'll land in, it's a little tough to confirm or deny where in the world it'll arrive, but at least you can start badgering your local store, right?

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Verizon CFO: LTE rollout should wrap up by mid-2013, months ahead of expectations

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Verizon CFO Fran Shammo

Most of Verizon's strategy talk surrounding its long-term LTE plans has conservatively aimed at upgrading all existing coverage areas to 4G by the end of 2013. If we're to believe a CFO Fran Shammo presentation, the carrier may have underpromised and overdelivered: the executive now expects LTE to reach the whole network by the middle of next year, or as much as half a year sooner than first thought. What prompted the quicker rollout wasn't mentioned, although Shammo was eager to point out a surprisingly strong reception to Verizon's (frequently mandatory) shared plans as well as the ample number of airwaves that came from a spectrum transfer deal with cable providers. Having a lot of customers on premium plans with the capacity to support them tends to help with faster expansion, we'd say. No matter the exact reasoning, the shortened schedule could underscore the advantage of Verizon's early start on LTE versus those carriers taking a more relaxed pace.

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Verizon CFO: LTE rollout should wrap up by mid-2013, months ahead of expectations originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 17:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UK carrier cooperation could see 4G LTE rollout ramp up by summer 2013

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UK 4G LTE rollout could ramp up by summer 2013

With the formal creation of Orange and T-Mobile's LTE network lovechild, Everything Everywhere, the UK finally joined the horserace for 4G. Now, it looks like rival domestic operators could get a chance to play catch-up sooner than expected, according to a report from The Telegraph. It appears the mobile companies, having recently put to rest concerns over any potential "first mover advantage" that would see each party entering into litigation, have been freed up to bid in a spectrum auction set to take place in early January. And further speeding this next-gen rollout along, is Ofcom's admission that those precious frequencies could be ready for use as soon as this coming May, allowing carriers to prep service for public consumption by mid-summer 2013 at the latest. All told, it's good news for denizens of the British isles hankering for blazing wireless speeds and the LTE devices that love them. But as with all things commercial, we'd caution you to expect some regulatory bumps in the road to this rollout.

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UK carrier cooperation could see 4G LTE rollout ramp up by summer 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 15:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft details its own Windows 8 rollout, lessons learned from ‘dogfooding’

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Microsoft details its own Windows 8 rollout, lessons learned from 'dogfooding'

If a company won't use its own products, how can it expect others to? Many customers, especially on the enterprise side of the equation, are understandably a little wary of the drastic change that awaits them when upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8. So, Microsoft decided to share what it has learned from its own experience dogfooding the new OS around the Redmond campus (and likely beyond). While the company is a little light on specifics of the low-volume rollout, it does highlight some of the features available to IT departments that should make transitioning easier. It even offers a few pointers along the way. Sure, there's plenty of back-patting involved, but tips like using IT Easy Installer to automate deployments and trim install times by half shouldn't be dismissed. There's also some information about its support system for early adopters which included a knowledge base called Pointers that helped highlight the most important issues needing to be addressed. For more details hit up the source link and get ready to embrace your inner IT nerd.

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Microsoft details its own Windows 8 rollout, lessons learned from 'dogfooding' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clearwire starts building LTE network this month, wants to salve (and profit from) Sprint growing pains

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Sprint hearts Clearwire

Clearwire doesn't have much time left before its promised LTE rollout goes live in early 2013, so it's with some relief that we know the deployment is getting underway. CFO Hope Cochran told those at Goldman Sachs' Communacopia Conference this week that construction of the first cell sites starts this month, with efforts truly swinging into full gear during the fall. The executive also reminded us of a very pragmatic reason why many of the 5,000 LTE sites due by June 30th will target high-traffic areas -- as Clearwire is only selling the faster data access to other providers, it should pocket more money in any regions where Sprint needs all the help it can get. Call it a virtuous cycle. Cochran certainly does: while Clearwire is free to make deals with others, Cochran says her company weighs any alliances against what it still considers a very special pact with Sprint. No doubt the 4G pioneer is hoping that it's making the right choices, as other carriers aren't waiting around.

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Clearwire starts building LTE network this month, wants to salve (and profit from) Sprint growing pains originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Sep 2012 07:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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China speeds up its LTE schedule, could issue permits ‘within a year’

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China speeds up its LTE schedule, could issue permits 'within a year'China's Minister of Information and IT doesn't always explain his decisions in much detail, leaving us to ponder a sudden acceleration in his plans to roll out LTE. Miao Wei had previously indicated that 4G permits wouldn't be issued to operators until at least 2014, but now the word according Xinhua News is that this bureaucratic phase will be completed "within about a year." Perhaps those TD-LTE base stations are being built faster than he expected, or maybe the idea of being beaten to the punch by a little island nation is just too much.


[Photo credit: China.com.cn]

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China speeds up its LTE schedule, could issue permits 'within a year' originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Sep 2012 05:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kinect for Windows SDK to add new features, markets

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Kinect for Windows to add new features, markets

Kinect for Windows will arrive in style to China and other new markets starting October 8th, sporting a brand new SDK. The new developer kit will add features like color camera settings and extended depth data, as well as more tools and samples like a UI demo based on Kinect's so-called human interface guidelines. Chinese users won't be the only ones waving hello for the first time this fall though, as Chile, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Poland have also been added to the list. All told, 38 countries will be able to tinker with the Kinect by the end of the year, and Microsoft envisions an era "where we'll be able to interact intuitively and naturally" with our computers. Some of Redmond's userbase may want it to start somewhere else with that quest.

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Kinect for Windows SDK to add new features, markets originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Sep 2012 05:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony’s Ice Cream Sandwich rollout now in final stages for 2011 Xperia devices

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Sony's 2011 Xperia Ice Cream Sandwich rollout now in final stages

You have to hand it to Sony, the company's more than made good on its Android 4.0 upgrade promise (save for that Play hiccup). After rolling out Ice Cream Sandwich to its NXT mid-ranger just a few days ago, it's now ready to dole out the software goods to the majority of the 2011 Xperia lineup beginning this week. That's only the first round though, as a trio of leftover devices -- the mini pro, neo L and Live with Walkman -- will be privy to this OS boost in the "next few weeks." With this latest feel-good news reassuring brand loyalists and official word of the Xperia S' entrance into AOSP, it sure seems like prime time to hitch your ride to the company's Google-powered mobile wagon. After all, Jelly Bean's bound to spill over at some point.

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Sony's Ice Cream Sandwich rollout now in final stages for 2011 Xperia devices originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 21 Aug 2012 18:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sprint LTE spreads its wings to four more areas by Labor Day

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Sprint LTE spreads its wings to four more cities by Labor Day

Sprint may have played slightly fast and loose with its definition of a 15-city LTE launch this month -- some of those areas were mighty close to each other -- but it's taking that expansion a little further down the road with its next stage. Hand-in-hand with its second quarter results, the pin-drop network has outlined plans to revisit its 4G hometown in Baltimore as well Gainesville in Georgia, the Junction City-Manhattan area in Kansas and the Denison-Sherman region in Texas, giving them all LTE by Labor Day. The expansion will certainly please Georgian Galaxy S III owners; unfortunately, it still leaves many major cities fending with EV-DO 3G until later in the year, if not 2013. Maybe Sprint's Hitchcock-inspired nightmares are to blame.

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Sprint LTE spreads its wings to four more areas by Labor Day originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 13:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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