carrier news - page 2

“Dear Apple, You Are Simply A Disgrace To The World Of Technology And To Engineering”

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By now, I’m sure you may have heard about how U.S. Customs is holding all of the HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE phones hostage as they investigate allegations over patent infringement stemming from a ruling Apple won against HTC back in December. The ban essentially went into effect in April of 2012, but what most of us don’t understand is why the investigation at Customs? HTC has already created a work around for the infringement and even responded back in December about it:

Verizon To Set 28 New Markets Ablaze With 4G LTE This Thursday

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In two days, hundreds of thousands of Verizon customers will be able to experience the blazing speeds of 4G LTE thanks to another major rollout. Verizon continues to leave its competitors in the dust and come May 17, Verizon will have blanketed 258 markets with its 4G LTE network. This week’s expansion lists a few areas we’ve already told you about, and includes 28 new markets as well as 11 expansion markets. If you live in any of the following areas, get ready for a nice speed boost:

Nationwide Wireless Emergency Text Alert System Launching This Month

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The federal government along with U.S. wireless providers will be rolling out a new Emergency Text Alert System this month. The service will be free and will provide geographically targeted wireless emergency alerts for life-threatening events such as: tornadoes, flash floods, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, dust storms, extreme winds, blizzards and ice storms. The text alerts will be brief and will inform consumers to seek additional information or immediately seek shelter if necessary. You may have experienced such alerts via third party weather application or private services but this will be the first national service by the federal government and the wireless industry.

Verizon Unleashing Another Large 4G LTE Rollout Just In Time For Summer

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Having Verizon as your carrier can have certain drawbacks when it comes to your wallet, but it sure is hard to argue about it when they’re rolling out 4G LTE Like A Baus! Verizon has announced its next bombardment of 4G LTE rollouts and it comes just in time for summer. Verizon plans on lighting up and expanding its 4G LTE service up and down the East Coast beginning next week. It’s a long list of beach towns and Vermont markets so if you were hoping of taking your work with you to the beach this summer, you should be covered (East Coast that is).

Verizon To Make SMS-To-911 Service Available By Early 2013

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Verizon has announced its plans to lead the text-to-911 initiative here in the US. Starting early 2013, Verizon customers will be able to send 911 SMS texts to emergency call centers. This new way of communicating with 911 call centers is a great step forward in public safety and allows for those in need to relay information in cases when calling or talking are difficult.

AT&T 4G LTE Coming To Salt Lake City Later In The Year

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AT&T today announced it would be adding Salt Lake City to its list of markets expected to get 4G LTE later in the year. AT&T continues expanding other areas, with Austin, TX seeing additional coverage just the other day. It’s going to be a slow and steady pace with AT&T so if you’re looking for 4G LTE right away, you may want to consider Verizon, otherwise sit tight and be happy you’re not on Sprint.

Major U.S. Carriers Agree To Help Fight “Bill Shock” By Implementing A Free Alert System

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We’ve all been there, that moment when the bill for that great mobile plan you signed up for comes in. Monthly access charges, usage charges, surcharges, taxes, governmental surcharges & fees — the list goes on… and on… and on. The FCC and others call this “bill shock,” while I call it well… we’ll save that for another day. Regardless of how we feel about these charges and fees, they are the services we signed up for and agreed to pay. Unfortunately it’s not always easy to monitor our usage and it can be very easy to incur overage charges when it comes to services like data and text messaging.

AT&T Continues Its 4G LTE Rollout, Lights Up Three New Cities

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Continuing with their 12 city rollout, AT&T has added three new cities to the LTE club today. Those living in Akron, Ohio; Canton, Ohio; and Lafayette, Ind will now be able to take advantage of the fantastic speeds LTE has to offer. While AT&T doesn’t come close to having the LTE coverage that Verizon does, they certainly have the speed — as shown by PC World’s independent testing.

Need For Speed: A Look At The Top Four Carriers And The Speeds They Offer

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Just about every major carrier seems to boast the “fastest network speeds,” while bombarding us with acronyms like LTE and buzzwords such as “lightning fast.” When it’s all said and done, we’re left confused and none the closer to the truth of which network actually has the fastest speeds. So how do we find out the truth? Well, it’s not as simple as we’d like it to be and there are near infinite variables to the equation, but one way to get a general idea of how fast a network’s speeds will be in a real-world environment is to test them out.

Verizon Continues Bombarding The U.S. With 4G LTE

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Verizon continues its onslaught of 4G LTE rollouts across the U.S. and after expanding a slew of California markets last week, they’re back at it again. This next bombardment of 4G LTE is a huge one and reaches across various markets from New York to Colorado. Hopefully by April 19th, your city/town will have been added to the coverage list and you’ll be able to ditch that 3G in favor of the fast lane speeds of 4G LTE. Rollouts and expansions are expected to start Thursday and will cover the following markets:

Verizon Expands 4G LTE Across Ten California Markets As Well As Reno, Nevada

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Verizon continues to blanket the US with 4G LTE while the rest of the carriers desperately play catch up. We’re quick to complain about Verizon’s high prices but at least they’re putting that money to work. Today, Verizon announced it will be expanding its 4G LTE reach in ten California markets as well as Reno, Nevada within the coming weeks. 3G will soon be a thing of the past for those living in the following California cities:

AT&T Flips The LTE Switch On For St. Louis, Expands Staten Island, NY Coverage

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AT&T customers living in St. Louis have just had their LTE jetpacks filled and should be able to start flying through downloads and web pages — not to mention battery life. Along with St. Louis, Staten Island, NY was added to the AT&T LTE club with 4G LTE being expanded to the 5 boroughs. AT&T is certainly playing LTE catch up and while the rollout may seem like it’s running at a turtle’s pace, AT&T has already pushed out LTE to five of the twelve promised markets. Those remaining include:

Big Red Out For Blood: Verizon To Charge $30 Upgrade Fee Beginning April 22

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Looks like Big Red is out for blood after tremendous consumer backlash put the kibosh on their plans to charge customers a $2 “convenience fee” to pay their bill. We would have been better off surrendering our $2 because now Verizon is pulling the ol’ “upgrade fee out of a hat” trick. That’s right, starting April 22, Verizon customers can expect to pay $30 for the privilege of purchasing a new device while signing over their souls for the next two years.

Verizon’s Shared Family Data Plans Are Right Around The Corner

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We’ve known about Verizon’s plan to introduce family shared data plans for quite some time now and have been patiently awaiting their release. It now appears we may see them soon as new images have popped up suggesting Verizon is in the end stages of development. PhoneArena managed to get their hands on a screenshot showing what appears to be Verizon’s future Family Data Usage Calculator. If it looks familiar to you it’s because it follows closely with Verizon’s current Data Usage Calculator which helps customers figure out which plan would best fit their data usage needs.

Verizon Planning To Light Up Its 200th 4G LTE Market Tomorrow

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There’s no denying the fact that Verizon leads the charge in 4G LTE expansion. In fact, come this time tomorrow, over 200 markets will be blanketed in the lightning fast speeds of Verizon LTE. To put things in perspective, AT&T, who recently announced twelve new markets, covers a total of 28 markets. With the majority of devices now being manufactured to take advantage of LTE (including the new iPad) this huge gap in market coverage could very well push a large number of users over to Big Red’s network.

AT&T Clarifies Data Throttling, Numbers Are Surprising

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No one likes to be throttled — just ask Shep Smith — so when AT&T started sending throttling warnings to “unlimited” customers they considered to be the “Top 5%” data hogs, outrage and confusion ensued. After multiple complaints and an online petition, AT&T was forced to clarify their throttling policy and what it means to be in the “Top 5%.”

Verizon’s CFO Fran Shammo Expects Family Data Plans To Start By The Middle Of The Year

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Mobile customers have been waiting for what seems like forever for family shared data. One carrier that’s been slowly working on making it happen is Verizon. Not to long ago we saw leaked training material from Verizon that showed they were gearing up for some sort of family shared data plan. We now have a better idea of when to expect these changes as Verizon’s Communication CFO Fran Shammo spoke about them in an investors meeting yesterday.

Fox News’ Shep Smith Likens AT&T To A Crack Dealer When He Learns He’s Going To Be Throttled [Video]

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AT&T has been sending out text messages to those they consider to be among the top 5 percent of heaviest data users. These messages seem to only pertain to those still on the “unlimited” plan and warn them that they may be subjected to “reduced data speeds.” This throttling of data speeds is a direct attack against the “unlimited” plans and the users grandfathered into them. The worst part about it is most “unlimited” users have not changed the way they use their phones, yet they are now finding themselves to be alienated and penalized as being a part of the 5%. The whole thing is outrageous, and while many customers have been ranting about it for a while, you’re going to want to see what happens when Fox News anchor Shep Smith receives one of these AT&T messages. Let’s just say someone’s not happy.

AT&T Doubles Down On Upgrade Fee, Reminds Us Why They’re Last In Customer Satisfaction

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Starting Sunday AT&T customers will be faced with a $36 fee for upgrading to a new device. This is a 100% increase from the current fee of $18! You ask yourself why, why would AT&T impose a 100% increase on a fee so outlandish that the majority of carriers wave? I say it’s to make up for the 4 billion dollar loss they took on the failed T-Mobile merger. They say it’s because:

T-Mobile To Cap Domestic Roaming Data Allotment Starting April 5th

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Starting April 5th, T-Mobile will begin capping the Domestic Roaming Data Allotment. Unlike their data throttling, once a user goes over their designated allotment,they will simply be cut off from data altogether, until they return to the T-Mobile network or connect via WiFi. While this change is unlikely to affect the majority of us (when’s the last time you used data while roaming?), T-Mobile will send out warnings via text message when your domestic roaming data allotment has reached both 80% and 100%.