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Chalk another one up for the GSM evolution pathway. Aircell, the in-flight GoGo WiFi provider, has announced that they'll be migrating from their current CDMA-based EVDO Rev. A infrastructure to the GSM 4G LTE mobile broadband standard to provide seriously fast in-flight data services. Of course, Aircell will have to wait until LTE gets off and [...]

While many AT&T customers are enjoying the No. 1 US carrier's HSDPA (HSPA in some areas) 3G network, AT&T's 3G speeds are still relatively slow compared to their counterparts in Europe and Asia. Following AT&T's HSUPA upgrade to their 3G network this year (creating a true HSPA network), Big Blue has announced on Wednesday that [...]

Just what does AT&T plan on doing with all that 700Mhz B-Block spectrum (from the 700Mhz FCC auction) and that valuable swath of 700Mhz C-Block spectrum (from Aloha Partners)? It looks like AT&T is going to use the fresh-off-the-grill spectrum to launch its own 4G LTE mobile broadband network.The additional spectrum firmly plants AT&T at [...]

Love AT&T’s 3G network performance? Hate AT&T’s 3G network reliability and coverage? Right, us too. But, fear not, AT&T-fan. The No. 1 national wireless carrier has announced that they’ve got some massive 3G upgrades planned for 2008 - again . As expected, AT&T will be turning up the dial on their HSPA network and offering coverage in 80 new cities - bringing the grand total of HSPA-covered areas to 350. The announcement times perfectly with the FCC’s approval of the AT&T acquisition of Aloha’s 12Mhz slice of the 700Mhz spectrum. AT&T has ear-marked this extra bandwidth for “broadcast video or for two-way communications such as voice, data or multicast content,” and expanding their 3G HSPA network falls directly in the “data” category. The network upgrade will bring 600Kbps to 1.4Mbps downlink speeds and 500Kbps to 800Kbps uplink speeds to even more parts of the country. And, after most of AT&T’s network gets the HSPA-treatment, the AT&T 3G network will be ready for inevitable HSPA+ upgrades. Of course, all these upgrades are just milestones on the path towards AT&T’s eventual 4G LTE network rollout in 2009 at the earliest, with 2010/2011 being more realistic time-frames for a full commercial LTE network launch. Is AT&T upgrading their 3G network to get ready for the 3G iPhone? Well, AT&T upgraded its EDGE network ahead of and during the iPhone’s initial launch. So, it wouldn’t be a far-stretch to think that AT&T is making sure its HSPA-ship is in shape before Apple bows the 3G iPhone sometime this year . Read on for the full press release… AT&T Plans Major Expansion of 3G Wireless Broadband Service in 2008 Company to Expand 3G Service to More Than 80 New Cities, Complete Upload Broadband Speed Enhancements New Milestones Mark Next Step in Direction Toward Long-Term Evolution (LTE) San Antonio, Texas, February 6, 2008 _uacct = "UA-361227...

With Verizon’s recent announcement to kick off LTE (Long Term Evolution) 4G network tests next year (in partnership with Vodafone ), it’s starting to look like LTE will dominate the US mobile-broadband landscape in the future. And, following on successful initial testing of LTE networks by Nokia, and the recent adoption of the standard by the GSMA as a global 4G standard , Nokia has announced their support of Verizon in helping proliferate the use of LTE technology as the worldwide 4G standard - which should help drive down manufacturing costs as more and more LTE-proponents help scale-up production of LTE-hardware. “Nokia has long been committed to working closely with operators in the US and around the world, and is very pleased to support Verizon Wireless in their choice of LTE as their global 4G evolution path,” said Mark Louison, President, Nokia Inc., the North American arm of Nokia. “It is very exciting to see Verizon Wireless, one of the world’s leading wireless providers, announce their open development initiative for devices and their decision to evolve their network to the open, global specification of LTE.” It’s nice to see the industry’s big-wigs essentially “high-five” each other in the public eye. Nokia’s seems to be seriously brown-nosing the CDMA carrier - they called Verizon “one of the world’s leading wireless providers.” We can only surmise this is an effort to get more Nokia handsets onto Verizon’s network, especially with future LTE-based mobile phones. Bring on the Verizon-branded, LTE-packed Nokia handsets! Full press release on the link. White Plains, NY, US - Nokia (NYSE: NOK) today applauded Verizon Wireless’ announced plans to develop and deploy a fourth generation mobile broadband network. The Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology Verizon Wireless chose is an open and global specification for next generation networks that will bring scale...

We’ve known for some time that Verizon has put their faith in the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard upon which to build their 4G network. And, following on the GSMA’s support of LTE as the 4G standard of choice, Verizon has announced that they will be kicking off trials of their LTE network in 2008. The trials will be conducted in a joint effort with Verizon Wireless venture-partner, Vodafone. Now, it’s going to a good, long, while before the network goes live - we’re looking for 2010 network launch - but it’s encouraging to hear that Verizon Wireless and Vodafone have made the commitment with network trials. LTE promises to bring 100Mbps downstream and 50Mbps upstream data speeds (theoretical of course, we’ll see how that pans out in real life) with a latency reduced to 20ms - which is an impressive bump-up from Verizon’s current EVDO Rev. A data speeds of 1.4Mbps on the downlink. And, with Vodafone hopping on board the LTE-bandwagon, customers on either network can expect to roam on the partner-networks without the need for dual-mode handsets like the Motorola RIZR Z6c “World Edition” handset that’s slated to hit Verizon’s network in the near future. Additionally, AT&T is set to adopt LTE as their 4G network standard, so we could see interoperability between the rival networks - a first for the top-two wireless carriers. And, with Verizon’s newly announced plan to open their network to “any app, any device,” we could certainly see AT&T LTE handsets being ported to Verizon’s network in the future. Poor little Sprint and their WiMAX XOHM service . The lagging wireless carrier has yet to kick off their 4G network plans and the market leaders have already chosen a competing standard. We like rooting for the little guy, but Sprint sure isn’t making it easy. [Via: Electronista ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:LTE gets a boost with GSMA support - 4G is now LTEVodafone...