Speaking during the 4G World conference in Chicago on Tuesday, Sprint’s vice president of network development and engineering Iyad Tarazi confirmed that Sprint will begin to roll-out a 4G LTE-Advanced network in its 800MHz frequency spectrum by the middle of 2013. LTE-Advanced offers faster data throughput than the first generation of LTE, among other enhancements, and Tarazi explained that Sprint’s LTE-Advanced network should offer download speeds between 12-15Mbps. During its Strategy Update meeting in October, Sprint confirmed that it will begin to roll out its first 4G LTE network in mid-2012 with completion scheduled by the end of 2013. The initial LTE network will be deployed on Sprint’s 1900Mhz frequency spectrum and the first round of LTE devices will still route voice calls over its CDMA network. The first voice-over-LTE devices will arrive during the first quarter of 2013, Fierce Wireless said. Tarazi also noted that Sprint will offer at least a dozen LTE devices next year.

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AT&T may soon join Sprint and T-Mobile as the third U.S. carrier to offer the Nexus S. The phone was spotted in white on Samsung’s website with AT&T listed as its carrier, although Samsung appears to have removed the page. We suspect AT&T will tag the Nexus S with HSPA+ support and slap a 4G at the end of its name, although the website doesn’t confirm whether it will launch as a 3G or a 4G device. The Nexus S is powered by Google’s latest Android Gingerbread operating system and will receive future Android updates ahead of other devices. It’s equipped with a 4-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, a 5-megapixel camera, a front-facing VGA camera, and a 1GHz Cortex A8 Hummingbird processor.

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It seems that every BlackBerry-lover on the Internets is making a big deal over this AWS spectrum-equipped BlackBerry 9100, and while it’s great to have confirmation that the unit is hitting T-Mobile (and maybe even visiting our Canadian friends at WIND, too), all in all, it doesn’t really mean much. Here’s why:

Enter the BlackBerry 9700. RIM has done something incredibly smart. They’ve been using identical hardware for every single BlackBerry 9700, regardless of the carrier it is intended for. Let’s revisit that… RIM has used the same exact hardware for AT&T, T-Mobile, Vodafone, WIND, Rogers, TIM — whatever. How could this be, you’re asking? The chip RIM uses in these units supports practically every 3G band out there, and so do the antennas. What controls the hardware is the vendor/branding of the device. This enables RIM to produce one set of hardware, and brilliantly change the software to enable the 3G bands they desire. This keeps manufacturing costs lower as they only have to manufacture one single piece of the puzzle as opposed to two completely different ones, and this also will apply in theory to 3G devices going forward.

That means that BlackBerry 9100 you see with AWS bands will be able to be flashed with AT&T branding (by RIM, not by you), thus enabling 850/1900/2100MHz 3G bands without any effort. While this won’t necessarily speed up the release of these new smartphones on every carrier (they still have exclusivity agreements), you can at least rest assured that any model 3G BlackBerry from now on, will in theory support your local 3G bands, even if it doesn’t support your local 3G bands.

Ordinarily, looking at FCC filings are about as fun as discussing the history of blotting paper, but we have a rare exception in the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10. While the standard fare external pictures offer nothing we haven’t already seen, the filing contains a wealth of teardown photos that are sure to please both phone junkies and anyone fascinated with design. But it gets better. Not only do we have a slew of test reports (exciting!), but the entire 40-page user manual which not only gives a great overview of the device itself, but Sony Ericsson’s custom Android overlay, Nexus. Of course we’ve already broken down Nexus for you when we went hands on, but let’s just keep that our little secret, okay?

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There’s absolutely no guarantee it will find a home with AT&T (or even Bell, Rogers or TELUS, for that matter), but Acer’s Liquid aka A1 has been spotted in an FCC filing complete with 850MHz and 1900MHz bands of HSDPA. Much has been made in the past about the device thanks in part to its Snapdragon processor — unfortunately underclocked to 768MHz — and in recent months rumors that would see it carried by AT&T have been on the uptick. Not speaking directly to the matter, one Acer exec went so far as to say that AT&T and T-Mobile would be foolish to not pursue a strong relationship with the Taiwanese company. As for whether or not such a thing would ever materialize is up for debate, but perhaps this is the first of many regulatory precursors needed for a full-scale smartphone invasion.

[Via UnwiredView

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Sonim (yeah, you remember Sonim) just pushed its latest rugged handset through the FCC’s approval process earlier this month and it looks like we may soon have a new device to use and abuse. From the FCC documentation, the GSM phone will apparently be branded as either the Sonim XP3.20-E Quest or the Land Rover S1. The handset approved by the FCC will feature GSM/GPRS/EGPRS 1900MHz, Bluetooth, camera with flash and Sonim’s rugged good looks. No release date or pricing information has surfaced on this rough and tumble handset but it cant be too far away now.

[Via Engadget]

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Having seen pre-orders in excess of one million units, the LG Arena KM900 clearly struck an emotional chord with mobile crazed customers in the Asian and European markets. Its lack of support for North American HSPA bands made many on this side of the Atlantic rather green with envy however, and they assumed they would not be able to get their hands on the first device to take advantage of the new S-Class 3D interface. Fear not! Thanks to the fine folks at the FCC we now know a variant of the Arena, the KM900QA, is on its way to the US complete with 850 and 1900 MHz HSPA bands. That’s right people — S-Class 3D UI, 480×800 3-inch touchscreen display, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and aGPS… All coming your way soon enough.

[Via Unwired View]

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