Verizon Wireless is kicking off 2012 by flipping the LTE switch in five new markets and expanding in three current markets. On Thursday, January 19th, the company will turn on its 4G LTE network in Glens Falls and Utica, NY; Lawton, OK; and Brownsville and McAllen, TX. Verizon will also be expanding its network in Atlanta, Houston and Spokane. “As we enter 2012, Verizon’s 4G LTE network remains the largest by far in the United States, and we continue to grow the network and bring Verizon’s unparallel...

Apple’s iPad is currently responsible for 15% of all mobile traffic according to new research published recently by Chitika. While the iPad’s lead in the tablet market is obvious, it’s becoming more clear there’s strong competition for market share below it. The Amazon Kindle Fire represented an average of 2.4 ad impressions on Chitikas network for every 100 iPad impressions, but RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook wasn’t far behind; it viewed an average of 1.8 ad impressions for eve...

LightSquared and former FCC chief engineer Edmond Thomas on Wednesday said the GPS test devices that were used by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing Executive Committee (PNT EXCOM) to test its new network were rigged by “manufacturers of GPS receivers and government end users to produce bogus results.” The company said that devices from GPS manufacturers, which have claimed LightSquared’s network interferes with GPS communications, were “cherry picked” in...

Verizon Wireless was the first major carrier to launch its super fast 4G LTE network in the United States. Being the first comes with its fair share of problems, however. Earlier this week Verizon’s 4G LTE network suffered its third major outage in the month of December. In an interview with GigaOM, Verizon Wireless vice president of Network Engineering Mike Haberman responded with:Being the pioneers, we’re going to experience some growing pains. These issues we’ve been experiencing are certainl...

LTE quickly became one of the most talked about wireless topics this year, but before 2011 it was a term most consumers probably had never heard of. A standard developed by the Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), long-term evolution (LTE) is a progression of UMTS/HSPA and GSM/EDGE networks. Just a year ago, 4G LTE wasn’t available to the general U.S. public and now, as we begin to enter 2012, a massive chunk of the U.S. population has access to it. 4G spread like a wildfire during 2011, so let&...

We received a number of reports this morning from Verizon Wireless customers complaining that the carrier’s 4G LTE network was down in various parts of the country, and Verizon has confirmed that the network is now returning to normal after the outage. “Verizon Wireless 4G LTE service is returning to normal this morning after company engineers worked to resolve an issue with the 4G network during the early morning hours today,” a Verizon spokesperson said in a statement to The Verge. “...

Verizon Wireless announced Wednesday that it will activate its 4G LTE network in 11 new markets on Thursday, December 15th. The carrier will also expand its coverage in 7 existing LTE markets. Verizon’s 4G LTE network will blanket a total of more than 200 million people in 190 U.S. markets following Thursday’s roll-out. The new markets include: Dover, Del.; Lafayette, Ind.; Fitchburg/Leominster, Mass.; Duluth, The Rochester Area and St. Cloud, Minn.; Manchester/Nashua, N.H.; Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; F...

Sprint and Clearwire are close to inking a deal that will extend an existing network-sharing agreement an additional 3-5 years, Bloomberg Businessweek said Friday. The current agreement will terminate at the end of 2012. Allegedly, the deal is not final and could still fall through. If it is finalized, Sprint is poised to pay less for access to Clearwire’s network than it currently does. Clearwire has been seeking additional funding to help it build out a 4G LTE network, which is expected to cost $600 ...

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 mee...

Verizon Wireless announced on Monday that its 4G LTE network is rolling out faster than originally planned. The carrier provides 4G access to more than 186 million Americans, which means it has already exceeded its goal to cover 185 million U.S. residents by the end of the year. Verizon Wireless confirmed it will roll out 4G LTE to 13 more markets on November 17th, for a total of 178 markets, and said it will continue to activate its 4G network in new cities in December. Verizon Wireless said it will soon off...

Wholesale wireless reseller LightSquared announced on Monday that Sharp will manufacture smartphones and tablets capable of running on its 4G LTE network. LightSquared said that it will demo the first devices during the upcoming CTIA Wireless trade show in San Diego, California. “Sharp has a rich history of producing unique products that push the extremes of design and functionality, and we’re proud that they will be developing innovative devices for LightSquared’s 4G-LTE network,” LightSquared CE...

Sprint will deploy its 4G LTE network early next year and has already started to deploy the required equipment, CNET reported on Tuesday. Reportedly, Sprint is also already testing the network, although sources speaking to CNET did not reveal where the tests were occurring. The move is enabled by Sprint’s “Network Vision” plans, which it first discussed in December 2010. During our recent tour of Sprint’s facilities in Overland Park, Kansas, when Sprint CEO Dan Hesse confirmed that the...

Verizon Wireless announced on Wednesday that it will activate its 4G LTE network in 26 new markets on Thursday, September 15th. The new areas include Kalamazoo and Saginaw, Michigan; Fargo, North Dakota; Moorhead Minnesota; Canton, Lima and Mansfield, Ohio; Reno, Nevada; Iowa City, Iowa; Fort Smith and Jonesboro, Arkansas; Daytona, Florida; Shreveport, Louisiana; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Dyersburg, Tennessee; the Tri-Cities in Tennessee and Virginia; Austin, Beaumont/Port Arthur, Wichita Falls and El Paso, Tex...

Following BGR’s exclusive report on Monday revealing that AT&T’s 4G LTE network has gone live in Chicago, we have received new images confirming that the network is alive and kicking in Atlanta as well. A source has provided BGR with multiple images of AT&T’s 4G LTE service in action, and we have verified that the tester is indeed located in Atlanta, Georgia. Our source in Chicago had trouble finding full service, but Atlanta seems to be blanketed a bit better at this pre-launch stag...