MObility General

T-Mobile reportedly mulling MetroPCS merger


It's back to the drawing board for T-Mobile in the world of corporate acquisitions.

It seems like the carrier is still willing to work on a merger even though the whole AT&T episode backfired in such a huge way. But then again, it ended up getting billions of dollars in a concession deal with AT&T and it didn't even have to give up anything, so it's not all bad.

Nevertheless, T-Mobile's subscription numbers are way down and now it's looking for something to give itself a huge jolt to get back in the game.

So, according to a Bloomberg report, T-Mobile is mulling the idea of merging with one of the top regional carriers, MetroPCS. In fact, MetroPCS has grown from the niche category of small regional operator to the fifth largest carrer in the nation.

That makes it the biggest mobile service provider outside of the "major" carriers everyone always talks about. And it has been working hard to prove its worth, such as developing an LTE network and offering a lot of affordable Android phones.

Analyst reports suggest that T-Mobile will report a loss of 470,000 subscribers when it announces its quarterly earnings report later today.

Among the other strategies T-Mobile has when it comes to getting back on its feet is implementing an LTE network, which will roll out in 2013, making the company the last major carrier to put up an advanced high-speed mobile data network.

Sprint HTC Evo 4G LTE goes on sale May 18


One of Sprint's big announcements this week at CTIA was the release details of the HTC Evo 4G LTE.

It's significant because it marks what is likely to be Sprint's first big foray in the LTE market. The carrier launched its first "4G" network back in 2009, but back then it was powered by a standard known as Wimax.

It was great at the time, since Sprint was several months ahead of all other carriers and managed to be the exclusive provider of high-speed 4G data connections while everyone else was playing catch-up.

But while the others were working on their own 4G plans, they started experimenting with other standards that could potentially be even faster and even more powerful. As a result, Verizon ended up being the last major carrier to offer 4G, but it ended up being the standard that everyone now wants.

That standard, LTE, requires a lot of infrastructure and network building, so now Sprint is essentially dismantling its Wimax service and building a brand new LTE network from the ground up.

So, enter the Evo 4G LTE. Built by HTC, it has a 4.7-inch super LCD display, a Snapdraggon S4 dual-core processor, an 8-megapixel camera along with a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, and "HD Voice" for better call audio quality.

Interestingly enough, HTC was also the manufacturer that built the first Wimax 4G phone for Sprint - the HTC Evo 4G.

The HTC Evo 4G LTE will launch on May 18 for $200 for customers who sign up for a new two-year service agreement.

Galaxy Note Ice Cream Sandwich update likely coming soon


The Samsung Galaxy Note has been spotted running Android 4.0 at the CTIA show in New Orleans.

The trade show is the biggest mobile industry show of its kind in the US, though enthusiasts are disappointed at the lack of major announcements at the event. Nevertheless, there are some interesting bits of news making their way through the pipeline.

And one of them is that AT&T was apparently showing the Samsung Galaxy Note phone running the latest version of Android, version 4.0 also known as Ice Cream Sandwich.

The Galaxy Note has managed to stand out in the highly muddled Android smartphone market because of its larger-than-standard size. Some people have referred to it as a "phablet" - part phone, part tablet.

Samsung is very proud of the device and has launched an ambitious marketing campaign to create consumer awareness. As such, getting the update as soon as possible is no doubt high on the company's list of priorities.

Ice Cream Sandwich is now powering 4.9% of active Android devices, according to the company's most recently released official statistics.

Google hopes Android 4.0 will be a big reset button on the mobile platform, since it has much stricter hardware guidelines that it hopes will help prevent fragmentation in the future. This is a goal we've heard in previous rollouts of Android, so we'll see if

Verizon rolls out LTE for the home


Verizon's LTE network is so expansive, it now wants to offer it as a broadband replacement.

And from a technical point of view, it probably could hold muster. The carrier's high-speed network is just about as fast as any kind of Internet connection you currently get from your cable provider.

This isn't like the current mobile modems that companies are offering, though. This solution will actually make you fork over a lot more money that whatever the cable companies are charging.

And that's where we talk about the market that this is targeting. Verizon isn't planning on actually making you cancel that cable subscription.

Instead, what it wants is for the consumers who cannot in fact get such a cable connection - those who are in more rural areas that are covered by the LTE network but not by a cable broadband provider.

So, yeah, it will cost $200 a month to use Verizon's new "HomeFusion" connection.

When it comes to 4G, Verizon was late to the game. Sprint was the first to the market with its Evo 4G phone that came out more than two years ago.

But Sprint's network was powered by a standard called Wimax, which was significantly faster than the previous 3G network infrastructures but not nearly as fast as LTE.

AT&T and T-Mobile, meanwhile, launched their 4G services on a completely different standard known as HSPA+, which was inferior to Wimax so Sprint still dominated the game for a while.

But then Verizon finally entered the 4G market, and because it took the time to wait it was able to launch an LTE network from the outset. It quickly leapfrogged right ahead of all its competitors.

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