Hasta La Gadget!

EE has just confirmed that its 4G roll out will commence on October 30th in the UK. The announcement comes direct from CEO Olaf Swantee, and reveals both the official launch of the new EE brand in the UK, along with those much sought after 4G data services. There will be 10 cities included in the initial rollout, with another six to be added by the end of the year. Once that total of 16 has been reached, EE claims it should cover at least a third of the UK population. As you might expect, more towns and cities will get the LTE treatment throughout 2013, with EE claiming it should reach 98 percent population coverage by 2014. The announcement also took the opportunity to confirm the handsets that will be available at launch, which include the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820, HTC One XL and the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE. Want to know if your city is one of the lucky ones, head to the more coverage link for full launch coverage details, complete with maps.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile

EE confirms 4G rollout will begin October 30th, 10 cities at launch, 16 by the end of the year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Oct 2012 07:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Under fire from rivals unhappy at it taking the lead, UK 4G network EE has shot back with suggestions that Vodafone and O2 could have been LTE competitive had they planned ahead properly. Speaking at a pre-launch benchmarking session, EE director of network services and device development Tom Bennett dismissed complaints by the carrier’s competitors as being selective with the facts, arguing instead that lack of investment is to blame for their being behind.

Vodafone and O2 have been vocal in their fury over EE – a combo carrier of Orange and T-Mobile UK – being allowed to launch an LTE network so soon, while they wait out for the Ofcom spectrum sale. “The regulator has shown a careless disregard for the best interests of consumers, businesses and the wider economy” Vodafone said in a statement back in August, “through its refusal to properly regard the competitive distortion created by allowing one operator to run services before the ground has been laid for a fully competitive 4G market.”

However, Bennett has little time for Vodafone and O2′s arguments that they are dependent on acquiring new spectrum rights in the 2013 auction. Instead, the 4G expert suggests, the other carriers are merely reaping the rewards of poor forward planning, having used their 900MHz spectrum holdings to bolster 3G coverage, for instance.

Orange and T-Mobile UK, in contrast, have been building out EE’s LTE infrastructure since the beginning of the year, Bennett pointed out, and have been planning the roll-out for some time ahead of that. Competitor fury, he counters, involves being selective with what facts and details are emphasized.

As for compatibility issues, which for instance sees the iPhone 5 only supporting the LTE bands EE will use in the UK, and not those Vodafone or O2 intend to use, Bennett believes the headache will be short-lived. Within a year, he suggests, chipsets which support all the bands in use will be prevalent – at least in the UK market – and consumers will be back to a situation where they can swap SIMs between phones without worrying about whether they’ll be limited to 3G.

EE: Our LTE-complaining rivals made the wrong decisions is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

New 4G carrier EE has thrown three of its LTE smartphones up for purchase today, and confirmed the Galaxy Note II LTE is also incoming, though you can’t actually use the high-speed data connection yet. The HTC One XL, Samsung Galaxy S III, and Huawei Ascend P1 LTE are all available from today through Orange and T-Mobile UK, though for the moment users will only see 3G data speeds. That will change “in the coming weeks” however, when EE launches LTE service.

The handsets may be available today, but there’s a sting in the tail. EE won’t demand a termination fee for jumping out of an Orange or T-Mobile UK contract to an EE agreement, but you will have to sign a new contract (more than likely 24-months) with the 4G carrier. You won’t be able to simply switch your agreement over.

Meanwhile, EE has also confirmed that it will be offering the LTE variant of Samsung’s Galaxy Note II, though that won’t go up for sale until October 15. Pricing has not been confirmed for the 5.5-inch handset at this stage.

The iPhone 5 is also EE-compatible, and already available through Orange and T-Mobile UK.

EE 4G LTE benchmarks:

EE expects to have a third of the population covered with LTE service by the end of this year, spread across sixteen cities. The goal is to have 70-percent coverage across the country by the end of 2013, with that number rising to 98-percent by the end of 2014.

EE puts LTE phones up for sale (sort of): Galaxy Note II LTE incoming is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

HTC decided to reveal the oft-rumored One X+ earlier this morning, and it didn’t take long for AT&T to announce its intent to carry the device in the “coming months.” Fans acquainted with the original AT&T One X won’t find much different on the outside — we’re still looking at a 4.7-inch Super LCD2 720p display, 8MP BSI f/2.0 rear camera with ImageSense and gorgeous polycarbonate build. Indeed, it’s what’s inside the LTE-capable phone that counts: a 1.7GHz quad-core Tegra 3 chipset, an impressive 64GB internal memory (nice, given the device still lacks microSD support), Jelly Bean with Sense 4+ and a nicely improved 2,100mAh battery.

That’s not all, folks: AT&T’s also introducing another HTC handset for its mid-range lineup known as the One VX (pictured above on the right). The device, which utilizes a 4.5-inch qHD Super LCD2 display, is packing Android 4.0 (upgradeable to Jelly Bean after launch), a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 MSM 8930 with 1GB RAM, LTE, a 5MP BSI f/2.0 ImageSense camera capable of shooting 1080p video, a VGA front-facing cam, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio and 8GB internal storage. How about dimensions? It measures in at 9.19mm (0.36 inch) thick and weighs 4.4 ounces (124.7g), so it’s slightly thicker and lighter than the One X+. We’re quite curious to hear details on pricing and availability, but we haven’t heard anything aside from the coming months (we’d like to believe, however, that AT&T wouldn’t wait until after the holidays to push this out). Hopefully we’ll get to play with the new device soon, but feel free to check out our galleries of picture-perfect press images below.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, HTC, AT&T

AT&T adds HTC One X+ and One VX to its future lineup, will arrive in the ‘coming months’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 09:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T is playing secret agent this morning, with news that the Sony Xperia TL – the official phone of incoming James Bond film SKYFALL – is headed to its 4G LTE network. The 4.6-inch Android smartphone has a 13-megapixel camera and a 1080 x 720 display powered by Sony’s Mobile BRAVIA Engine, and will run Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box with the promise of a Jelly Bean update post-launch.

There’s also a 720p HD capable front-facing camera, and Sony has fettled the camera app itself so that it loads up and takes its first shot in 1.5s. Full HD 1080p video recording is supported with the main camera, and there’s an MHL output which, unusually, doesn’t require a separate power supply be connected before you hook up an HDMI display.

There’s also NFC which will be used for “one-touch” sharing: basically a way of easily setting up an impromptu peer-to-peer connection with another device or with an accessory. AT&T and Sony will supply one Xperia SmartTag in the box, though you’ll need to buy more of the programmable NFC tags yourself if you want to do more.

Inside there’s a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor running Sony’s own customized UI on top of Android 4.0.4; that also gets you mapping integration in the “Album” gallery app, as well as a “Walkman” app and “Movies” app the functionality of which should be pretty self-explanatory.

Unfortunately, what AT&T isn’t saying is when, exactly, the Xperia TL will go on sale, nor indeed at what price.

AT&T Sony Xperia TL incoming with 007 cred is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.