Hasta La Gadget!

T-Mobile announced its new pricing plans a few weeks ago, and not only have mobile subscribers in the U.S. taken notice of their contract-less plans, but also competing carriers are also keeping an eye on the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the U.S. One company that is keeping an extremely close eye on T-Mobile is Verizon, specifically CEO Lowell McAdam who recently said his company is open to considering a contract-less future.

During Verizon’s “Powerful Answers” event yesterday, McAdam voiced his opinion on T-Mobile’s recent change. “I’m happy when I see something different tried. We can react quickly to consumers’ shifting needs.” This doesn’t necessarily mean Verizon customers should expect to run out to their closest Verizon store to take part in a contract-less plan, but it certainly does raise a few eyebrows towards a possible future of wireless carriers completely ditching contracts altogether. And if Verizon considers contract-less plans are in its best interest, you can be sure AT&T and Sprint will probably strongly consider this option as well.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple Patent Hints At Their Own Version Of Google Street View, Federal Agents Are No Match For Apple iMessage Encryption,

While it may not be as big of an acquisition between T-Mobile and MetroPCS, Verizon announced today that its acquisition with regional carrier Mohave Wireless is now complete. The Mohave, Arizona-based wireless carrier (hence the name), is now in the hands of Verizon, and Big Red now has 100% control and ownership of the smaller carrier, buying them from Frontier Communications and Rio Virgin.

The acquisition will expand Verizon’s coverage in northwest Arizona, a region of the US that doesn’t get much coverage in the first place (because, you know, it’s out in the desert). Mohave’s operations cover a population of just over 200,000. 3G data will be available, with Verizon’s blazingly-fast 4G LTE rolling out sometime in the near future.

For the time being, Mohave customers won’t be affected until the Verizon network transformation is complete in early 2014. At that point, Verizon will begin to transfer Mohave customers over the Verizon’s network. Again, this only affects those in northeast Arizona who are currently with Mohave Wireless.

It turns out that Verizon has already invested over $80 billion since the company began to increase the coverage of its network around the US, and it looks like it’s paying off. Big Red has the largest 4G LTE network in the US right now, with 486 markets that have Verizon’s LTE, and it covers almost 90% of the US population, according to Verizon.

Verizon completes acquisition of Mohave Wireless is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Hot on the heels of UK pre-orders going live today for the GALAXY S 4, AT&T has announced that they will be opening up pre-orders for the new device on April 16. Those interested will be able to reserve a unit at $250 a pop after signing a new two-year contract. However, AT&T didn’t mention a release date for the device.

AT&T’s pre-order date is far later than the UK’s pre-order availability. Users across the pond are already able to snag their own unit for when it officially launches on April 26. However, US residents will have to wait a bit longer until they can reserve theirs — at least on AT&T for the time being. We should hear from other US carriers sooner or later.

T-Mobile recently announced the availability of the GALAXY S 4, and CEO John Legere said that the new phone would be available to own “about May 1,” which isn’t a solid release date, but we should expect it to arrive close to that time frame, and other US carriers will most likely follow that same release window.

The GALAXY S 4 comes with a 5-inch 1080p display and a 13MP camera on the back. The US version of the phone will pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor clocked at 1.9GHz with 2GB of RAM. The phone also has a gargantuan 2500 mAh battery. We’ve already gotten our hands on the new toy, but we’ll have a full review coming up in the near future.

AT&T Samsung GALAXY S 4 pre-orders begin April 16, priced at $250 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

T-Mobile made quite a few announcements today, the most notable of which was launching their 4G LTE network and detailing the various LTE devices that they would have available, including the iPhone 5. In order to keep their momentum going, the carrier launched a couple of new advertisements to spread the word about their new no-contract policy.

First off, T-Mobile sent actor and comedian Jason Jones out to Times Square in New York City to ask passers-by whether they would rather sign a two-year contract with a mobile carrier or get a root canal. In typical fashion with any advertisement, many of the people surveyed said they’d rather get a root canal.

Jones even points out how most mobile carriers are symbolically slapping around their customers, and Jones was kind enough to demonstrate such slapping by annoyingly hitting people in the face with his microphone. Either way, the lesson of the story is that most people seem to favor physical pain over paying a monthly fee for 24 months for mobile service. Who would have thought?

The other advertisement is set in the wild west, with a group of cowboys about to take over a small town, but one cowboy (representing T-Mobile) decides enough is enough and trades in his brown cowboy hat for a T-Mobile-colored pink hat and then sets off into the sunset. It’s quite an odd advertisement, but we think T-Mobile gets its point across in a straightforward manner. Do you think Verizon and AT&T are scared yet?

T-Mobile pushes out latest ads after UNcarrier announcements is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

T-Mobile has the iPhone now. It’s only a hundred bucks! There’s no contract! Unlimited everything! But before you get too excited about the prospect of jumping ship for forgotten carrier, let’s take a look at how exactly that its iPhone 5 data plans compare to the other big dogs. More »