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LG Electronics has announced that it has just reached another milestone by selling over 10 million of its LTE smartphones. This comes about 6 months after the company reached its first milestone of 5 million LTE smartphones sold. LG says that by including 4G LTE technology in its handsets, they are appealing to the growing needs of consumers who want devices capable of the fastest network speeds.

After reaching this milestone, LG is already gearing up for its next milestone. The company wants to double its LTE smartphones market share in 2013, and it expects to triple the sales of its LTE handsets this year. LG Mobile’s president and CEO, Jong-seok Park, stated, “Having established ourselves as a major industry player, we will continue to expand our footprint in the global LTE market with a wider range of differentiated, high quality LTE smartphones.”

LG attributes its success to a variety of factors, including launching its LTE devices globally, its early entry into the LTE markets, and its rollout of the LG Optimus G handsets. LG also stated that according to Strategy Analytics, global shipments of LTE handsets will reach 275 million, and LG hopes that it will be a major player in that figure. Alongside LG, Strategy Analytics attributes the upcoming boom of LTE handsets to Apple and Samsung as well.

LG doubling its sales of its LTE handsets this year doesn’t seem too far off. LG plans on releasing the LG Optimus G Pro sometime in Q2, and it has announced its LG Optimus F-series, which is a series of handsets capable of 4G LTE, but at a more affordable price point. All of these phones were announced at the Mobile World Congress this past week and are set to appeal to all types of consumers, from those seeking lower-end handsets to those seeking only the best handsets available.

[via LG]

LG sells 10 million LTE smartphones worldwide is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

If you didn’t get enough mobile news during the week, not to worry, because we’ve opened the firehose for the truly hardcore. This week brought news of a new direction for Muve Music, the arrival of a budget smartphone at Sprint and a whole lotta LTE expansion. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the “best of the rest” for this week of February 25th, 2013.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile

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AT&T has announced the latest 4G LTE expansion news. This latest includes new markets in Nebraska and Texas as well as expansions in previously existing markets in Arizona, Connecticut and Texas. Diving right in with the new markets, those include Lincoln, Nebraska as well as Lubbock, Texas and Austin, Texas with the latter including parts of Marble Falls, Burnet, Bertram and Round Mountain.

Moving over to the expansion in existing market and we begin with the Phoenix area. This coverage will now include parts of Avondale, Goodyear and Litchfield Park. Next up is dealing with Hartford County Connecticut which now includes parts of Avon, Bloomfield, Enfield, Farmington, Granby, New Britain, Simsbury, Suffield, West Hartford, Windsor and Windsor Locks. Last in terms of the expanded coverage deals with the Corpus Christi area in Texas. AT&T notes that 4G LTE coverage is now available in parts of Port Aransas, Mustang Island, Portland, Gregory, Odem, Five Points, and Bluntzer.

Bottom line, this is just another piece of the AT&T LTE network being filled out. We suppose those in any of these listed markets will be rather happy that they can make the move from 3G to LTE. This of course means that if you are in any of those areas and not carrying a handset with LTE support, now may be a good time to start considering that next upgrade — which hopefully you will be able to get sooner rather than later.

Otherwise, AT&T is still touting themselves as having the nation’s largest 4G network. It was said that this now offers coverage for 288 million people. Remember though, the AT&T 4G network is actually comprised of 4G HSPA+ and 4G LTE connectivity so speeds may vary depending on which you have. Also worth noting, AT&T allows “most” smartphone users free access to the 32,000 plus AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots across the country.

[via AT&T]

AT&T flips the 4G LTE switch in a handful of additional markets is written by Robert Nelson & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Can you smell it? Smartphone season is in the air. Along with recent leaks for the Lumia 720 and Lumia 520, another handset from Nokia was just tipped — this time at the FCC. The phone in question is known only as the RM-860, but with support for LTE bands 4 and 13, it carries the telltale marks as a Verizon smartphone. As you may recall, Nokia revealed earlier this year that it aims to bring high-end, mid-range and low-end Lumia smartphones to AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Given the relatively blah Lumia 822 that’s already at Big Red, could this be a sign that Verizon is set to gain its own iteration of the Lumia 920? Or, might it be that the carrier is aiming for lower hanging fruit?

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Nokia

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Source: FCC

LTE smartphones all but locked to specific carriers because they don’t support the profligate array of 4G frequencies in use could be a thing of the past, with Qualcomm promising its new RF360 radio chipset will play happily across 40 different bands. The Qualcomm RF360 Front End Solution can cope with all 40 of the different LTE frequenties carriers have deployed around the world, in addition to older HSPA+ and EVDO connections for when you’re outside of fledgling 4G coverage. Meanwhile, Qualcomm also promises that phones and tablets using the RF360 will be faster than their regular counterparts, as well as potentially smaller.

That’s down to a selection of chips that are actually up to 50-percent smaller than the current models, despite adding in far more band support. Power consumption has also been reduced, with Qualcomm claiming up to a 30-percent saving, while heat output is also cut.

Radio performance takes advantage of Qualcomm’s new dynamic antenna matching tuner (QFE15xx), which is the first ever to be able to automatically adjust the antenna performance depending on environmental constraints and how the user is actually holding the device. Effective not only for 4G use but 2G/3G, across the 700-2700MHz bands, the new tuner works alongside an integrated power amplifier and antenna switch that’s easier to install and accomodate on tight circuit boards.

Finally, there’s the RF POP QFE27EE, a stacked chipset combining a multiband power amp and antenna switch, the SAW filters, and duplexes. It will be interchangeable, too, allowing for manufacturers to choose between creating devices that work on a smaller subset of LTE frequencies – such as for specific carriers or regions – or a broad, global-roaming LTE implementation.

The huge increase in frequencies selected by 4G carriers worldwide has broken the market for devices down into an array of incompatible phones. Handsets like the iPhone 5, for instance, come in three different variants – outwardly identical, but with differing radio and antenna implementations – suited to different sets of networks, and the expectation that 3G device users had of being able to simply swap SIM cards and get up and running on a different carrier no longer applies.

For Qualcomm and manufacturers, meanwhile, the new RF360 radio is a way to simplify production: now a single SKU can be offered – potentially tailored by software and RF POP selection to suit the whims of carrier lock-down – rather than multiple iterations of the same device. The first products to use the RF360 Front End Solution will show up in 2013.

Qualcomm banishes LTE fragmentation with global RF360 radio: roaming ahoy! is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.