Hasta La Gadget!

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse isn’t so narrowly focused as to think that the proposed Clearwire acqusition represents the end of the road for spectrum. Far from it: he tells Bloomberg Businessweek that the company is investigating future airwave deals involving companies and government auctions. The Clearwire deal mostly bought time, according to Hesse. Naturally, these ambitions are partly contingent on both SoftBank’s purchase of Sprint and the absence of any Dish-sized hurdles to the Clearwire pact. As long as the path stays clear, though, we wouldn’t assume that Hesse’s shopping spree is over.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, Sprint

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Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

We’ve already got quite a lineup unveiled so far, but the fun doesn’t stop now, my friends — if anything, we’ll be ratcheting up the excitement as we get closer and closer to Expand in San Francisco this March 16 and 17th. We’ll have full profiles of all 10 of our Insert Coin Semi-Finalists rolling over the next few days, and your audience vote will determine which top five will also get to demo on our stage — and voting will kick off today at 12:30pm PST / 3:30pm EST! Stay tuned!

But if you still need more reasons to attend Expand, how about 10 of ’em? Followed by four more inspiring speakers you’ll get to see — all for the low, low price of 50 bucks:

• Matt Rogers: Founder & VP of Engineering, Nest
• Dave Icke: CEO, MC10
• Ryan Sullivan: Director of Product Delivery, Sprint
• John Scalzi: President, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Read on for the Engadget editors you most want to meet…

And yet there’s a whole other cadre of professionals who will be gracing our event stage, and that is the incredibly hardworking team of Engadget editors. We’ll be bringing out the majority of our crew to make the Expand magic happen — and we ran a ticket giveaway contest last week to see which of them you are most excited to meet. Here is just a short list of some of the editors you’re looking forward to colliding with in the proverbial Real World (and please stay tuned to @EngadgetExpand for more chances to win tickets and other goodies!):

And don’t forget…

• If you’re a company that would like to work with us on an exhibition or sponsorship level, please drop us a line at sponsors at engadget dot com (DIYers and small startups, please ask us about our new Indie Corner option!)
• If you’re interested in speaking at the event, please contact expand at engadget dot com to inquire
• If you’re a member of the media interested in covering Expand, please contact engadget at shiftcomm.com for more information.

Filed under: Announcements, Meta

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The HTC One that was announced earlier this morning, with T-Mobile being first off the blocks to say that they will be offering the smartphone in due time, will have company in the form of AT&T as well as Sprint, as both mobile carriers have announced that they too, will jump aboard the HTC One bandwagon.

Just to recap, the HTC One will be 4G LTE enabled smartphone, letting you take advantage of 4G LTE networks on both AT&T as well as Sprint. AT&T lays claim to having the US’ largest 4G network that covers a whopping 288 million people, although Sprint has their own selling point as well with their Truly Unlimited data plan that has no metering, throttling or overages. Surely, the HTC One is spoilt for choice when it comes to mobile carriers.

Unfortunately for those of us who cannot wait to pick up the HTC One, there is no word on the exact date as to when the smartphone will be released, and neither do we know how much will it cost. Expect it to retail on the high end side of things though.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Sony Xperia Z Rooted Before Official Release, HTC One Photos Not The Coolest On The Block,

Sprint has added new locations to its 4G LTE network, mainly in the San Francisco area, New York City and Washington, D.C as s part of their nationwide rollout of the 4G LTE network. The service seems to be great in some neighborhoods, while not so good in others.

The site deployment has started in San Francisco and coverage will become better as more sites are added.  The sites being added are an addition to 58 locations announced by Sprint in January.  More sites will be added later and announced once Sprint reaches good coverage .

According to Engadget’s testing team, the highest speed they could get was 16.7Mbps for download and 9.4Mbps for uploads.  The service seems to vary location wise and it seems reliable in Potrero Hill and South of Market areas. Sprint is  following a strategy where it’s launching the 4G LTE network in locations and then getting customer feedback.  Although Sprint has not been able to completely follow its projected network launch area, but they seem to be doing well and should have the network updated before the end of 2013.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Blackberry Enterprise Server Vulnerable To Malware From TIFF Images, Bill Gates Not Happy With Microsoft’s Mobile Phone Strategy,

The FCC took significant steps to cut the waste from its Lifeline phone subsidy program at the start of last year. However, it might not have gone far enough, if an FCC review of the program prompted by the Wall Street Journal is an indicator. Among the top five providers receiving money for telecom service to the poor in 2012, 41 percent of their customers either couldn’t or didn’t prove they were eligible. The lack of answers leaves a real possibility that some of the $2.2 billion spent on Lifeline in 2012 might have gone to those who didn’t need it. In response, the FCC is keen to claim that its reforms may have saved $214 million last year, but it isn’t happy that there may still have been money going down the tubes — it’s investigating the accusations and could levy fines of up to $1.5 million per violation. While only Verizon has gone on the record and says it’s been dropping customers who wouldn’t prove their eligibility, it’s likely we’ll know more about the potential excesses in the near future.

Filed under: Cellphones, Household, Wireless, Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, AT&T

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Source: Wall Street Journal, FCC