The executives at Verizon are likely jumping for joy today, as the FCC has approved the company’s planned spectrum acquisition. Verizon will be purchasing spectrum licenses from SprectrumCo, which is a joint venture between a number of big cable companies, including Comcast and Time Warner. It’s paying a lot of money for access to that AWS spectrum as well, as the total price comes in at a whopping $3.9 billion.
Naturally, Verizon plans to use this freshly-acquired spectrum to expand its 4G services, but now that it has acquired the spectrum it wanted, it will be licensing out its lower A and B block spectrum to other companies. One of the companies that will licensing spectrum from Verizon is T-Mobile, which plans a roll out of 4G LTE for early 2013. In a statement, it was pretty easy to tell that Verizon president and CEO Dan Mead was eager to begin utilizing this new spectrum. “This purchase represents a milestone in the industry and we appreciate the FCC’s diligent work to review and approve the transaction,” he said. “We will work aggressively to ensure that we put this previously unused spectrum to use quickly to benefit customers.”
We’ve known about Verizon’s plan to buy up this unused spectrum since December, when it first noted it was interested in striking the deal. Given the number of companies involved the deal and the amount of money changing hands, the FCC had to become involved to make sure everything checked out. The FCC obviously doesn’t have the problem with the deal, announcing that Verizon has the green light to go ahead with the purchase today.
So, not only does this deal help Verizon greatly, but it will also help out other carriers and their customers. Verizon’s 4G LTE network already covers 75% of the United States, but with this new sale, Verizon will be able to give that a boost. Here’s hoping that Verizon begins its roll out as quickly as Mead’s comments suggest. Stay tuned, folks.
This week the folks at T-Mobile have announced a new smartphone for their 4G network with a low price and manufacturing done by none other than up-and-comer ZTE. This smartphone works with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, has a lovely 3.5-inch touchscreen display, and has a 2-megapixel camera on the back. The highlight of this little beast is the fact that it’ll be available on a variety of contracts through T-Mobile and various retail partners.
With this device you’ll be grabbing a T-Mobile single-line, Monthly4G no annual contract plan. This plan has unlimted talk, text, and data (without a cap) and access to T-Mobile’s 4G data network. You’re able to pair this device with Walmart’s Family Mobile service as well for monthly payments. This Walmart Family Mobile plan will bring on no-annual-contract phone service with data for individuals as well as families – again, all powered by T-Mobile’s network across the USA.
You’ll be able to pick up the T-Mobile Concord smartphone at Target as well at Walmart starting on August 26th. This device will be available for $99.99 with a qualifying Monthly4G plan at Target and for $99.98 paired with a Walmart Family Mobile no annual contract plan at – you guessed it – Walmart.
This device is the next in a line of ZTE products being brought to the United States by the manufacturer in their effort to enter this lively mobile market. ZTE is responsible for a collection of fabulous and strangely enticing devices internationally, most of them running Android, and we’re more than ready to welcome them to the USA with open arms. More manufacturers means more competition and better devices in the end – lets go!
Check the timeline below for more ZTE action and prepare yourself for more products created by them but branded with the carrier their on here in the USA.
We already know that Windows Phone 8 will bring high-definition screens to the platform, and LTE has been available for a while, but which company will be the first to bring the two technologies together? TmoNews has managed to spot some references to one of Samsung’s upcoming Windows Phone handsets, the SGH-T899, which will be reportedly be running a 4.65-inch screen with a 1280×720 resolution along with support for LTE.
That confirms Samsung’s Windows Phone 8 plans, first spotted in court documents relating to the trial against Apple at the end of July. Two handsets were listed in the court document, the Odyssey and the the Marco, with the Odyssey said to feature the same 4.65-inch Super AMOLED 720p display along with a dual-core Snapdragon S4 1.5Ghz processor and LTE connectivity. 1GB of RAM would also be onboard, as will an eight megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video.
The Odyssey looks like it’s heading to T-Mobile USA, in that case. The Marco, meanwhile, looks like it’s destined for AT&T, with a smaller 4-inch WVGA AMOLED screen, but the same dual-core 1.5Ghz processor and LTE connectivity. The Marco would also come with a five-megapixel camera and a two-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls. The Odyssey will feature NFC as well, something that the Marco won’t have.
Details of Samsung’s lineup may be clearer than before, but customers will have to wait until Windows Phone 8 launches in the next few months before they can get their hands on the phones. Reports suggest that Nokia may unveil two new handsets at Nokia World, with Microsoft representatives also on hand to detail the consumer oriented features of Windows Phone 8.
T-Mobile has been ordered by the US Department of Labor to not only immediately reinstate a whistleblower who voiced concerns over possibly fraudulent roaming charges, but also pay him a whopping $345,000 in back pay, lawyer fees, and damages. This order comes after the employee in question alleged that T-Mobile violated the protection the federal government gives whistleblowers, so it seems that the Department of Labor agrees. However, T-Mobile does not, saying that it will appeal and calling the DOL’s order “incorrect.”
When everything is broken down, the Department of Labor says that the whistleblower is owed $244,479 in back pay, $65,000 in damages, and $36,493 in attorney fees. That’s a lot of money for T-Mobile to have to dish out, so it’s no wonder the company wants to appeal. The employee raised concerns that “millions of dollars” in possibly fraudulent roaming charges were being imposed on “hundreds of international corporate customers” before being let go. Whether or not he was let go because he raised these concerns is the point of contention between the two parties.
T-Mobile released a statement shortly after the DOL handed down its order, saying that the department’s decision wasn’t based on evidence. “This preliminary conclusion is incorrect, not based on the evidence, and was made without the benefit of a trial process,” T-Mobile said. “T-Mobile will appeal this preliminary conclusion and looks forward to presenting its evidence at trial. T-Mobile acted appropriately and within the law in terminating the individual’s employment.”
So, while the ex-employee gets everything he wanted out of the DOL’s order, T-Mobile seems intent on appealing and going to trial. The company has 30 days to file its appeal, and you can bet that it will be doing so soon (if it hasn’t already). After that, we’ll see whether T-Mobile gets the trial it wants or if it will have to pay up anyway. Stay tuned.
The results for T-Mobile USA’s second quarter of 2012 are in and first up is the bad news — reported net customer losses of 205,000 are more than the 50,000 lost in the same period last year, and more than give back the growth reported in Q1. Of course, the carrier is banking on strategic initiatives to launch LTE service and expand coverage thanks to that AWS spectrum its receiving from AT&T and Verizon (if the deal is approved) to turn all that around, and those plans are still on track. Other high points for the quarter included the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy S III, as well as a host of other handsets. Also it announced the opening of it’s 1,000 T-Mobile Premium Retailer store, started pushing its prepaid and Monthly4G services at Dollar General Stores, launched two new mobile broadband data plans and added two MVNO partners. All the details are in the press release after the break, although it seems that as busy as T-Mobile has been putting pen to paper, investors will have to keep waiting to see the benefits.
In the mood for some new hardware? T-Mobile has launched a handful of new smartphones today, most notably the Samsung Galaxy Note. The Galaxy Note is pretty expensive (despite the fact that it’s been available at other carriers for months), so if you need a more budget-friendly handset, T-Mobile has you covered with a pair of new myTouch devices.
Those with a little extra cash to spend should give the Galaxy Note a look. Its larger-than-normal 5.3-inch screen gives it the distinction of being the largest smartphone on the market, but if you can get over the size (or if the size was never an issue in the first place), you’ll find it’s a pretty solid device. Check out our review for more details. It’s worth pointing out that Samsung is expected to reveal the Galaxy Note 2 at IFA 2012 later this month, so if you’re hesitant to drop $249 on the original Galaxy Note – that’s after a $50 mail-in rebate – you may want to wait and see what Samsung has in store for the end of August.
Also available today are the myTouch and the myTouch Q from Huawei, the latest in the long-running line of myTouch handsets. T-Mobile veterans will be familiar with the line, as it’s been featured at T-Mobile for quite some time now. There aren’t too many differences to be found between the myTouch and the myTouch Q – both run Android 2.3 Gingerbread and both come with a 4-inch screen – but one features a slide out keyboard. Both cost only $49 each, after a $50 mail-in rebate, and have a look at our review if you’re considering picking one of these up.
So there you have it – T-Mobile is offering these three new handsets starting today, though one is arriving a bit late and smartphone fanatics will have a hard time getting excited about the other two. It’ll be interesting to see how the Galaxy Note does at T-Mobile, especially if Samsung is planning to unveil Galaxy Note 2 in less than a month. Better late than never, we suppose.
It appears that T-Mobile will soon be getting the HTC One X, although this time around it will be coming with slightly different branding. HTC’s powerhouse will apparently be called the HTC One X+ when it arrives at T-Mobile, and though there are many things that are similar to the currently-available One X, there are a few key differences. For instance, the NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad-core processor will be returning in the One X+, giving the One X+ a pretty significant boost in processing power over AT&T’s dual-core model.
The One X+ will also be running Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean when it arrives, if the NenaMark2 benchmark results from TmoNews are to believed. The standard One X runs Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box, so if this is true, the One X+ will be getting a pretty major upgrade as far as operating systems go.
Other than the increase in processing power and the shiny new install of Jelly Bean, the One X+ will be more or less the same as the One X. That 4.7-inch screen is still capable of running a resolution of 1280 x 720, which means 720p playback. The HTC One X+ apparently has been codenamed the HTC Evitaire for the moment, and currently, we don’t have any idea of when HTC is planning to pull the veil off this bad boy.
The HTC One X+ is said to making its debut at T-Mobile sometime in September, so anxious HTC fans may not have much longer to wait. Our pals over at Android Community have passed along a rumor that this may be headed to AT&T as well, but with the standard HTC X currently soaking up the spotlight at AT&T, that doesn’t seem all that likely. Anything goes in the realm of smartphones, however, so the HTC One X+ could very well be headed to AT&T’s shelves. Stay tuned.
This week we’ve gotten our hands on the next generation of myTouch devices for T-Mobile, one with a push-out QWERTY keyboard, the other without. Both of these devices are essentially identical save for the slight difference in hardware with the keyboard, otherwise they’ve both got a 4-inch display at 480 x 800 pixel resolution, a 5 megapixel camera on their backs with a single LED flash, and they’ve got single-core 1.4GHz processor inside as well. With a keyboard you’ve got the myTouch Q, and without a keyboard you’ve got the myTouch, and both of these devices are manufactured by Huawei.
Hardware
These devices are relatively heavy for their size at 6.52 oz (185 g) (for the Q) and 4.94 oz (140 g). They’re a nice size for the palm and do have a nice styling to them since they’re basically the same set of shapes as the HTC versions of the myTouch line that came before them, including the HTC lip at the bottom of the display. They’re not made by HTC, on the other hand, they’re made by Huawei. Check out our myTouch 4G review from 2010, our myTouch 4G Slide review from 2011, and our T-Mobile myTouch 3G unboxing from back in 2009, each of them made by HTC.
You can see when you remove the back of these devices that you’ve got a Huawei battery (at 1500mAh) and room for a microSD card for an additional 32GB of storage space. You’re also using a full-sized SIM card and a the battery cover has a strange feel to it – almost like a very very fine sandpaper. You’ve got a dedicated physical camera button on the lower end of the right side of each of the phones, and your lockscreen can access the camera directly along with messages and your phone dialer.
These devices feel generally good to handle and, if we’d had the chance to use them 2 years ago, we’d certainly be placing them amongst the nicest smartphones on the market. At the moment, they’re certainly much closer to the middle tier. These devices are made for users brand new to Android.
Have a peek at some benchmark results here – and note that results have been essentially identical on both devices, so much so that we’re posting one set of results here that fairly represent both near-identical devices. You’ll see right away that these devices are not made for those looking for a massive amount of power. Instead they’re meant for users looking to play basic games, social networking, and general phone communication activities.
Software
Inside you’ll find a user interface that’s not quite as refined as Samsung’s TouchWiz, quite similar to HTC’s Sense, and almost nothing like LG’s UI. The Qualcomm processor inside this device makes everything move fairly swiftly, but not nearly as swift as the top tier smartphones you’ll find on T-Mobile – this is no Galaxy S III, and it’s not an HTC One S, that’s for sure. Instead is a device whose software was developed closely between T-Mobile and Huawei, a company relatively new to the USA looking to make a name for themselves subtly, not in a big way like its major competitors.
So subtly, in fact, that you might not ever realize who manufactured this device if you didn’t take off the battery cover on the back of the device. The front of the device too only says myTouch for a brand, this being T-Mobile’s line of affordable yet uniquely situated line of devices made up until now by HTC. The styling here is similar, and for the software there is indeed one component that remains the same – the Genius button.
You’ll find this button in the lower right-hand side of the display along with the other light-up buttons mentioned above. It’s green and replaces what you might remember from the past generation of Android devices as the search button. Here this green button with a lower-cased g on it offers you a selection of abilities that range from voice-activated selection of contacts to searching the web.
Though the Genius element here does not have quite as accurate a voice recognition as Google’s new detector in Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and it’s certainly no Samsung S-Voice, you will find it to be pretty entertaining. Other than the Genius button, it’s all pretty standard fare – you’re working with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which is a system that’s been updated twice over since it was revealed over a year ago, but it’s still perfectly fine for users new to Android.
Camera
Have a peek at some examples of what the 5-megapixel camera on both of these devices can do. As far as we can tell, both devices use exactly the same hardware in the camera department, so no worries about considering which is better than the other. Check out the video below as well – fairly decent.
Battery Life
You’ll be rolling out with a battery that’s certainly not gigantic at 1500mAh, but the phone itself doesn’t require that much power to run with the low-requirements display and processor. Because of this, you’ll have a full day’s charge almost no matter what. Again, as with essentially everything else on these phones, both have used the battery they’ve been given a basically even amount of quickness.
Wrap-Up
Both of these devices will be popping up on T-Mobile very, very soon. Make sure not to mistake them for the myTouch and myTouch Q that are already on T-Mobile as made by LG, for though they may have the same name, they’re definitely different models. You may just want to head into your local T-Mobile store to make sure you’re getting what you want in this case, since we’ve not actually had the chance to grab the LG versions since they were out for so short a time. The Huawei manufactured T-Mobile myTouch and myTouch Q smartphones we’ve reviewed here will be in stores on August 8th.
This week we’ve got our hands on the Samsung Galaxy Note as carried by T-Mobile in the USA – and with it we’ve got another home-run for the unique device team. Samsung took the time to create something unique in the Galaxy Note when it was first revealed for an international audience, and now the T-Mobile user base has the opportunity to use it on their favorite carrier. Is that the beginning and the end of it? Let’s have a peek!
Hardware
You’ve got a massive 5.3-inch screen here with 800 x 1280 pixel resolution (285 pixels per inch) across its face. Without a doubt, this is the largest smartphone you’ll ever have come across – as it is the largest smartphone on the market. Samsung would have you believe that this is not a smartphone, but a unique device that’s not a smartphone and not a tablet – but when it comes down to it, it’s completely up to you on how you define it.
The size of this device along with the width of it makes it so using the S-Pen docked within it is almost a necessity, but not quite. You’ve got a hearty collection of abilities with the device’s pen, many of which you’ll see with the Premium Suite upgrade that comes standard with this device (right out of the box.) Have a peek in the software section below to get a better handle at what the pen can do for you.
This Galaxy Note has a removable back panel so you’ve got access to your sim card as well as your microSD card, and your battery is removable, and therefor replaceable, as well. The exterior of the device is plastic on the back and around the rim while the front is one giant smooth flat reinforced glass panel. While the international edition of this device has a single physical home button, this version, as it is with the AT&T version, has a set of four capacitive buttons which work with both taps and long-presses to bring on your Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades such as multi-tasking with recent app selections.
The device is certainly something you’re going to want to hold in your own hands before you purchase – it’s something you’ve got to get used to if you’ve always used palm-sized devices in the past. Once you do get used to it, you’ll have a tough time going back to a smaller screen as well as going without a pen.
Software
With this release of the Samsung Galaxy Note you’ll get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich right out of the box. This device has the Premium Suite as we detailed recently on the AT&T Galaxy Note – this device has the same software save the carrier-specific bits. That means you’ve got T-Mobile’s collection of data watchers and content devourers, otherwise the whole experience is the same as the AT&T device.
Have a peek at some hands-on time we had with the AT&T Galaxy Note with Premium Suite here:
Note that you’ve got the hook up with a variety of Samsung-specific sharing abilities as well as the Media Hub for movies and television shows as well. T-Mobile also provides live TV (for a fee) and some other gems that will make you glad you’re on the big pink carrier. Benchmark tests on this device have turned up, on the whole, to be the same as they’ve been with the AT&T Galaxy Note with Premium Upgrade. Have a peek at Quadrant Standard here:
Battery Time and Signal Strength
We’ve collected several speed tests here both in Minnesota and in Southern California so you get a double dose of signal strength data. You should really take the time to check if you’re in an optimal environment for your T-Mobile 4G data to come through with the ultimate speed for yourself, as you do live in your own unique area wherever you make your home, but what you see here will give you two ideas of what you might see.
The battery on this device is massive and, like the original Galaxy Note as well as the rest of the smart device on this planet, the amount of time you’ve got with your device without battery charging completely depends on the amount you use it. If you’re a heavy user, this meaning you stream video with the Samsung Media Hub (or download it) and Tweet and snap photos and chat all day long, the possibility exists that you’ll need to charge after about 10 hours.
As for those of you that are light or average users – like myself if I’m not out traveling – you’ll not need to worry about charging all day long. Make sure you’ve got the device hooked up to a charge when you sleep at night and you’ll be fine throughout the day.
Camera
The camera here on the Galaxy Note is exactly the same as we’ve experienced with the original Galaxy Note as well as the AT&T Galaxy Note. This is not a bad thing. Check out a few 8 megapixel photos and a 1080p video shot with the device for good measure.
Wrap-Up
This is your time, T-Mobile loyal fans, to finally attain the massive handheld device known as the Galaxy Note for your own. You’ve had the opportunity to pick up the international version for one gigantic wad of cash before, as it did (and does) work on T-Mobile bands, but now is the time when you can actually purchase an affordable version right from the T-Mobile store with 2-year contract. The decision you’ve got to make now is whether you want a Galaxy Note or a Galaxy S III – both are available on T-Mobile right this minute.
Lucky you, we’ve got a Samsung Galaxy Note vs Galaxy S III on T-Mobile post prepared for you to have your sweet time with, and an international comparison if you need another look. Of course there’s also a selection of other devices on the carrier as well, but when you’re addicted to Samsung, you’re addicted to Samsung. Let us know in the comments below whether or not you’re going to latch on!
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