Hasta La Gadget!

Bloomberg is citing “three people familiar with the talks” (it’s not often that we get a specific number!) as saying that LightSquared is in active negotiations with Sprint to use its network infrastructure as it builds out its L-band LTE network. As you might recall, LightSquared is the would-be 4G wholesaler that is in the process of repurposing some satellite spectrum for terrestrial LTE use — a concept the FCC has approved, but concerns over GPS interference could end up delaying or derailing the strategy altogether if they aren’t solved to everyone’s satisfaction. Of course, building out any sort of national terrestrial wireless network is a multi-billion dollar, multi-year type of venture, and presumably a tie-up with Sprint to use some of its hardware would help move matters along. What this means for Sprint’s existing dealings with Clearwire is unclear; the two operate a WiMAX network together, after all, but the carrier has made it clear in the past that LTE could definitely be an option in the future.

Sprint allegedly talking to LightSquared over 4G infrastructure deal, Clearwire should be sweating originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 11:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When will the Motorola Xoom, ahem, justify its price point with a dose of Verizon’s speedy LTE? According to an allegedly leaked Verizon document at Droid-Life, it seems we’ll see it by the end of May. You can read the rest for yourself immediately above, but if you have an aversion to JPEG images we’ll also spell out the salient points here: the upgrade will reportedly be completely free, including shipping; both hardware and software tweaks will be carried out by Motorola; and the whole process will take up to six business days. If these facts are all correct (and we don’t honestly doubt a one), you should see them mirrored at our more coverage link in the days to come.

Update: The official Xoom LTE upgrade site is now live confirming that the process will take six business days to complete after shipping it off to Verizon in a FedEx box, free of charge. Unfortunately, VZW won’t say exactly when the upgrade will be available, going only so far as to say “shortly after launch.”

Motorola Xoom will get LTE in ‘approximately 90 days,’ requires one week for hardware upgrade (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 22:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though it really came to a head with the recently-launched Inspire 4G, users have noticed that there really aren’t many phones in AT&T’s stable that deliver stellar upload speeds — the Atrix 4G is suffering the same sub-megabit performance, as are older devices that should seemingly support HSUPA like the Samsung Captivate.

We’ve chatted in the past few days with a source who offers an interesting explanation: AT&T currently requires that all handsets that it sells “handshake” with the network as 3GPP Release 5 devices, the last official set of 3G specifications that lacked support for HSUPA. That feature — also known as EDCH, or FDD Enhanced Uplink — was added in Release 6. Though AT&T is apparently working on permitting the bulk of its handsets to handshake Release 6, presently only the iPhone 4 (and presumably all of its recent data devices like USB modems, which may also use Release 7) are allowed. Neither we, nor our source, know why this is. Our source believes that the Release 6 certification may happen within a “month or two,” which would explain why some AT&T sales reps in live HSPA+ areas are telling customers that the “4G network” isn’t live yet.

You can form your own conclusions as to why AT&T might be imposing this arbitrary limitation, but we do know that “enhanced” backhaul figures prominently into the company’s 4G story; there may be concerns that flipping on HSUPA for everyone right now would overwhelm its legacy infrastructure. At any rate, it sounds like this could all be solved soon through a combination of network changes and possibly firmware updates for individual devices, so let’s keep our fingers crossed.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

AT&T’s brewing HSUPA-gate: the inside story originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If our review of the Atrix left you hungering for more, you can now feast your eyes on the guts of Motorola’s new Android powerhouse. Thanks to the folks at iFixit, its teardown reveals a familiar range of parts — 16GB of NAND flash, 960×540 PenTile LCD, 1GB DDR2 RAM and that beast of a NVIDIA Tegra 2 CPU. What’s more, is that the teardown brings to light some enticing news — the glass panel is not glued to the LCD. This allows for the clumsy to not have to spend the extra dough if they crack the glass (which is usually affixed to the display). Hit the source link if you’ve got your Atrix and are ready to dismantle the thing yourself.

P.S. — There is a Qualcomm MDM6200 HSPA+ chip inside the phone. The title is meant to be a joke in reference to misconceptions about 4G wireless technology. You can read about them here.

Motorola Atrix 4G gets the teardown treatment, fourth G nowhere to be found originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’re not sure how they feel in lands where fiber optic connections flow like wine, but in most of the developed world a up to 42 megabit per second internet connection feels mighty fine. Fine enough, in fact, that it can make sense to share it with your peers, and that’s why Netgear’s new MBR1310 and MBR2000 routers are here. They’re quad-band DC-HSPA+ units that dole out that precious 3G data over 802.11n WiFi or via four 10/100 wired ethernet ports, with the MBR2000 adding ADSL2+ for a wired backup option. If you’re lucky enough to be working with LTE in Europe, there’s the MBR1517 as well, virtually identical to the model announced for Verizon but presumably with different carrier support. No word on when, where, or how much any of these fallback connectivity options will cost. PR after the break.

Continue reading Netgear unveils a pair of 42Mbps HSPA+ routers, and one for LTE

Netgear unveils a pair of 42Mbps HSPA+ routers, and one for LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 10:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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