Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T hasn’t been quite as forthcoming with the exact details of its next-gen network plans as T-Mobile and Verizon have been recently, but FierceBroadbandWireless appears to have wrested a tidbit from wireless boss Ralph de la Vega in a recent interview. Though the standard HSPA 7.2Mbps deployment is still AT&T’s short-term focus, HSPA+ — which can theoretically take HSPA to 21Mbps and beyond — is clearly still on its radar prior to LTE. “We will also deploy HSPA+ in certain locations,” de la Vega said on no uncertain terms — without revealing even a hint about where those “certain locations” might be, unfortunately.

Speaking of LTE, the 4G tech still seems to be on AT&T’s back burner for the moment with the first commercial markets not scheduled to light up until 2011, a strategy that seems pretty difficult to argue with considering HSPA’s considerable room to grow from its current speeds and the lack of LTE devices in the pipeline. Of course, that could end up really hurting these guys a few years down the line when the first generation of LTE is in its prime and they’ve given Verizon about a year’s head start, but — and this is a huge “but” — if they can save up some cash by rolling cheaper HSPA upgrades now and really dump unheard-of levels of cash into the network when they’re good and ready, it’s conceivable that they’ll be able to build out a big footprint in short order. Ralph, can we recommend you look to Bell and Telus for inspiration on how to pull that off?

AT&T’s de la Vega: HSPA+ coming ‘in certain locations’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s still far, far too early to call WiMAX a dead technology, but with the second major infrastructure supplier moving away from it in as many months, that’s a pretty damning sign, isn’t it? After Alcatel Lucent’s announcement that it would be scaling back WiMAX investment last month, Cisco has now pulled the plug on its own efforts, citing a desire to stay as “radio-agnostic” as possible in the 4G race. That makes sense for a company that hasn’t traditionally played in the wireless game the same way stalwarts like Ericsson and Nokia Siemens have, but the move still lies in stark contrast to Cisco’s 2007 acquisition of Navini Networks that brought a host of WiMAX-focused equipment into the fold. Of course, CDMA has managed just fine in the shadow of GSM’s global domination over the past decade, so these early warning signs could amount a fat load of nothing by the time we’ve reached a 4G steady state.

Another one bites the dust: Cisco steps out of the WiMAX game originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s impossible to say with certainty what we’re looking at here, but by all appearances, this is likely the first time most of you (and all of us) have seen HTC’s so-called Supersonic on video. As a refresher, this is the phone rumored to be rocking Android, WiMAX, and pretty much every other spec line item you could possibly want for a date with destiny on Sprint later this year — and while you can’t make out much from the 40-second video, you can clearly make out the red earpiece grill we’ve seen in past pictures, suggesting that this isn’t the similarly-equipped Incredible we’ve heard of for Verizon. Anyhow, care to get dinner and a movie sometime this Summer, Supersonic? Follow the break for the full video.

Update: …and that was quick! Video’s been pulled, but if it’s any consolation, there’s not much more to it than the screen grab above. We’ll leave the video after the break just in case it comes back online.

Update 2: New video posted after the break! Yay! Also, commenters have astutely noted that there appears to be some sort of nav pad at the bottom of the phone, something the Supersonic lacks — so perhaps this is the Incredible after all, or a third Android superphone out of HTC. Clearly, we’re not complaining if that’s the case.

Continue reading HTC Supersonic (or Incredible) spotted on video?

HTC Supersonic (or Incredible) spotted on video? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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