Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T-Mobile? They’ll have plenty of time to figure out what to name the new company as this deal moves through court (though, to be totally honest, I’d imagine the T-Mobile name would really stick around). Odds are that the government will be keeping a pretty tight eye on AT&T’s bid to buy T-Mobile–the combination of two of the big four wireless carriers is the sort of thing that immediate raises antitrust concerns everywhere.

This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future. It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people. Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more. During the past few years, America’s high-tech industry has delivered innovation at unprecedented speed, and this combination will accelerate its continued growth.

RootMetrics found Verizon's 4G upload and download speeds significantly higher than other carriers'.

Have you been wondering if that new 4G smartphone you purchased is really getting 4G speeds? Wonder no longer.

RootMetrics performed an extensive study to determine how each network’s 4G speeds are holding up to their claims. The testing was performed across the Seattle area.

Their findings showed that Verizon’s LTE network performed at a 100 percent data-success rate. Its average data speeds were between four and 14.5 times faster than competitors, and average upload speeds were between 4.7 and 49.3 times faster.

The phone models tested included the HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon), HTC Inspire (AT&T), HTC Evo (Sprint) and Samsung Galaxy S (T-Mobile). RootMetrics’ CEO Paul Griff said that the smartphone model and its hardware had very little to do with 4G performance — that performance is almost all network related.

Wired has previously broken down what each carrier means by 4G, and what speeds should be expected from each service. Verizon’s LTE network promises speeds of 5-12 Mbps down and 1-5 Mbps up; AT&T’s HSPA+ network should provide 6 Mbps down (and they plan to upgrade to LTE in 2011); Sprint’s WiMax technology promises an average of 3-6 Mbps down and 0.6-1.4 Mbps up; and T-Mobile’s HSPA+ is supposed to provide 5-10 Mbps down. AT&T has reportedly been capping 4G speeds on Android handsets, but this has not been definitively verified.

Over in Oakland, California, the folks at TechnoBuffalo decided to perform a 4G speed test of their own using the HTC Inspire and Thunderbolt.

Using SpeedTest.net’s services and the phones’ Wi-Fi hotspot modes, they discovered median speeds of 8.85 Mbps down and 3.68 up on Verizon’s LTE network, and 2.16 Mbps down and .16 up on AT&T’s HSPA+ service — on par with RootMetrics’ results.

RootMetrics was careful to point out that merely achieving high data speeds doesn’t mean much unless it happens on a regular basis, though. It found that Verizon’s 4G download speeds were greater than 10 Mbps about 90 percent of the time, and their upload speeds were between 5 and 10 Mbps 100 percent of the time.

And Verizon’s average upload speeds were faster than every other carrier’s average download speeds by 37 percent.

A graph of how often each 4G service achieved a certain range of download speeds (from 0-500 Kbps to greater than 10 Mbps) shows Verizon dominating the high end, AT&T spending most of its time in the lower half, and Sprint and T-Mobile’s services ranging widely throughout.

How will AT&T and T-Mobile’s recently announced merger affect their 4G services? That’s yet to be seen.

“Our results stand alone and provide interesting context around consumer data experience for both carrier’s networks in the Seattle area,” said a representative from RootMetrics.

Until it is known how and if the two carriers will combine their networks, it’s difficult to say how the merger will affect their future 4G service. But it’s safe to say, unless it’s LTE, it won’t hold a candle to Verizon’s network.
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Comparing the Carriers: 4G Data Speed Study (.pdf) Thanks Julie!

Never mind the practicalities of T-Mobile and AT&T using different 3G bands, Apple not having approved any deal for extended distribution of its phone, or the fact AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile isn’t set to complete for another year. The immediate reaction to AT&T agreeing to buy T-Mobile USA was to ask, “so that means the iPhone’s coming to T-Mo, right?” Well, wrong. T-Mobile has delivered an FAQ on its site informing customers about the forthcoming transition, including the unequivocal notice regarding the iPhone:

“T-Mobile USA remains an independent company. The acquisition is expected to be completed in approximately 12 months. We do not offer the iPhone. We offer cutting edge devices like the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and coming soon our new Sidekick 4G.”

So that settles that (for a year, anyway). In other news, service and billing won’t be changing, and there’s a promise that T-Mobile devices will continue to operate as they do now even after the acquisition is complete. Ominously, however, the company fails to answer its own question about pricing changes, stating only that it’ll honor “all contracted plans that are entered into before the change of ownership.”

T-Mobile answers its customers’ most Frequently Asked Question: no iPhone originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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AT&T just announced that they’re buying T-Mobile from Deutsche Telekom for $39 billion. The deal makes AT&T the largest network in the country and leaves us with only three major US carriers. More »

The front and back of Apple's iPhone 4 are composed of glass. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

With some unauthorized hacks, you can share your smartphone’s internet connection with other devices, free of charge — and AT&T has had enough of that.

On the iPhone, for example, the hack MyWi has been a popular tool for “tethering” the handset’s internet connection for free, and just recently users of MyWi reported receiving text messages and e-mails from AT&T requiring them to “update” their plans.

“Well, that was fun while it lasted,” a MyWi user posted in a forum. “It was a good 3 years. Goodbye iPhone tethering.”

AT&T is telling users of free tethering that they have three options:

1. Stop using free tethering.
2. Contact AT&T to activate a legitimate tethering plan and start paying up.
3. Go ahead and keep tethering, and AT&T will automatically sign you up for a tethering plan and bill you.

Also known as mobile hot-spotting, the official tethering service provided by both AT&T and Verizon costs an additional $20 per month on top of data and voice plans. Free, unauthorized tethering has been accessible on the iPhone for years, and AT&T is only now beginning to crack down on people using the service without paying.

“We’ve just begun sending letters, e-mails, and text messages to a small number of smartphone customers who use their devices for tethering but aren’t on our required tethering plan,” an AT&T spokesman told Wired.com. “Our goal here is fairness for all of our customers.”

AT&T told Wired.com that it’s “able to determine if a smartphone customer is using the device as a broadband connection for other devices,” which isn’t surprising, because telecom carriers carefully monitor our mobile activities, counting the number of texts we send, voice-call minutes placed, and data used per month.

It’s unclear whether Verizon will take similar action on smartphone customers using free tethering tools. Verizon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wired readers: Take our poll below! If you’re an AT&T customer and you’ve been tethering with your phone, we want to know whether you’ve heard from the carrier about it.

See Also:

• AT&T Adds iPhone Tethering, Kills Unlimited Data for iPad. Smartphones
• Verizon Denies Tethering, Hot Spot Features to Droid Customers
• Apple Approves, Pulls Flashlight App with Hidden Tethering Mode
• Verizon iPhone Tethering Plan: $20 and Two Extra Gigabytes
• AT&T Copies Verizon iPhone’s Tethering, Hot-Spot Plans