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Verizon’s first LTE dongle is startlingly large. But not as startling as the speed. More »

Verizon didn’t make any mention of it during it’s big announcement yesterday, but PC Magazine‘s Sascha Seagan has confirmed with the carrier that it will indeed be offering its 4G LTE service off-contract as well. That will actually come in at the same rates as the on-contract pricing — $50 for 5GB or $80 for 10GB, plus a $10 per GB overage — but you’ll have to shell out a full $249.99 for the modem, as opposed to just $99.99 on a two-year contract (after a $50 mail-in rebate).

Verizon confirms contract-free 4G LTE options: same rates, pricier modems originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Dec 2010 17:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve just gotten our hands on the less-insane version of Verizon’s LTE modems, the LG VL600. The company timed the shipment of these puppies to coincide with today’s announcement of the coming 4G onslaught, set to begin December 5th — which based on what we’ve seen thus far is going to be beyond awesome. Unless you’re on a Mac (more on that after the break).

In case you haven’t seen the device in question, it’s a rather large (we mean seriously large) USB dongle, which thankfully comes with a clip and extra cable. Like all LTE devices, it uses a SIM which will look familiar to those in GSM devices, but is — again — almost comically large.

We haven’t spent a load of time with the modem, but in the few short hours we’ve had to play with the device, the down- and upstream speeds we’re getting are nothing short of phenomenal. In Brooklyn, which we’re not even sure is really heavily covered by the LTE blanket (and was being battered by rain and wind at the time of testing), we saw consistent speeds which peaked at 7 Mbps down, and over 1 Mbps up. Overall, speeds held steady around 5 to 6 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up. By comparison, we saw around 4 Mbps down and less than 1 Mbps up when we did some testing with Sprint’s WiMAX Overdrive 4G, and roughly 6.5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up with Clear’s iSpot.

Overall, browsing on our computer felt nearly identical to our home broadband, and even HD video playback on YouTube was snappy and responsive over the network. And did we mention we were only getting two out of four bars on our connection?

Update: We’ve added a link to SlashGear‘s hands-on of the modem below. As you can see, speeds vary by area, and SG was pulling 12 Mbps downstream and more than 5 Mbps up — impressively matching Verizon’s claimed numbers.

Update 2: With a little more testing, we’re seeing speeds closer to Verizon’s estimates. We’ve added a second image after the break, and as you can see, we’re nabbing over 10 Mbps downstream and nearly 4 Mbps up.

Continue reading Verizon LTE / 4G preview with the LG VL600 modem

Verizon LTE / 4G preview with the LG VL600 modem originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 15:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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And here we go: Verizon just announced its 4G LTE pricing and full list of coverage areas. Some 38 markets will go live when the switch is flipped on December 5, including Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and LA, and pricing starts at $50/month for 5GB of data, with an $80/month plan for 10GB. Overages run $10 per GB, which isn’t insane, and there’s also supplemental coverage in around 60 airports. Check the full PR after the break.

Update: Some highlights from today’s press conference:

• More modems will be coming out within “weeks” and are all backwards compatible with its EV-DO network.
• Verizon will talk about “consumer-oriented devices” (translation: phones) at CES.
• The modems are capable of 4G-to-3G handoff, but not 3G-to-4G — they’ll stay on 3G until you’re done transmitting data.
• The LTE and 3G plans might integrate, according to CTO Tony Melone, but probably not until 2012 or 2013.
• It sounds like the modems will only be available in stores on December 5th — no third-party retailers at first.

Continue reading Verizon LTE plans start at $50/month for 5GB of data (update)

Verizon LTE plans start at $50/month for 5GB of data (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Verizon has a press conference lined up in a few minutes to officially drop all these details, but they’ve thrown their official LTE site live already where you can see almost everything you want to know: chiefly, that the initial 38 markets (and 60 airports) will go live this Sunday, December 5th with two USB modems in tow — one from LG and another from Pantech. We’ve already heard all of that in one form or another, but it’s nice to see it spelled out officially on Verizon’s site. The one crucial detail we’re still missing, of course, is plan pricing — so we anxiously await that here in the next few minutes, but in the meantime, feel free to play with Big Red’s LTE coverage locator.

Verizon’s LTE details go live: December 5th, 38 markets, 60 airports, and 2 USB modems originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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