4g - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Vodafone shifts all customers to 4G data

  Vodafone on Wednesday said it had hit a major milestone in its core network upgrade with its 5.3 million customers now using the infrastructure for 4G data sessions.
  

• FCC tells TracFone it must allow phone unlocking

  TracFone, a major provider of prepaid mobile phone service, must keep its promise to let customers unlock their devices and transfer service to competing carriers, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said.

• This wireless hotspot has room for 10 SIM cards for LTE roaming

  Finnish company Uros has launched an LTE version of its wireless hotspot that can be equipped with 10 SIM cards to make roaming abroad easier.

• Qualcomm may adapt LTE into a network anyone can deploy

  As if the all the controversy over LTE networks crowding out Wi-Fi isn't enough, a new technology in the works at Qualcomm Research might allow a lot more people to set them up.

• LTE subscriptions to surpass 1 billion this year

  The number of LTE subscriptions will pass 1 billion before the end of the year, prompting operators to invest in technologies such as small cells to keep up.

• Two years on, Google's Project Loon drifts into focus

  It's been two years since Google first disclosed Project Loon, and while the company continues to keep most details of the project secret, the technology and challenges behind it are slowly coming into focus.

• FCC proposal would extend Lifeline voice subsidy to broadband

  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will consider including broadband within a controversial program that subsidizes telephone or mobile service for poor people.

• Future traffic jams could slow down mobile networks

  Traffic jams may become even more of an aggravation than they are today as mobile networks struggle to handle a rapidly increasing number of connected cars.

• LTE smartphones are becoming faster and cheaper

  High-end smartphones offer high-speed wireless connections -- but few mobile operators have made the infrastructure investments required to keep up with them. The arrival of cheaper phones with 300Mbps LTE capabilities may encourage that investment.

• FCC asks how LTE can share the airwaves with Wi-Fi

  A way to let cellular operators share Wi-Fi frequencies without jamming up Internet service is now in the spotlight at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

• Telcos still reaping $1.7B from ‘dumb’ phones

  A long forgotten community of mobile users with little interest in touch screens, apps and 4G networks are quietly paying around $1.7 billion per year to telcos more focused on wooing high spending smartphone users.
  

• FCC moves toward 'historic' spectrum sharing plan

  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved what some commissioners called a "historic" plan to allow private mobile broadband services to share spectrum with incumbent military users.

• Cheap mobile subscriptions the bait as Euro operators become more aggressive

  Consumers seem to be coming out on top as a growing number of European telecom and cable operators offer discounted mobile subscriptions as a bonus for choosing other services.

• US lawmakers push for auctions of gov't spectrum

  A group of U.S. lawmakers has reintroduced legislation aimed at encouraging government agencies to give up their spectrum by allowing the agencies to share in the profits when the spectrum is auctioned to commercial mobile carriers.

• Wireless router from Huawei hints at new ways to speed up LTE

  In the hunt for more spectrum to offer higher wireless broadband speeds, mobile operators and equipment vendors are showing a growing interest in a new candidate.