Verizon Wireless is planning on introducing a brand new $50 monthly prepaid this weak in an effort to edge in on MetroPCS and Sprint-owned Boost and Virgin Mobile. The $50 monthly prepaid is said to include unlimited text, talk, and web according to the Wall Street Journal. The new plan, which fair launched back in April as “Unleashed” in limited markets, will be available to customers in Verizon stores, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. As of right now, the new plan is much cheaper than Verizon’s current unlimited talk and text prepaid option, which currently costs $94.99 per month.

“This is a very competitive market, and we want to make sure we have a price portfolio to fit a greater number of customers,” Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney said. “In these times there are some people who would prefer living on a prepaid plan.”

As of right now, Verizon’s competitors charge the following: AT&T’s GoPhone service offers the same unlimited option and costs $50 per month. Virgin Mobile’s service costs $55 per month although they are cheaper options for customers who want fewer minutes. MetroPCS offers a nationwide unlimited plan for $45 per month but customers can also opt for a  more expensive 4G prepaid package. Boost Mobile’s service costs $50 per month but can drop as low as $35 per month as part of its “monthly shrinkage” perk for making on-time payments.

Are you or is anyone you know considering this deal from Verizon? If so, leave us a comment below and let us know!

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Clearwire recently announced its intent to adopt LTE across its network. The 4G wholesaler is saying that it may add LTE Advanced-ready technology to its network that will provide up to 120 Mbps download speeds according to network technology trials. “Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO, in a statement. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”

Clearwire confirmed that it doesn’t intend to discontinue support for its 4G WiMAX network in the near term stating it will also continue to build out is WiMAX network. The company didn’t put any timeline on the plans however, saying that its entirely LTE deployment strategy is “subject to additional funding.”

The full press release from Clearwire can be found below:

CLEARWIRE ANNOUNCES INTENT TO ADD LTE TO ITS NETWORK TO ACCELERATE WHOLESALE BUSINESS

• Company Will Leverage Deep Spectrum Resources and All-IP Network to Meet Long-Term Mobile Broadband Demands
• Unmatched LTE Network Capable of Serving Current and Future Wholesale and Retail Customers
• Initial LTE Rollout Will Target High-Demand Areas of Current 4G Markets, Leverage Existing 4G Infrastructure for Minimal Capital Expense
• Download Speeds Exceed 120 Mbps in Successful Network Technology Trial
• Support for WiMAX 4G Network Technology to Continue

KIRKLAND, Wash, Aug. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) – Clearwire Corporation (Nasdaq:CLWR), a leading provider of 4G wireless broadband services in the United States, today announced its intent to add “LTE Advanced-ready” technology to its 4G network. The announcement follows the successful completion of 4G technology trials that achieved download speeds exceeding 120 Mbps and demonstrated the potential of Clearwire’s unmatched spectrum advantage.

The initial implementation of Clearwire’s LTE network would target densely populated, urban areas of Clearwire’s existing 4G markets where current 4G usage demands are high. The robust all-IP infrastructure already deployed in these markets can be leveraged to serve the company’s LTE needs, delivering significant capital cost savings compared to a similar overlay by other carriers of an existing 3G architecture.

“Clearwire plans to raise the bar again for mobile broadband service in the United States,” said John Stanton, Clearwire’s Chairman and interim CEO. “Our leadership in launching 4G services forced a major change in the competitive mobile data landscape. Now, we plan to bring our considerable spectrum portfolio to bear to deliver an LTE network capable of meeting the future demands of the market.”

“This is the future of mobile broadband,” said Dr. John Saw, Clearwire’s Chief Technology Officer. “Our extensive trial has clearly shown that our ‘LTE Advanced-ready’ network design, which leverages our deep spectrum with wide channels, can achieve far greater speeds and capacity than any other network that exists today. Clearwire is the only carrier with the unencumbered spectrum portfolio required to achieve this level of speed and capacity in the United States.”

“In addition, the 2.5 GHz spectrum band in which we operate is widely allocated worldwide for 4G deployments, enabling a potentially robust, cost effective and global ecosystem that could serve billions of devices,” Saw added. “We anticipate that the economies of scale derived from this global ecosystem will act as a catalyst for the development of thousands of low-cost devices and applications. And, since we currently support millions of customers in the 2.5 GHz band, we know that our LTE network won’t present harmful interference issues with GPS or other sensitive spectrum bands.”

Clearwire also noted that since launching its first 4G market in 2009, video has become the largest component of the company’s overall data traffic and video traffic itself has increased more than tenfold since 2009. The company believes that as more video-intensive smartphones and services rise, so will the needs for Clearwire’s high-capacity 4G wholesale network.

LTE Advanced is a 4G technical standard that calls for peak download mobile speeds of at least 100 Mbps, which far exceeds today’s commercial networks. Clearwire’s LTE network will be “LTE Advanced-ready” meaning that it will use an ultra-high-capacity spectrum configuration that is superior to the typical configuration of the slower, more capacity-constrained commercial LTE network designs in the United States of today.

Clearwire’s LTE implementation plan, which is subject to additional funding, contemplates deploying Time Division Duplex (TDD) LTE technology and reusing its flexible all-IP network architecture and upgrading base station radios and some core network elements, which offers significant capital savings. This will include the use of multicarrier, or multichannel, wideband radios that will be carrier aggregation capable. Carrier aggregation is a key feature of LTE Advanced that will enable Clearwire to further leverage its vast spectrum depth to create larger “fat pipes” for deploying mobile broadband service. The network would position Clearwire as the clear leader in 4G mobile broadband technology, capable of serving the current and anticipated future demands of wholesale and retail customers.

Clearwire, together with some of the largest wireless carriers in the world, is a founding member of the Global TDD LTE Initiative (GTI) which aims to bring together leading industry partners to steer the TDD LTE ecosystem as a major standard in mobile broadband technology and drive the development of next generation mobile broadband networks. Member companies that currently support more than a billion subscribers on their networks believe that a global LTE standard has the potential to achieve significant economies of scale and serve hundreds of millions of customers worldwide.

Clearwire also restated its commitment to its existing 4G WiMAX network, which covers approximately 132 million people while serving 7.65 million retail and wholesale customers and an ecosystem of nearly 110 WiMAX enabled devices, including all 4G phones currently offered by Sprint. Clearwireexpects to end 2011 with approximately 10 million 4G customers.

Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer, Fran Shammo revealed that there were plans to discontinue the unlimited data plan for iPhone users as early as mid-summer, back in March. Word is out about Verizon moving to tiered data plans as early as July 7th for their new customers.

It was previously known that July 7th would be the date that marked something new for Verizon after the company had just extended the free 4G hotspot promotion one more time to the 6th. Employees were also receieving training over the last few weeks on a new point-of-sale system, along with new account management tools that hinted at family plan changes. What wasn’t known was that the big change was the tiered data plans, which are now being expected to be released the day after the promotion ends (July 7th) for new customers.

One thing to note is that this tiered data plan is applicable to both 3G and 4G smartphones, confirming that they are not separate plans depending on device. If you are under contract currently, you should be fine and you don’t need to run out and buy a 4G phone just to lock in as we have seen other sites recommending doing that. Verizon is set to offer the following data plans:

• 2 GB for $30/month
• 5 GB for $50/month
• 10 GB for $80/month

Verizon offers the official mobile hotspot feature as well, which is set to cost an extra $20 a month. The hotspot comes with its own 2GB monthly data pool, one separate from the iPhone’s data plan.This is compared to AT&T’s hotspot feature which offers 200 MB for 15/month or 2GB for $25 a month. AT&T also charges $10 per GB if you go over the limit. The mobile hotspot feature on AT&T is only available to customers who opt for the DataPro plan and users get an additional 2 GB of monthly data usage.

Existing Verizon customers should have the option to keep their unlimited data plans through the tenure of their contract, however, it needs to be seen if Verizon will allow them to grandfather the unlimited data plans when they want to upgrade to the next generation iPhone. The unlimited data plans are currently seen as a unique selling point to Verizon’s iPhone as AT&T stopped offering iPhone customers unlimited data plans just before the iPhone 4 was launched.

What do you think of the rumored tiered data plans from Verizon? Would the lack of an unlimited data plan be a deal breaker for you? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

As usual, stay tuned for more news and info on the topic Facebook, Twitter, and/or subscribing to our RSS feed.

Read More

You may also like to read:

• Verizon iPhone Usage Much Higher Than That of AT&T
• AT&T Personal Hotspot For iPhone 4 iOS 4.3 Limited To 3 Devices
• AT&T Prepares Network For iPhone 4 Personal Hotspot Feature
• AT&T Customizes Smartphone Tethering Plan To Take On Verizon
• AT&T To Offer Unlimited Data Plans To Counter Verizon’s Strategy
• AT&T Announces Its 4G Plans; 4G On iPhone in 2012
• AT&T Improves NYC Metro Area Coverage – Will It Help?
• AT&T Announces Tethering Support For iPhone 4G / HD; Updates Data Plans

With WWDC 2011 behind us, enthusiasts are starting to look at what’s to come for the next-generation iPhone, which is rumored to be announced in the next few months. A spokesman at Etisalat, a United Arab Emirates-based carrier that currently carries the iPhone 4, mentioned a 4G-based “iPhone 5.”

Chief Corporate Communication Officer at the carrier, Ali Al Ahmad, went as far as saying that there would be an iPhone 5 with LTE capabilities by the end of this year as Etisalat rolls out G in more areas:

Yes, we are in talks with most smartphone manufacturers including Apple on the rollout of the 4G handset, iPhone 5 later this year. As the first telecom organisation to roll out the 4G network, LTE, in the Middle East, we have already started talking to them for the handsets and chipsets in them.

The rumor is interesting since it goes against any of the previous rumors, which pointed to a smaller upgrade of the phone’s hardware for this year, identical to the iPhone 4 in appearance, known as the iPhone 4S. Regardless of whether the particular source pointed to a bigger upgrade than that or not, we have all so far stressed that we would absolutely not see a 4G capable iPhone this year. Should this change our expectations for what we hope to see in just a few months? The short answer is: No. Although it is possible that Apple might have changed its mind or kept its plans to introduce 4G under close wraps, we probably would of heard it by now. Executives are also known to talk about unreleased products based on rumors and regardless of what has been in talks with the maker or not, it seems to practically be business standard nowadays.

Even though 4G hasn’t been rolled out in too many areas, support for it on high-end smartphones such as the iPhone will be crucial in just a few years if not sooner. While this particular comment might have purely been speculation, Apple will likely introduce 4G in its phones in the near future. However, we don’t think it is likely to happen this year or else we would have heard more about it. So what will the next iPhone look like? Nobody has the answer just yet since Apple hasn’t made any official comment on it. A leaked picture of the device’s front plate point to a nearly identical casing, which is in line with other rumors that point to a small update as well. Operating system wise, we are looking at an improved version of iOS 5, with feature that won’t be available on any older handsets, including the iPhone 4.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below!

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AT&T recently announced that it will be rolling out its 4G LTE network in the following five U.S cities this summer: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. It also revealed that it plans to add ten or more cities in the second half of the year. Back in January, AT&T’s CEO De la Vega revealed that AT&T plans to accelerate the deployment of its 4G LTE network this year instead of 2012. As per AT&T’s statement:

AT&T has delivered five mobile broadband speed upgrades in recent years, including our HSPA+ deployment last year. And average nationwide speeds on the AT&T network have increased – more than 40 percent over the past two years alone.

The next network evolution will arrive this summer with the addition of LTE in five markets – Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio. We plan to add another 10 or more markets in the second half of the year, and cover 70 million Americans with LTE by year-end. We also have plans to add 20 4G devices to our robust device portfolio this year, with some of those being LTE capable.

Just last week, Stacey Higginbotham from GigaOM who got a chance to test AT&T’s 4G LTE network reported that she got download speeds of approximately 28.87 Mbps, and an upload speed of 10.4 Mbps, which is quite promising. Before everyone gets all excited though, it is important to note here that it is highly unlikely that Apple will launch a 4G LTE iPhone this year to take advantage of AT&T’s faster network, as the implementation for LTE networks has not yet matured. AT&T and Verizon are expected to complete the rollout of their 4G LTE network nationwide only by 2013.

Apple executives have indicated that they are not willing to take a lot of design compromises, which are enforced by the current-generation 4G LTE chipsets. Chipmakers like Qualcomm, ST Ericsson, and Intel are expected to launch the next generation chips towards the end of this year, which are expected to meet Apple’s requirements. Therefore, Apple is widely speculated to launch a 4G LTE iPhone in 2012.

Will you wait for Apple to launch a 4G iPhone or will you buy some other 4G smartphone if there is a 4G network available in your area? Let us know what you think in the comments section below!

In the mean time, stay tuned for more tech news and info by following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed.

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The iPhone 5, due out sometime this summer, will not be an LTE 4G phone.

Not only will the lack of a 4G Verizon iPhone likely disappoint everyone who passed on the iPhone 4 in hopes of buying one that would run on Verizon’s fastest network, it also keeps Apple in the middle of the pack behind more muscular Google Android phones. Motorola, HTC and LG are all prepping 4G LTE Android phones, which are among the 10 LTE devices coming to Verizon as early as this spring.

According to Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook, Apple re-confirmed it is not adopting the current generation of LTE chipsets in its iPhone handsets during its earnings conference call. Apple would have to redesign the iPhone to accommodate the first generation LTE chipsets used in smartphones such as the Verizon Wireless’ HTC Thunderbolt. Apple is not willing to make that concession at this point and will wait for future generation LTE hardware before it adopts this 4G technology.

The 4G LTE chipsets for the Verizon next-generation network just aren’t at the point where Apple would be comfortable with how its phone is designed, analysts say. The first batch of chips are relatively large and you need one chip for 4G LTE and one for Verizon’s 3G network.

That type of setup probably wouldn’t work with the iPhone 4G LTE, as Apple said during the launch of the Verizon iPhone that it wasn’t willing to make the “design compromises” required with the first generation of chips.

“They’re right that there’s nothing out there that fits the bill, and likely nothing will until the fourth quarter of this year,” said Will Strauss, president of wireless chip tracker Forward Concepts, in an interview with Forbes.

Interestingly enough, Verizon Chief Financial Officer also said that the carrier’s next version of the iPhone would be a “world phone,” meaning it will have a GSM radio inside that will work in other countries. Could this next version also be the one that includes 4G LTE support and does this mean Big Red users won’t see another iPhone until 2012?

Stay tuned for more tech news and info by following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or by subscribing to our RSS Feed.

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As you already know — there’s been a lot of talk about the AT&T and T-Mobile merger,but  T-Mobile is continuing the expansion of its 4G HSPA+ network, having added ten new cities, along with promising to double download speed caps in some major markets. The cities that have recently had T-Mobile 4G coverage activated include:

• Ames, Iowa
• Anderson, Indiana
• Battle Creek/Benton Harbor/Jackson, Michigan
• Fort Collins-Loveland, Colorado
• Lawrence/Manhattan, Kansas
• Springfield, Illinois
• Wichita Falls, Texas

The major markets receiving the upgrade to 42Mbps HSPA+ (note: there are no 42Mbps HSPA+ phones out there) will first be Las Vegas, Orlando, and New York, with Chicago, Long Island, and Northern New Jersey following shortly after. T-Mobile plans to cover 25 major markets with 42Mbps HSPA+ by the mid 2011 as well.

The press release, below:

You may also like to read:

• T-Mobile’s HSPA+ Network Expanded To 8 Additional Cities
• T-Mobile’s HSPA+ Network Expanded To Additional Cities
• T-Mobile’s HSPA+ Network Expanded To 9 Additional Cities
• T-Mobile Announces HSPA+ Expansion In 19 Cities On July 21st
• T-Mobile Bumps HSPA+ With “4G speeds” In Northeast U.S.

[Source: BGR]

With the release of iOS 4.3 comes the end of support for the iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G but it also brings a host of new features to other iDevices. The iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad, iPod touch 3G/4G and Apple TV will all be receiving the benefits of the updated iOS. The list below is just some of the new features that will be coming in the release.

Features of iOS 4.3 for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch

• Personal Hotspot will allow the user to turn the iDevice into a wireless router that others can use to pick up a Wi-Fi connection.
• AirPlay will now support 3rd party apps allowing the use of other media sources besides iTunes.
• New FaceTime icon comes to us for the iPod Touch.
• iAd Full Screen Banners may not be that exciting to consumers but anyone looking for revenue via advertising will be looking forward to this.
• 4 and 5 finger gestures for iPad is similar to a report we did earlier about the rumor that Apple may be removing the Home button and be replacing it with this.

• Apple has listened to the masses by adding the option of choosing between rotation lock and mute switch for “Side Switch” for the iPad.
• New alert settings for messages coming into the iDevice
• The iPad will be receiving a new font “Noteworthy”

It’s nice to see Apple actually listening to its customers by implementing options and features that people have been calling for. Is there any features that you were looking for but didn’t make it into iOS 4.3?

Stay tuned for more news and updates, also don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and/or subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Now the Verizon iPhone become a reality on the “nations most reliable network” it seems that there are more questions now than there was before the release. So in an effort to help you in your decision of whether or not making the switch to Verizon would  be worth it.

When can I get it and how much!?

Starting February 3rd you will be able to pre order your iPhone from Verizon and then the following week on February 10th it will be available in Apple and Verizon retail stores. The 16GB device will cost $199 with a two-year contract and the 32GB will cost $299 with contract, but you’ll still be able to buy an unsubsidized phone with no contract. But as for now, no price has been set for the contract-free phone.

Does this mean I can take my current iPhone to Verizon now without having to buy a new one?

Nope, just like with any AT&T to Verizon switch, you’ll have to buy a phone that works on Verizon’s network. Verizon uses a CDMA based network while all iPhone up until now have been made with GSM capabilities. The closest way that you could come to keeping your old iPhone while switching to Verizon is syncing your current iPhone with iTunes and take your new device and restore it from the backup thereby putting all your setting and apps from the old to the new phone.

What are the speed differences between Verizon’s 3G network and AT&T’s 3G network?

The iPhone from AT&T currently uses High-Speed Downlink Packet Access or HSDPA which offer a theoretical max speed of 14Mbs. Verizon’s CDMA network uses EVDO Rev. A, which give customers a theoretical max of 3Mbs. Now as any iPhone user knows, the actually speeds that you can obtain will vary based on many different factors. It’s not at all impossible for a Verizon customer to experience faster speeds than an AT&T customer in the same situation. When Apple and Verizon get around to rolling out a 4G/LTE version of the iPhone, then Verizon customers will have to buy a whole new iPhone if they want to take advantage of the faster speeds of the network Verizon switched to last month. But to be fair, AT&T customer will have to do the same thing, its just expected that Verizon customer will get the option first.

Which phone is better for traveling overseas?

As a world traveler don’t be surprised that if you travel to Europe that people there will be shocked at the fact you have a CDMA phone or that CDMA itself is still in use. CDMA does exist outside the US and China but it’s coverage areas are few and far between. So if you do a lot of traveling outside of the US, it would be wise to go with a GSM based phone/

Is the hardware the same as what’s available through AT&T?

Other than the CDMA/GSM technology the phones are almost identical. The Verizon version has a different antenna design and the volume controls are shifted slightly but as far as processing performance goes, there’s no difference.

I don’t get it: who cares about being able to use data and voice at the same time?

If you’re a current Verizon customer this probably isn’t a very big issue to you as most don’t seem to have a problem with it. This is all of course based on personal preference and there definitely scenarios where this could be very annoying. It’s been confirm that the iPhone will not be able to receive push notifications while you’re on a call, this means that anything using data will not be able to notify the user until the call ends. Another issue that’s raising some concern is the fact that voice calls will interrupt anything that you’re doing over the data connection. For example, say you’re using Verizon’s personal hotspot feature to share the 3G connection over WiFi, receiving a phone call will mean that you’ll have to choose between interrupting everyone’s WiFi connections or simply ignoring the call.

How much will the plans cost?

As for right now no price points have been set by Verizon for any kind of voice and data plans that will be used by the iPhone. But if you compare Verizon’s current plans for other smartphones with the ones offered by AT&T you’ll see that the two are pretty close in what they offer and for how much. So it looks like we’ll have to wait until February to get the official word from Verizon.

If you have any other questions that we didn’t cover feel free to leave them in the comments section and we’ll try to get the answers for you as soon as they are available.

Stay tuned for all your electronics news, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and/or subscribe to our RSS Feed.

With the iPhone 4 on Verizon actually being real and able to be demoed by people outside of the company, many questions about the functions compared to the AT&T version. One of the biggest concerns was if the device would suffer from the same “death-grip” issue as it’s AT&T counterpart which turned out to be a huge disaster for Apple. Well the phone has been put through all the tests that could come to the minds of reporters, bloggers and anyone lucky enough to get their hands on it early, and now we have some answers to our questions. Putting your hand in the position now commonly known as the “death-grip”, covering up all the important spots and then holding onto the device mimicking a call, this yielded some interesting results. When the test started, the CDMA iPhone showed 4 bars, with 5 bars indicating full service. As the test went on for one minute, only 1 bar was reported as disappearing. Even when fingers were placed over certain points on the device to try to recreate a new “death grip” that would cover the top portion of the antenna and potential hinder the Verizon version of the phone, no problems were reported. It looks as though Verizon’s confidence in their network that they displayed during the announcement on Tuesday was well placed and we can’t wait to see how the phone holds up in other tests. Do you think the reason the phone did so well during the test had anything to do with Verizons network, or was it because Apple took the time to really redesign the internals to avoid the same press nightmare that happened last time?

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