Google Fiber is officially coming to Austin, Texas, giving people yet another reason to want to live in the edgy city. Google has not yet revealed the rollout schedule, but don't let that fool you--they'll likely be splitting the city up into different "Fiberhoods" like what happened in Kansas City, Kansas and Missouri in order to gauge the areas of highest interest. Google Fiber offers 1 Gbps broadband Internet, television service, and phone service through a direct fiber to the home connection. This marks the thirs city that Google Fiber is making an appearance in, as Google's Eric Schmidt recently said that Fiber is a "real business"--here's hoping we see quick expansion to additional neighborhoods in the US.

Read More | Gig-U ]]> 2013-04-08T19:54:21+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/att-hd-voice-late-2013-q213/ Apple, Broadband, Cell Phones, Corporate News

I have a bridge to sell you if you think AT&T's announcement had nothing to do with T-Mobile's hard push of its new HD Voice to its upcoming iPhone customers. AT&T Senior VP of Network Technology, Kris Rinne, was chatting it up at the VentureBeat Mobile Summit in Sausalito, California. She stated that the telecommunications company will support the HD Voice technology later this year in 2013. Nevermind that smartphones like the iPhone 5 have had HD Voice capabilities since October 2012.

@jason_diaz AT&T never implemented full rate AMR, much less AMR-WB, which is required for HD Voice.

— Neal Gompa (ニール・ゴンパ) (@Det_Conan_Kudo) March 27, 2013

Rollout of newer technology has historically been AT&T's Achilles Heel; it took them over a year to include Internet tethering for the iPhone 3GS, despite carriers across the globe supporting it at launch. AT&T finally included the internet tethering, only after the iPhone 4 launched, with several deal breaking caveats such as forfeiting "unlimited" data plans and exorbitant pricing for data that customers are already paying for. On the brighter side, dropped calls will soon be in HD.

Read More | AllThingsD ]]> 2013-04-02T21:43:58+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/freedompop-burst-router-offers-1-gb-free-4g-data-per-month-q113/ Broadband, Internet, Wireless / WiFi

FreedomPop provides free 4G data to mobile customers, and has now launched the Burst home router. The FreedomPop Burst provides a free 1 GB of WiMAX data each month to buyers, after they pay an $89 deposit to get the router itself. Users can purchase additional buckets of data if need be, but FreedomPop also allows you to earn more free data by adding friends to their network through email and social media, as well as through signing up for partner promotions. It's an interesting approach. Check out the video after the break for more on FreedomPop.

The airwaves are running out, and you may've noticed it from the data diet your phone company has probably went on, or from the inability to send texts from busy areas in the city.

The FCC has approved the transfer of 608 spectrum licenses to AT&T that cover about 82 percent of the US population. Don't start streaming those 1080p movies from your data plan just yet, as the new spectrum isn't going in effect any time soon. It'll be years before any of us can take advantage of it, we're afraid.

Read More | FCC ]]> 2012-12-19T20:20:36+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/att-expands-4g-lte-coverage-seattle-tacoma-q412/ Broadband, Cell Phones, Wireless / WiFi

After launching its new 4G LTE service in Seattle days before the iPhone 5 launch, AT&T is now launching its faster data service in Tacoma, Washington, as well as Federal Way, Lakewood, Puyallup, and Auburn. Additionally, LTE expansion upgrades are now live in Seattle, Bothell, Bellevue, Kirkland, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Renton, Redmond, Tukwila, and Woodinville. AT&T plans to officially announce the enhancements tomorrow. Of course, you'll need an LTE-compatable AT&T device to take advantage of the faster speeds.

Today Google finally took the wraps off of its long-awaited Google Fiber service. Focusing on Kansas City, Google Fiber is both an Internet service and television service, and Google showed off just how awesome the service will be.

First, the Internet speeds. Google Fiber provides gigabit speeds both up and down the pipe. That's 1000/1000 Mbps (which makes our 35/35 connection look atrocious.) The company detailed how far behind the USA is in terms of speed and pricing, and is looking to invoke some major change. Google Fiber Internet will also come with 1TB of Google Drive cloud storage, and there will be no bandwidth caps or overage fees. But that's not all…

Read More | Google Fiber ]]> 2012-07-27T00:00:17+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/comcast-xfinity-platinum-305-mbps-299.95-q312/ Broadband, Corporate News, Internet If you thought Comcast would let Verizon make them look bad with those 300 Mbps FiOS Quantum speeds, you've got another thing coming, as the company has just announced Xfinity Platinum. Boasting speeds of 305 Mbps down and 65 Mbps up, the new offering will only be available to Comcast customers living in the northeast region, with no details on if it will be deployed elsewhere.

In addition, customers on the lower-speed Xfinity Blast! tier will see their speeds increased from 25 Mbps to 50 Mbps, and Extreme tier customers get bumped from 50 Mbps to 105 Mbps with no price increase. Now, two pieces of bad news. First, the 305 Mbps service will cost $299.95 per month, which is $95 more than FiOS Quantum. Second, if you're a Comcast customer who doesn't live in Boston, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Hartford, Wilmington, Richmond, New Jersey, Baltimore, or Washington, D.C., then you don't get any speed bumps.

Read More | Comcast ]]> 2012-07-24T18:14:05+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/google-fiber-launch-kansas-city-july-26-q312/ Broadband, Google, Internet, Videos

It's been a long road since the time that the ambitious Google Fiber initiative was announced, but a little over two years later, and the product is ready to launch. This morning Google announced that Kansas City will be set to go live with super-fast Gigabit Internet speeds on July 26th, and we are very green with envy.

Read More | Google Fiber ]]> 2012-07-18T16:53:18+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/sprint-lte-network-live-texas-georgia-missouri-q312/ Broadband, Cell Phones, Wireless / WiFi Sprint has officially announced that the first 15 cities to be lit up with its LTE service are now live. Unfortunately, it's a slow start, but at least it's something. If you are in select areas of Georgia, Texas, or Missouri, then you're in luck if you've also got a Sprint LTE device. The full list of cities:

Atlanta, GA; Athens, GA; Calhoun, GA; Carrollton, GA; Newnan, GA: Rome, GA; Dallas, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Granbury-Hood County, TX; Houston, TX; Huntsville, TX; San Antonio, TX; Waco, TX; Kansas City, MO-KA; St. Joseph, MO

Let us know how it's working for you!

Read More | Sprint ]]> 2012-07-16T19:49:40+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/western-digital-my-net-n900-hd-router-review-q312/ Broadband, Features, Product Reviews

We've been testing the recently-released Western Digital My Net N900, a router released by the company most known for its hard drives. This isn't just any router though--it's supposed to make QoS setup quick and easy for the every man. With a few clicks, Western Digital says that you'll have an optimized home network that'll make sure the important data doesn't get hindered by background tasks that aren't as high on the totem pole of priority. Does the My Net N900 live up to that promise? Join us after the break for our full My Net N900 review to find out.

Verizon has finally made those FiOS speed increases that we told you about recently a reality, and along with the new speeds comes a new name as well. Verizon FiOS Quantum offers speeds up to 300 Mbps down and 65 Mbps up, and the cost is a whopping $205 per month with a two-year contract (or $210 per month contract-free.) What can you do with those speeds? Verizon tells us:

"With a 300 Mbps speed, consumers can download a two-hour, standard-definition movie (1.5 gigabytes) in less than 40 seconds; and a two-hour, high-definition movie (5 GB) in 2.2 minutes."

If you're in a Verizon FiOS area, you can order upgrade now.

Read More | Verizon ]]> 2012-06-18T18:28:01+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/verizon-fios-internet-speeds-300-mbps-q212/ Broadband, Corporate News, Internet

Last week we reported that Verizon FiOS Internet users were about to receive a significant speed boost, and today it's been made official. Most impressive is that the download speed of the fastest tier has doubled to 300 Mbps, with a 65 Mbps upload speed alongside it. Here's a look at all the new speed tiers:

• 300/65 Mbps (previously 150/35)
• 150/65 Mbps (previously 50/20)
• 75/35 Mbps (previously 35/35)
• 50/25 Mbps (previously 25/25)
• 15/5 Mbps

On the fastest tier, you can download a 2-hour 1080p movie in less than 22 minutes. The new speeds take effect in June.

Read More | Verizon FiOS ]]> 2012-05-30T16:57:43+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/verizon-fios-50-25-75-35-speed-tiers-june-q212/ Broadband, Corporate News, Hot Deals

Looks like Verizon FiOS is about to get a whole lot faster. According to Broadband Reports, the current broadband symmetrical 25/25 Mbps tier will soon be changed to 50/25, while users on the 35/35 symmetrical tier will have their speeds upgraded to a whopping 75/35. The new 50/25 and 75/35 tiers will be available in all Verizon FiOS markets regardless of if the area is on GPON or BPON, and the changes should appear sometime around June 18. If you're a current customer, you may need to call in to get provisioned for the higher speed tier, but it shouldn't cost you anything extra.

Read More | Broadband Reports ]]> 2012-05-18T17:45:35+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/comcast-ditching-250-gb-data-cap-tiered-pricing-q212/ Broadband, Corporate News, Internet Comcast is finally ready to abandon the 250 GB data cap that it introduced in 2008. While this is certainly a welcome change, don't go firing up that myriad of torrents just yet. The company will be testing what it calls a more "flexible" approach--tiered pricing. Comcast will be doing trials of two different tiered approaches over the next few months. One sees base plans that start at 300 GB per month, and when exceeded, Comcast is considering charging customers an additional $10 for each extra 50 GB of usage in a given month. The other is similar, but gives a larger cap to homes subscribes to the 30 MBps Blast package and 105 Mbps Extreme package. Based on those trials, Comcast will decide how to move forward with pricing its network for the future.

Read More | Comcast Voices ]]> 2012-05-17T18:45:28+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/sprint-tri-fi-hotspot-lte-wimax-3g-99-q212/ Broadband, Wireless / WiFi

Sprint has made the smart decision to move to LTE for its future high-speed mobile network, but in the meantime, it's got WiMAX and 3G to take advantage of while building out the faster LTE that's set for a limited summer launch. Rather than continuing to sell deprecated hotspots, Sprint is hoping tha the Tri-Fi will be a nice bridge. Set to launch on May 18th, the Sprint Tri-Fi is a mobile hotspot that supports its current WiMAX and 3G networks, as well as the LTE network as well, and comes to you from Sierra Wireless.  You can pick this bad boy up for $99 after a $50 rebate, alongside a two-year contract.

Verizon Wireless is ready to capitalize on all that work its been doing building out a large LTE network with the release on its new HomeFusion LTE service. The intention here is to move away from DSL, and to also broaden its home Internet service footprint after deciding to not expand FiOS areas any further. If you're in a Verizon LTE area, you can join HomeFusion now, but it won't be cheap. Plans start at $60 per month for 10 GB of data, and go up to $120 per month for 30 GB. Any overages will result in a charge of $10 per GB.

Now that we've gone over the new iPad Retina display and the iPad Dictation feature, we're ready to focus on the next big feature of the 3rd generation Apple tablet. The introduction of 4G LTE into the iPad is a bigger deal than many realize, because now you have speeds that rival many home broadband connections, wherever you are. The 3rd generation iPad can even be used as an LTE hotspot, for no additional cost, if you pick up the Verizon Wireless model. In this video, we compare our Wi-Fi network speeds (we have FiOS) against the 4G LTE Verizon Wireless connection. As you'll see, it's impressive.

For those that are itching to get their hands on a new iPad,  users looking to tether might be interested to know that Verizon will be offering free hotspot access with its data plans. That means you’ll be able to use your tablet at 4G LTE speeds. That may come in handy when traveling or when the internet is down. But regardless the new feature gives new iPad shoppers more options.

Now as we’ve all come to know, phone carriers try to nickel and dime their customers. For lack of a better cliché, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, when it comes to adding features to your phone plans. That said, Verizon will be including 1 GB of data available as hotspot on all their 4G LTE data plans, that also includes their 1 GB data plan which starts at 20 bucks a month. Furthermore, Verizon is not requiring you to get locked in to an annual data plan, giving you the option to pay for data per monthly usage, as has been typical with iPad data.

Read More | Gotta Be Mobile ]]> 2012-03-13T19:14:47+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/verizon-homefusion-4g-lte-q112/ Broadband, Corporate News, Internet

Verizon is planning on launching a broadband service as an alternative for those that cannot attain cable or DSL. Verizon claims that it’s HomeFusion service is quicker than DSL, despite the fact that it is running on its 4G LTE network.

For a customer to get up and running they'll need to pay a $200 installation fee, which gets them an antenna placed outside of the home. The monthly fee of $60 gets you 10 GB. Customers do have the option of adding 10 or 20 more gigs to their plans for about 30 or 60 bucks more, respectively.

HomeFusion is set to launch in Dallas, Nashville, and Birmingham first and is expected to reach the rest of Verizon’s network footprint by the end of the year.

Read More | Washington Post ]]> 2012-03-08T20:11:07+00:00 http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/apple-ipad-3-q112/ Apple, Broadband, Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi

Apple announced the new iPad at this morning's iPad event, and it looks like a stellar upgrade. What can you expect to find in the updated Apple tablet? Well, pretty much everything that we thought we'd see. The new iPad sports a 2048x1536 Retina Display, the highest resolution display that Apple has ever shipped, and that's ever shipped on any portable device. It's also packing in 4G LTE, compatible with both Verizon's 4G LTE network and AT&T's newer (and smaller) 4G LTE network as well. It's got a FaceTime camera on front like before, but this time the rear camera is 5 megapixels and can record in 1080p. Running the show under the hood is the new Apple A5X processor, which has a quad-core graphics chip. In an interesting note from the event, Mike Capps from Epic Games mentioned that the new iPad has a higher screen resolution and more memory than the Xbox 360 and PS3. The iPad also supports dictation with the press of the microphone key on the soft keyboard, similar to what you find on the iPhone 4S. Unfortunately, no mention was made of Siri integration.

The new iPad goes on sale on March 16th (next Friday!) and will sell for $499 for 16 GB, $599 for 32 GB, and $699 for 64 GB Wi-Fi models. If you want the 4G versions, the prices are $629, $729, and $829 respectively. You can pre-order one today from Apple.