LTE Enabled NVIDIA Shield Tablet Available for Pre-Order at $399

NVIDIA SHIELD_Tablet_Cover_Front_Wide_Angle_LeftNVIDIA’s Shield is a handy little Nexus 7 competitor with solid gaming capabilities, and they’re now offering a 32GB version with LTE. Starting today, you can pre-order the Shield on AT&T for $399, and if you’re signing up a new two-year agreement, you will also receive a $100 credit towards the purchase.

It’s not a bad upgrade from the WiFi-only Shield as it doubles the on board storage and adds that LTE radio for only $100 more. For more info on Shield, or to commit your cash to receiving one when they ship, head on over to NVIDIA’s site. Pre-orders are expected to ship by the end of the month, and you can find more info on AT&T’s promotion from their press release.

Verizon Touts XLTE Network Doubling 4G Phone Speeds

xlte-inlineVerizon is activating AWS spectrum on their network, and in areas where the switch has been flipped, you’ll soon see new branding. XLTE markets will benefit from faster transfer speeds and more bandwidth.

Thankfully, you might not need to buy a new phone to take benefit. The newer Droids, the iPhone 5s/5c, Samsung GS4/GS5/Note3, and more are already XLTE compatible.

This AWS broadcasts in the 700MHz spectrum, so expect to see better building penetration as well. Are you living in an XLTE area? Have your speeds improved? We’ve got VZW’s teaser below.

Microsoft Surface 2 LTE Officially Announced for AT&T

***UPDATE***

Confirmed from NVIDIA PR, the Surface 2 will continue to use a Tegra 4 chipset paired with the NVIDIA i500 LTE modem.

***Original Article***

microsoft surface 2 LTE on ATT

No big surprise that this guy is on the way, but Microsoft officially took the wraps off of the long rumored Surface 2 tablet with LTE. We now have pricing and availability info.

Headed for AT&T’s LTE network, the Surface 2 LTE is pretty much the same beast we’ve come to know over the last several months, only now you’ll have broadband data anywhere you have 4G reception. It’ll be available starting tomorrow, and will retail for $679. This $230 premium over the base model also includes twice the storage (64GB).  What isn’t explicitly mentioned however, is if Microsoft will be sticking with the Tegra 4 chipset, or the more common Qualcomm 800 which is also utilized in the LTE enabled Nokia Lumia 2520.

Always exciting seeing a few more premium tablet offerings with LTE. Microsoft’s full press release is below.

Related:
Nokia Lumia 2520 vs Microsoft Surface 2

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#ATTDevSummit: AT&T Brings Asus Padfone X to USA

20140106_103127_3I’ve been waiting for this one for a while. Asus has experimented with phone and tablet modular systems for a couple years now. Turning Android tablets into laptops, and phones into tablets. Padfone X marks the first Asus modular solution officially supported by an LTE equipped North American carrier.

Padfone merges a 5” 1080p smartphone with a 9” tablet shell. Dock your phone into the tablet, and the services on your phone are instantly transported to a larger screen. A helpful benefit as you can now support a phone experience and a tablet experience over AT&T LTE with only one data plan.

While specific hardware details are slim, we know it will arrive with Android 4.4 KitKat, and it will be one of the first to support AT&T’s LTE Advanced network rollout and HD Voice.

More info at: http://ATT.com/padfonex

Asus-PadFone-2

Sprint and Dish partner for Fixed Wireless Broadband Service Trials

Dish_Network_Satellite_No_22Broadband improvements are somewhat stagnant here in the states. Many areas are under-served with few choices and high prices. While some areas are looking at Google and other companies to roll out Fiber to the home, many communities are hoping to see improvements over basic DSL. If it’s not economically feasible to roll out fiber or new wired service, the next best option is to provide service over the air.

Sprint and Dish are teaming up to test a 4G LTE to home service which could be a compelling solution for those needing more speed, but are ignored by traditional ISPs. Served over Sprint’s 2.5GHz spectrum, you would expect speeds comparable to Sprint’s current LTE offerings. Like Dish’s TV service, this should be a bit more stable than the LTE served to our phones, as your home is not a moving target. You shouldn’t even have to worry about poor building penetration of the higher frequency connection as an external receiver on your house will feed the connection indoors.

These trials will roll out in Corpus Christi, Texas next year. If you already have access to fast broadband options, this probably wont be your jam, but for those of you waiting out better options and services, this might be a good solution in the future.

Full PR after the jump.

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Sprint debuts Samsung Galaxy S4 with support for Sprint Spark enhanced LTE

sprint_galaxy_s4Sprint has been working on improving their network through their Network Vision initiative, consolidating and removing outdated legacy technologies so they can push forward with faster and more powerful connections. Sprint Spark is the next stage of their LTE network. To over simplify, cannibalizing the old Nextel 800MHz spectrum and slapping LTE on it. Part of Sprint’s network woes in the past, their LTE was broadcast over higher frequency bands with poor building penetration. Moving LTE to 800MHz should mean much better connections for customers indoors and farther away from their towers.

Sprint currently offers limited Spark connection in five cities: LA, New York, Chicago, Tampa, and Miami. They will be adding an additional 100 markets to this list over the next three years. Network consolidation takes a little time apparently. Spark aims to deliver up to 50Mbps connections, and there’s the potential for it to support up to 2Gbps in the future.

Of course, what good is new network connectivity if your phone can’t use it? 

In the “coming weeks” a new version of the GS4 will be made available with tri-band support for Sprint’s various LTE channels, and it will be able to hand off connection between those bands with little or no interruption to the user. As far as the customer is concerned, it’s just a normal GS4, but with faster data in select markets. Whenever it’s actually made available, it’ll drop for $200 on a two year contract.

Hit the jump for the full PR!

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AT&T Customers Can Now Roam in Canada on Roger’s LTE Network

ATT logoMarking the first international partnership for LTE roaming, AT&T customers can now sign up for discounted rates on Rogers’ 4G network when traveling through Canada.

Covering 70% of Canadian’s, Rogers will be lighting up LTE in 95 markets over this next year. For you world travelers, an AT&T Data Global Add-On package should help take some of the fear out of using your smartphone while on a trip. We all know someone who came home to find an outrageous bill because they used their phone overseas.

The packages  are tiered 120MB for $30/mo; 300MB for $60/mo; and 800MB for $120/mo, and are good in over 150 countries, but of course traveling to Canada will guarantee you the four gees speed.

Full PR after the jump.

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AT&T adds Unite Pro to Hotspot Lineup – Connect 15 devices to LTE over WiFi

ATTUNITE3[1]Business solutions often involve work groups. Try to connect a couple road warriors to data while on the go, and you can quickly max out most portable hotspots. Add in the fact that each person on the team will usually have more than one device, and keeping everyone “fed” gets even more difficult.

AT&T is adding the Netgear Unite Pro to their hotspot lineup, and while it comes with a number of handle features like dual band WiFi, a touchscreen, and 16 hours of battery life, the feature most will probably consider first is that it’s capable of connecting up to 15 individual devices over WiFi to share a 4G LTE data connection.

It might bog down a bit if all 15 try streaming HD video at the same time, but you should be served PLENTY of bandwidth to get your work done.

Unite Pro will cost $50 when it goes on sale November 22nd. Full PR and a video after the jump.

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