Raising The Bar - AT&T’s LTE Comes to Five Cities This Summer

Just in time to cure our blues from thoughts of being without a new iPhone 5 this summer, AT&T announced today its new 4G network, with the addition of LTE, will be released in five markets this summer – Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio.

AT&T hopes to add another 10 markets and cover more than 70 million Americans with this new network by the end of year. To sweeten the deal, AT&T plans to add 20 4G devices to its offerings as well.

Just last fall, Verizon Wireless launched its LTE networks in dozens of cities. The company said the service offers download speeds of up to 12Mbps and uploads of up to 5Mbps. Lab tests show AT&T’s LTE rates offer double the speed of Verizon’s advertised rates with  28.87 Mbps download speeds. A little healthy competition, perhaps?

AT&T’s Chief Technology Officer, John Donovan, posted a blog on AT&T’s Innovation Space about the LTE launch.

AT&T's 4G Evolution
Dallas, Texas, May 25, 2011 

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.

We're positioning to deliver a great mobile broadband experience in the near term with HSPA+ and a growing LTE footprint.

We've invested $75 billion in our wireless and wired networks over the last four years – more capital invested in the U.S. than any company in any industry. And we plan to invest $19 billion in our wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects this year. The investments we've made to evolve our mobile broadband network in recent years, plus what we have planned for the future, put our customers in position to benefit fully from a host of coming mobile broadband innovations.

Does this “real 4G” network mean less dropped calls and faster tweeting, AT&T? If so, this summer may be a great one! Hold on to your seats, boys and girls.

Thanks from Privus Mobile

We tallied up the numbers, and we just hit 131,000 total Privus Mobile downloads!! We wanted to take the time to thank all of our AWESOME users! You guys rock. Thanks for your continued support, and stay tuned for announcements we have coming soon!

Love Privus Mobile and want to share it with your friends? Send them this link to get started.

While you’re at it, send it on over to Billy Reid, too! Somehow we get the feeling he would totally dig Privus Mobile Caller ID.

Sprint makes it easier, quicker for Android customers to purchase apps

Looks like Sprint has jumped on the carrier billing band wagon with AT&T and T-Mobile and rolled out support for their Android devices. Customers using phones powered by Android OS now have the option to purchase applications from the Android Market and charge it to their monthly Sprint bill. The carrier billing option supplements Google’s Checkout, which has seen limited success compared to other mobile payment methods. While the service is still currently rolling out, Sprint customers shouldn’t expect the services to be fully implemented for a few days.

The addition of this service support to Sprint Android devices is welcomed, as it becomes much easier for Android owners to purchase apps on their phones. Instead of setting up a Google Checkout account or entering credit card information on the device, the ability to add purchases to a monthly phone bill makes downloading applications a one-click transaction. In turn, this will help application developers to create and sell more software in the Android market, as a recent survey from Strategy Analytics shows that 38 percent of customers prefer carrier billing, and are therefore more apt to make purchases.

Amazon’s Cloud Player, Sounds Like Music to Our Ears

A few days ago, Amazon rolled out its very own music-streaming service conveniently dubbed the Amazon Cloud Player which has since hit a high note with services like Google who’s also rumored to have a cloud-based music application in the works. Amazon customers in the U.S. can upload their MP3 purchases to a 5GB cloud space, which is upgradable to a one-year 20GB plan for free upon purchasing an MP3 album, with additional plans starting at $20 a year. This free-of-charge service makes for seamless, on-the-go access to music files anywhere a user has an Internet connection, including personal computers, Macs and any Android-powered smart phone. Users can listen to music downloaded from Amazon on Cloud Player for Web, upload music from their personal libraries or enjoy music on the Amazon MP3 with Cloud Player application for Android smart phones.

Sprint’s Android Devices Get Privus Mobile Caller ID Features

It’s been a busy year already for the mobile industry, as the iPhone made its expansion to Verizon, and Android surpassed BlackBerry for the leading spot in the United States’ smart phone market.

While this progress has left many smaller telecom companies in the dust, Privus Mobile is making big splashes with another exciting introduction for its fans. The Caller ID application developer is releasing a free, ad-supported version of its application for Sprint-powered Android smart phones.

Beginning in April, Sprint customers can enjoy the full features of Privus Mobile on their Android devices without the monthly subscription fee.