Streaming HD video. Uploading gigantic files. Surfing the web comfortably . These aren’t things you’d normally expect on 3G. But T-Mobile’s beefed up HSPA+ network, which I tested recently in the first city to launch, handled these tasks beautifully.

You know how you pay a fixed monthly fee for your phone, and can check email and Twitter, surf the web and the Yelp app anytime you like without counting minutes or megabytes? Yeah, well that’s all gonna end. More

AT&T hasn’t been quite as forthcoming with the exact details of its next-gen network plans as T-Mobile and Verizon have been recently, but FierceBroadbandWireless appears to have wrested a tidbit from wireless boss Ralph de la Vega in a recent interview. Though the standard HSPA 7.2Mbps deployment is still AT&T’s short-term focus, HSPA+ — which can theoretically take HSPA to 21Mbps and beyond — is clearly still on its radar prior to LTE . “We will also deploy HSPA+ in certain locations,” de la Vega said on no uncertain terms — without revealing even a hint about where those “certain locations” might be, unfortunately. Speaking of LTE, the 4G tech still seems to be on AT&T’s back burner for the moment with the first commercial markets not scheduled to light up until 2011, a strategy that seems pretty difficult to argue with considering HSPA’s considerable room to grow from its current speeds and the lack of LTE devices in the pipeline. Of course, that could end up really hurting these guys a few years down the line when the first generation of LTE is in its prime and they’ve given Verizon about a year’s head start, but — and this is a huge “but” — if they can save up some cash by rolling cheaper HSPA upgrades now and really dump unheard-of levels of cash into the network when they’re good and ready, it’s conceivable that they’ll be able to build out a big footprint in short order

Nokia was rumored to be building it, but according to the WSJ Verizon Wireless ‘ first 4G handset will debut mid-2011, running on the LTE network that’s launching end of this year after Boston and Seattle guinea pigged the service. More

Nokia was rumored to be building it, but according to the WSJ Verizon Wireless ‘ first 4G handset will debut mid-2011, running on the LTE network that’s launching end of this year after Boston and Seattle guinea pigged the service. More

Alright, you ultrafast mobile broadband zealots, whip out your calendars and draw a big red tick around the middle of 2011. Verizon’s CTO Anthony Melone has identified next summer as the carrier’s release window for its first LTE handset, which should be preceded by the 4G service being rolled out by the end of this year. If you’re wondering what you’ll be using on that “faster than 3G” network while waiting for the vanguard handset , we saw plenty of LTE-equipped gear at CES and let’s not forget about that 1080p-decodin’ NVIDIA tablet that was teased during the show. The one bit of bogus news from Melone was the statement that contracts with “as much data as you can consume is the big issue that has to change.” Verizon seems resolutely set on introducing some type of tiered or metered price plans, which is unfortunately the same path AT&T is headed down . The message from the networks is therefore clear: with great (downloading) power comes great (bill-paying) responsibility. Verizon promises first 4G handset for next summer, foretells end of unlimited data plans originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:45:00 EST.

I never thought I’d forgive Time Warner for abominable service before I switched to FiOS—but I just might, if their plan to lease their pipes to AT&T and Verizon makes using an iPhone in NY actually tolerable. UPDATED . AT&T’s iPhone problems are two-fold. There’s the wireless aspect, which is having enough towers with enough spectrum for everybody—that’s probably what you’re familiar with. (The problem in really crowded areas is that there’s only so much wireless coverage you can provide before you run into issues like cross talk.

Champagne corks stopped popping in Rubinstein’s office long ago, but speculation suggesting Palm might be working on a WiMax phone with Sprint could see the CEO buying in a few crates of Veuve. Palm embarked on a massive bender with Sprint last year, launching its first webOS products with them, so it’s not the craziest rumor we’ve heard. It’d certainly be a big launch for Palm to get behind, though HTC was thought to be working with Sprint on something similar. [ Computerworld via BGR ]

With LTE onslaughts from Verizon and AT&T (not to mention countless carriers around the world) drawing near, Sprint’s wasting no time beefing up its WiMAX network ahead of its competitors’ 4G launches in an effort to give WiMAX the best chance it can. Without giving a hard figure, the company says that it expects to launch WiMAX service in “many” markets this year, with several notables among the lot: Boston, Denver, Kansas City, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC are all called out by name. SF and the Big Apple in particular will be huge wins — assuming the deployments go smoothly — thanks to abnormally high concentrations of geeks (including yours truly, of course) that will immediately appreciate faster wide-area broadband. They’re not listing dates just yet, so it’s unclear just how soon we can expect these to light up.

Sprint’s expanding its 4G mobile broadband service—also known as WiMax—quite a bit this year. They intend on making it available to a whopping 120 million people by the end of 2010. The lucky cities to be among the first in the rollout are: San Francisco, CA Denver, CO Washington, DC Boston, MA Minneapolis, MN Kansas City, MO New York, NY Houston, TX Guess the rest of us will just have to be patient. [ Sprint via Android Central ]