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.

Beecem’s upcoming BCS500 4G chip is going to be able to handle both WiMax and LTE connectivity. Not only that, it’ll be able to switch seamlessly between the two, depending on which provides the best signal in your location. The chip is the result of a collaboration with Motorola, with mass production starting early next year. That may sound like a long ways off, but our WiMax and 4G networks aren’t built up enough now for there to be much of a rush anyway. And anything that’ll simplify our manifold 4G options of the future makes me feel just a little more warm and fuzzy inside. [ Beceem via Engadget ]

LTE is exciting stuff (if you don’t know what the heck LTE is, we have an explanation here ). AT&T has just inked deals with Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson, who supply AT&T’s 3G equipment, solidifying 2011 as the year of 4G. AT&T’s “field trials” of LTE are promised for later this year—a soft launch that will most likely resemble AT&T’s rollout of 7.2Mbps technology —with commercial deployment slated for 2011. Promising transfer rates of 140-300Mbps, LTE can’t come soon enough.

AT&T made over $800 million in wireless data revenue last fall, thanks to a glut of new 3G users. Unfortunately, that also puts extra strain on their already-clogged data pipes. And we’ve still got all that iPad traffic ahead. AT&T’s plans to fix things up include a $2 billion increase in the amount of spending on their wireless network, and an increased focus on HSPA 7.2 (which the iPhone 3GS runs on) and LTE deployment. They expect the “majority” of mobile data to be on fiber-based backhaul (that’s a good thing!) by the end of 2010, but honestly that long a time horizon makes me nervous. There’ll be a call at 10am EST to discuss earnings results further, and we’ll listen in for any more interesting tidbits.

AT&T made over $800 million in wireless data revenue last fall, thanks to a glut of new 3G users. Unfortunately, that also puts extra strain on their already-clogged data pipes. And we’ve still got all that iPad traffic ahead. AT&T’s plans to fix things up include a $2 billion increase in the amount of spending on their wireless network, and an increased focus on HSPA 7.2 (which the iPhone 3GS runs on) and LTE deployment.

In a rather disappointing example of “your mileage may vary,” market research firm Northstream has put TeliaSonera’s shiny new LTE network — the world’s first to go commercial — to the test, coming away with some disappointing conclusions. The bottom line is that they never managed to go above about 12Mbps downstream, a pretty wild figure considering that Ericsson is in the process of rolling out 84 purely theoretical megabits per second right now using plain old HSPA+ for 3 Scandinavia. The bright side is that they managed a fat 5Mbps on the upstream and experienced consistently lower latency than on the area’s 3G networks; in fact, the firm ended up coming away with a glowing impression of the service, assuming (probably accurately) that this is just the first baby step in finding out what LTE is really capable of. And hey, some lucky jerks are getting over 42Mbps down , so it’s a crap shoot anyway. Not so fast: testing finds world’s first LTE network isn’t very 4G-ish originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds .