AT&T Launches First LTE, HSPA+ Modems

AT&T on Wednesday announced three new laptop modems, including its first LTE and HSPA+ high-speed devices.

The USBConnect Adrenaline, made by LG (pictured below on left) will be AT&T\'s first LTE device. According to AT&T, the modem will get a software upgrade in 2011 when AT&T debuts the LTE network. For now, it will run on AT&T\'s HSPA 7.2 network, and in the future it will fall back to 7.2 where LTE isn\'t available. The modem has an LED status indicator, GPS, and a MicroSD memory card slot. The Adrenaline will cost $49.99 with a two-year service plan.


AT&T is targeting businesses that want to be able to plan for new network technologies without having to upgrade their hardware.

\"We have purposefully planned our path to LTE to create a wireless network where the transition from 3G does not give customers wireless whiplash,\" AT&T vice president Michael Woodward said in a press release.

The USBConnect Shockwave from Sierra Wireless (pictured center), will be free with a two-year contract. That modem is designed to run on AT&T\'s HSPA+ 14.4 network, which is debuting at the end of this year. That technology could double AT&T\'s 3G speeds. Interestingly, where there\'s no LTE, the Shockwave will be faster than the Adrenaline.

AT&T also announced the USBConnect 900, made by Huawei. This HSPA 7.2 modem will cost $79.99, but require no contract and work with AT&T\'s prepaid plans: $15 for 100MB in one day, $30 for 300MB in one week, or $50 for 1GB in one month.

Although it has the fastest nationwide 3G network, AT&T is playing catch-up against its competitors as other carriers introduce new technologies. Verizon Wireless will turn on LTE this year (and MetroPCS already has), and T-Mobile\'s HSPA+ 21 network - faster than AT&T\'s proposed 14.4 network - already covers more than 65 million people in the U.S. Verizon has not yet officially introduced any LTE-compatible modems.

All three new modems work on HSPA networks worldwide, allowing global roaming, AT&T said. The USBConnect Adrenaline and 900 will be available on October 17, AT&T said. The USBConnect Shockwave is coming before the holidays.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Will Be on Every Major Carrier (There's a Wi-Fi Version Too)

Samsung's Galaxy Tab—which still sounds more like a horrendous soft drink with a movie tie-in than an Android tablet—is coming to every major carrier this year. Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.
It's "arriving in time for holiday shopping," according to Samsung. What they're not talking about is price: How much the Tab is going to cost, and how much it'll cost after the carriers knock off a couple hundred bucks in exchange for tying yourself to them for two years.
They're calling it a "premium" device though, so expect slightly 'spensive, even if you go with the Wi-Fi only version. Dear God, let the Sprint version have 4G (Update: Nope. Boooo.).

This is what Samsung's Media Hub looks like on the Tab. Media Hub is like their version of iTunes, but for video—you can rent or buy movies and TV shows, and share them with up to 5 other Media Hub devices (right now, other Galaxy devices).

Okay, some fresh impressions. It's more like a tall, skinny Kindle than it is a small iPad. (It's like half an iPad, and weighs half as much too.) It's widescreen, with a relatively pixel-dense screen versus the iPad, since it's cramming about the same amount of pixels into a tighter space. So, as a straight reading device in terms of the screen, size and portability, it's probably going to be a better experience. (Thank you Kindle app.)
The size works well enough for the Tab insofar as it's scaling up Android 2.2 and that the relatively small jump from, say, a 4.3-inch phone to a 7-inch tablet means everything pretty much works without having to use a whole new UI. So, a lot of Android looks the same, just bigger. And it works, usually—in Gmail, in the Android Market, in the home screen, the Kindle app. (However, the Weather Channel app refused to scale up, so it looked like an iPhone app running on the iPad, with a black border around it.)
The UI itself, Samsung's enhancements work better here than I think they do on a phone—like the iPhone-like app screen, with pages of apps, versus the standard Android infinite scroll. The Media Hub looks pretty crappy and third-rate, on the other hand. It's pretty quick too, about as fast compared to fast Android phones as the iPad was relative to the iPhone. Android 2.2 is a lot of the reason why—I think Android 2.1 could've got painful, quick.
It's definitely got the potential to be something, if nothing else.

T-Mobile HSPA+ to hit 19 cities with new modem

T-Mobile's HSPA+ service should get a major expansion in just over a week, including a new netbook to match, if a tip this evening is accurate. The 21Mbps access would reach 19 new coverage areas on July 21, ranging from major cities in Ohio and Texas to the island of Hawaii and cities such as Baltimore, Kansas City, Portland and Washington, DC. It would represent one of the largest expansions of the faster 3G since it launched.
BGR hears the new network's activation would be met by the new webConnect 2.0 modem, which improve the overall design and add Mac support. Dell's subsidized Mini 10 will also make an appearance, although here it would come with a USB webConnect modem rather than have HSPA+ built-in.

T-Mobile currently has the fastest available cellular Internet access in the US as Sprint's 4G doesn't peak beyond 10Mbps in real conditions. AT&T is only just starting its HSPA+ deployment and will top at 14.4Mbps, and Verizon's 4G will be faster but won't be commercially available until the end of the year.

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Nokia to Fight Back in Smartphones, but Without the Android OS

While Nokia continues to struggle in the US mobile market, the Finnish-based company has voiced plans to "fight back" in the smartphone space, and it won't be adopting Google's Android OS for any of its phones.
"I am committed, perhaps even obsessed, with getting Nokia back to being number one in high-end devices. Achieving this will require performance and efforts over and above the norm," wrote Anssi Vanjoki, head of a newly created Solutions unit at Nokia, in a recent blog post called "The Fightback Starts Now."
Despite the widening popularity of Android as an alternative application development platform to Apple's highly successful iPhone , the Android OS is not part of Nokia's roadmap, according to the new appointee.
"Symbian and MeeGo are the best software for our smartest devices. As such, we have no plans to use any other software. Despite rumors to the contrary, there are no plans to introduce an Android device from Nokia," he wrote.
Wireless Modem Deal Another Sign of Nokia's Urgency
Only days after Vanjoki's post, Nokia raised $200 million by selling off its wireless modem business to Japanese semiconductor manufacturer Renesas. The deal with Renesas calls for 1,100 Nokia R&D staffers to be transferred to Renesas, in addition to an undisclosed number of patents around wireless modem technology.

This deal hardly represents the first time that Nokia has switched gears over the years. Originally established in 1865 as a paper mill, Nokiia has also played in myriad other industries, including cable, rubber, TVs, aluminum, and even footwear. Yet the selloff of Nokia's wireless modem arm seems to be another sign of the urgency of Nokia's intentions around catching up in smartphones.
Nokia Strives To Do Better in the U.S.
Although Nokia continues to dominate the world cell phone market, the Finnish company has kept lagging farther behind in the U.S. In one recent survey, for example, comScore ranked mobile phones based on their share of usage by current mobile subscribers aged 13 and over. For the three-month period ending April 30 of this year, Nokia fell 1 percentage point from January of this year to an 8.1% U.S. share, behind Samsung at 22.1%, LG at 21.8%, Motorola at 21.6%, and Research in Motion (RIM) at 8.4%.
Some analysts place the blame on Nokia's long-time refusal to go along with the desire of U.S. carriers for control over how cell phones look and behave. Nokia lost out before, for example, by clinging to a candy-bar-style form factor when U.S. consumers and phone companies started to prefer flip phones. Also, most Nokia phones have been designed to operate on the global standard, GSM, instead of the dominant U.S. standard, CDMA.
In recent years, Nokia has been singing a somewhat different tune, opening and maintaining offices in the U.S. to be close to the offices of AT&T Mobility and Verizon Wireless. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile USA have all been selling Nokia feature phones.
New Nokia Smartphones
Yet Nokia has had little success bringing its best smartphones to U.S. carriers. Among the few exceptions to this are the Nokia E73 Mode recently released by T-Mobile and the Nokia E71x from AT&T.
These models include an HTML Web browser; GPS turn-by-turn voice navigation; e-mail and messaging; video sharing; and downloadable tools, games, and other apps.
For the most part, though, U.S customers interested in Nokia's smartphones had to buy them directly from Nokia, either at a Nokia retail store or over the Web, at unsubsidized pricing that might amount to $500 to $600.
In his blog post, Nokia's Vanjoki said that Nokia plans to release the Nokia N8, the first Nokia smartphone based on the Symbian 3 OS, over the coming months. "We also plan to deliver our first MeeGo device this year," he noted. Vanjoki did not say if or when these new smartphones will be offered through U.S. wireless carriers.

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What AT&T's tiered pricing means for you (FAQ)

AT&T's smartphone pricing overhaul, announced earlier this week, has ignited a heated debate among consumers, causing many to scratch their heads and wonder just what the shift means for them.

In a nutshell, AT&T has done away with its unlimited data plan and will now offer two-tiered data plan pricing. Some people are praising the carrier for offering a plan that aligns costs with customer data usage, while others call the company greedy and criticize it for potentially stifling future mobile application usage and innovation.

While many consumers will likely benefit from the new plan, some of AT&T's most rabid data users will likely pay more. In an effort to better explain the new pricing structure and provide a clearer explanation of what it means to wireless customers, CNET has put together this list of frequently asked questions.

Let's start with the basics. What is the new pricing plan that will go into effect for all AT&T smartphones starting June 7?
For $15 a month, the DataPlus plan offers smartphone customers 200 megabytes of data. If customers exceed 200MB in a monthly billing cycle, they receive an additional 200MB of data for $15 until the end of that billing cycle. For $25 a month, consumers sign up for the DataPro plan and get 2 gigabytes of data. If subscribers exceed 2GB during a billing cycle, they will be charged $10 for an additional 1GB of data.

Who will be subject to the new pricing?
This plan will affect new AT&T smartphone subscribers who sign up for service on or after June 7. Current smartphone subscribers, including iPhone and iPad customers who have already signed up for the $30 unlimited data plans, are grandfathered in. They can continue to use those unlimited plans until their contracts run out. But if they want to switch their plans to either the $15 or the $25 plan they can.

Once subscribers switch to the new plan, however, they will not be able to go back to the $30 all-you-can-eat plan. Anyone buying the new iPhone that is supposed to be released this summer will have to sign up for one of the new plans. And if current iPhone users want to tether an existing iPhone and use it as a modem, they must sign up for the $25 DataPro plan, plus pay an additional $20.

What happens if I go over my limit?
If you have the lower-cost DataPlus plan, you will be charged $15 if you go over the 200MB allotted data limit for that month. This means that regardless of whether you exceed your limit by 1MB or 100MB, you will be charged $30 for that month. If you exceed 400MB, you will be charged another $15 and your bill for that month will be $45.

If you are signed up for the 2GB DataPro plan and exceed your monthly cap, you will be charged $10 extra for an additional 1GB of data. This means that if you use between 2GB and 3GB of data your bill will be $35. If you use 4GB of data that month, it will cost you $45. And 5GB of data usage in a month will set you back $55, and so on.

This sounds kind of screwy. With the DataPlus 200MB plan I could potentially pay more for the month but get less capacity than if I had the DataPro plan? Is there any way to adjust the plan if I know I am going over?
AT&T representatives say you can change your plan proactively. This means you can be signed up for the DataPlus service, and if you know you are going over that limit, you can adjust your service online to avoid overage fees. So let's say you are signed up for the DataPlus plan and you see you are about to exceed your limit the first week of the month; you can upgrade to the DataPro service without resetting your contract. And you can move back down to the DataPlus service the next month if you want. The only drawback is that you have to manage your account manually to switch the plans back and forth.

How can I tell how much data I'm using?
Subscribers will be able to log in to their accounts and check usage online. All smartphone subscribers who sign up will also get e-mail and text message warnings when they are approaching 60, 90, and 100 percent of data usage in their package. In addition, subscribers will get warnings about how much of their overage allotment they have used. For example, they'll get a warning when they've used 75 and 100 percent of the overage allotment.

How much data does the average smartphone user actually consume in a month?
According to Nielsen, the average iPhone subscriber uses 400MB of data per month. But all other smartphone users typically use between 40MB and 80MB of data per month. AT&T says that on average, 65 percent of its customers use less than 200MB per month, and it claims 98 percent of its smartphone customers use, on average, less than 2GB of data per month.

But data usage is increasing, correct? So isn't it true that what people use today may not be what they use tomorrow?
Yes, the amount of data smartphone users consume has been increasing. In fact, according to BillShrink, a company that analyzes cell phone bills and advises people on the best service for their usage patterns, data consumption on smartphones has increased 3.5 times in the past 18 months.

In February of 2009, BillShrink found that 92 percent of all smartphone users consumed less than 200MB of data per month, said Schwark Satyavolu, CEO of BillShrink. In May 2010, the percentage of people consuming less than 200MB of data per month was 68 percent. In February 2009, only 7 percent of wireless smartphone subscribers used between 200MB and 2GB of data. In May 2010, that figure jumped to 30 percent.

Satyovolu said data usage is expected to continue to grow as more streaming applications become available. For example, Netflix and Skype are two applications that were recently approved for the iTunes App Store, and they consume a lot of data. He also said that devices like the iPad, which have bigger screens and more processing power, are expected to have increased data usage compared with smartphones.

So should average iPhone users be worried?
Not necessarily. Satyavolu thinks most iPhone users will still fall under the 2GB mark, at least for now. This means that if current users choose to switch to the 2GB plan or if they are just signing up for a new iPhone, they will likely save money over the previous pricing model.

"The vast majority of AT&T smartphone consumers will benefit from the new plans," Satyavolu said. "Most consumers will either get a small break or a big break on their data bill depending on their usage. But heavy users will be penalized."

Who will feel the most pain from these changes?
Those most affected by the change are the 3 percent of customers who AT&T says are using 40 percent of the network assets. These are heavy data users. It will also likely affect iPad users and customers who want to use their iPhone or smartphone as a modem to connect to the Internet wirelessly.

What kinds of applications would I be running and how often would I have to use them to reach the 2GB cap on my iPhone?
Any kind of streaming service consumes a lot of data. This includes music services such as Pandora and movie applications, like Netflix. Other applications that must be refreshed regularly, such as Google Maps, also eat up a lot of bandwidth. Skype, which allows for voice over IP calling, is another application that consumes a lot of bandwidth.

Satyavolu said that any of these applications in excess could get users close to the 2GB limit. For example, listening to Pandora for three to five hours at a time could be a problem. Watching one or two movies a day could also get your monthly usage close to the 2GB mark. Using Google Maps several hours a day every day could also almost reach that limit. Using Skype as the primary way to call people will also get consumers close to their data limit.

But Satyavolu emphasized that occasional use of these applications is all right.

"I wouldn't use Google Maps as my GPS for my delivery truck," he said. "And I wouldn't use Skype all the time to call all my friends, but using these applications in moderation is fine and most people won't have to worry about going over their 2GB limit."

Still, he admits that each of these services in moderation can also add up quickly.

"Most people won't have to worry about their usage much under current usage levels," he added. "But you have to remember that the average usage has gone up 3.5 times in the past year and a half. So if things continue on that path, then these limits could be an issue in the future."

If I am worried about my data usage, what can I do to make sure I don't go over my data limit?
The first thing you can do is surf the Web and use Internet-based applications in a Wi-Fi hot spot. AT&T has more than 20,000 public hot spots in places like Starbucks. Accessing these hot spots is free for all AT&T smartphone subscribers. You can also use Wi-Fi in your home or office. The service is faster and usage on these networks does not count toward your monthly 3G data consumption total.

Another strategy is to not download songs or applications on the 3G network. A song from iTunes, for example, can be anywhere between 1MB and 5MB. Applications also generally range between 2MB and 5MB. Whether users are buying apps for the first time or updating them, Satyavolu recommends not doing that over the 3G network where it counts against data usage.

What is the deal with tethering or using a smartphone as a modem?
For some time now, AT&T has allowed smartphone users, except those with iPhones, to use their phones as a modem to connect laptops to the Internet. AT&T charged an extra fee for this capability, and it capped the services at 5GB per month, which is the same limit it puts on its wireless Internet service that uses a device that plugs in to a laptop.

Under the new plan, AT&T is allowing tethering for the iPhone, in addition to other smartphones. But it has lowered the usage cap. Starting June 7, subscribers will pay $20 for the right to tether (even the iPhone), but they must also sign up for a $25 DataPro plan that is limited to 2GB of data per month. This usage is shared between the smartphone and the laptop.

That sounds like a pretty lousy deal. Am I missing something?
Yes, it's actually a terrible deal for consumers. It looks like AT&T is trying to discourage customers, especially iPhone users, from using their phones as modems. This is likely because laptops consume far more data on a wireless network than even an iPhone. And because AT&T is already having a difficult time keeping up with demand on its network, it makes sense that the company would want to curb usage before it even begins.

If most customers will actually benefit from this new pricing scheme, why are so many people angry?
Satyavolu believes people are so worked up about the new pricing plans because it reminds them what they hated about managing their cell phone bills when they only had to worry about voice minutes and roaming.

"We started our service to help people figure out how many voice minutes they needed," he said. "Now the unlimited plans are getting cheaper, but data is moving more toward being usage based. People remember this frustration and it just feels like the cell phone industry is after them."

AT&T Just Killed Unlimited Wireless Data (and Screwed Everybody in the Process)

Unlimited, all-you-can-eat wireless data was a beautiful thing for Apple devices on AT&T, delivering streams of Pandora, YouTube videos, a million tweets, and hundreds of webpages without worry. And now it's dead.

AT&T's new, completely restructured mobile data plans for both iPhones and iPads have officially launched the era of pay-per-byte data, which we've known was coming. We just hoped it would take a little longer. It's the anti-Christmas.

AT&T is likely just the first, since carriers rarely do anything alone (like when everybody launched unlimited voice calling in lockstep), and Verizon's CTO has rumbled that plans with "as much data as you can consume is the big issue that has to change." And so it is.

If you look at the costs per megabyte, you can see how, despite the fact AT&T is pitching the availability of lower priced plans as a value move, you actually are paying more for less. (Update: Corrected chart, moved a decimal place.)

Under AT&T's old iPhone and smartphone plans, $30/month bought you truly unlimited data. With their new plans for smartphones, arriving June 7 (not coincidentally, the day of Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote) the confusingly named DataPlus offers 200MB of data for $15 a month, while DataPro gives you 2GB for $25. With DataPlus, if you run over 200MB you get another 200MB for $15. But, AT&T tells us that if you're running over the 200MB limit, you can actually switch to the beefier 2GB DataPro completely pain-free (no ETFs or any of that business), and then switch back to the skinnier plan "over time." With DataPro, if you run over 2GB, you get another 1GB of data for $10, ad infinitum. So, if you use 5GB of data, you're looking at a $55 bill for data.

Tethering for the iPhone is here, finally! Hurray! Right? Wrong. First, consider that the old, non-iPhone tethering option offered you 5GB of tethering data for an extra $30 a month. The new plan charges you $20 extra to use the same 2GB pool of data for tethering. You are not buying extra data. You are simply paying extra to use it for tethering.

Let me repeat that: AT&T is charging you an additional twenty dollars a month based purely on how you use your data. This is bullshit, plain and simple.

Why does it matter how you use that 2GB? Why does it cost extra to use it in a slightly different manner, if you're paying for it all the same?

It's asburdity—especially when you consider the basic math. Under the old plan, you paid $60 a month for unlimited data, plus 5GB worth of tethering. Under the new plan, you will pay $45 for 2GB of data, total.

When you break out the dollar-per-byte value, showing just how much data you get per dollar, it becomes clear how outrageous the new pricing schemes are, whatever AT&T murmurs about how much data 98 percent of users actually consume.

The new plans apply to the iPad as well. Meaning the no-contract $30 unlimited data plan, the plan both Apple and AT&T pitched so hard, assuring us that we would never have to worry about data or contracts, is no more. If that $30-whenever-you-want-it unlimited data was a part of your calculus in buying the 3G iPad—it was part of mine—you've effectively been baited-and-switched. They promised one thing, and in just two months, it's gone. I suppose that's the downside of not having a contract with a multi-billion dollar corporation—you're free to ditch them, but they're free to screw you in return.

There is a way out, though it's really more like a way in, since it requires you to dive more securely into the vice grip of AT&T. If you already have an unlimited smartphone data plan and you renew your contract after June 7, as long as you don't change your plan, you can keep on keepin' on with your unlimited plan. In other words, you can get a new smartphone, but keep the same plan—then you're grandfathered in with unlimited data. Same deal with the iPad: If you start an unlimited data plan before June 7, and let it keep automatically renewing, you'll keep unlimited data.

If you add the $20 tethering option after June 7, though, you move to the new plans (which obviously screws iPhone owners interested in tethering). If you don't already have an unlimited smartphone data plan, and buy one after June 7, you'll get one of the new plans. If you come to AT&T after June 7, you'll get one of the new plans. If you start a new iPad 3G data plan after June 7, you'll get one of the new plans. (Here's a bit more on various scenarios and what'll happen with different configurations.)

So, what'll be? Tie yourself up more tightly with AT&T to preserve your data privileges, or join this brave new world, where you pay for every byte you eat? Any hopes you could've possibly had for unlimited 4G, you might as well shred them now. It's true, for most people (98 percent of users, says AT&T), 2GB a month might be fine—I've only used 1GB on my iPad 3G, even after streaming a ton of movies with the intent of killing my battery. And I'm not opposed to metered internet, per se. But I am opposed to higher costs per megabyte, BS charges for tethering, and broken iPad promises. And there's a principle at stake here, dammit. [AT&T]

AT&T making tourists even more annoying with free Times Square WiFi

AT&T's master plan to relieve 3G data congestion in New York City? Give the crush of upward-facing tourists in Times Square free WiFi. AT&T will announce its first ever free outdoor WiFi hotspot later today located at the north central part of Times Square, near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th Street. Qualifying AT&T customers with smartphones like the iPhone will automatically switch from 3G data to WiFi when in range. Great, just what Times Square needs: smartphone wielding pedestrians enticed by fast data to be even more oblivious to the pace of busy New Yorkers. If successful, AT&T will add WiFi hotspots to other high-traffic areas... and hopefully help push through tourist-lane legislation that could solve NYC's real congestion problems.

[Photo courtesy of MarkArms]

AT&T cries foul over T-Mobile's 'HSPA+ is 4G' talk

By Ross Miller

No matter how much T-Mobile wants to pretend, HSPA+ is not on the same upload / download pay grade as LTE and WiMAX. Still, that isn't stopping the company from calling its new technology rollout "4G speeds," much to the dismay of another major HSPA+ supporter, AT&T. Cue Ma Bell spokesman Seth Bloom, who recently told Fierce Wireless, "I think that companies need to be careful that they're not misleading customers by labeling HSPA+ as a 4G technology." Of course, AT&T itself is rolling out that technology as an intermediate step between current 3G and LTE, and we know they want to reserve the 4G nomenclature for the latter's unveiling. Hey guys, can we just label it 3.95G and call it day?

AT&T Can Save Their Network... With Wi-Fi?

AT&T's latest idea is actually kind of brilliant on multiple levels: totally free Wi-Fi in Times Square. And it could be how they save their network.

It's no coincidence that AT&T already runs the largest Wi-Fi network in the country—20,000 hotspots in all—providing free Wi-Fi (to AT&T customers) in the kinds of places that people like to hang out and gobble data on their phones: Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and McDonald's. The Times Square Wi-Fi project is a pilot program, and depending on the results, possibly the first of many dense, high-traffic urban areas AT&T blankets in Wi-Fi.

Upfront, it's good publicity, with AT&T scoring major brownie points from folks for providing a legitimately useful service for free in a perfect location: Times Square is highly visible, a perpetually throbbing, pulsing throng of humanity, largely wafting through like a concrete lazy river. And it's largely tourists, who you can imagine exclaiming "ooooooOOO! free internet!" as they glisten, unaccustomed to walking distances greater than the length of a parking lot, upon discovering AT&T's open Wi-Fi network in the north central section of Times Square, near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th Street.

A huge mass of people. Well known landmark. Oh yes, and the AT&T service there is crap, as it is in many highly trafficked areas of New York.

Which brings us to the why: Because, instead of thousands and thousands of people simultaneously uploading their awesome photos or videos to Facebook or YouTube or wherever to share—gigs and gigs of data—over AT&T's bruised, congested cellular network, they can use free Wi-Fi, offloading traffic and reducing the strain on the network thousands of other people are trying to make phone calls over.

AT&T would be missing a huge opportunity if they failed to leverage Wi-Fi in a significant way, building their Wi-Fi network out to every huge, congested public space they can find. In New York, half of my calls fail in Union Square. Offloading traffic to a separate Wi-Fi network wouldn't completely solve the cell network crush in these superpacked areas, but it would seriously help, if these networks were promoted and maintained correctly. That is, people knew about them, and they were speedier than using the 3G network (since speed would be the incentive to use them). Their own numbers bear this out: AT&T served up 53.1 million Wi-Fi connections in the first three months of this year, over 500 percent growth from a year ago. Where would they rather have all that traffic? On the cell network, or on Wi-Fi?

True, Wi-Fi networks would introduce their own maintenance issues, but they would be cheaper and easier than constructing and tuning new cell towers, particularly in places that might already be stacked to the brim with towers, as many of these areas likely are. (The success of muni Wi-Fi in a few places suggests the economy of the idea.)

It's a pair of fabulous, depressing ironies: The way to save AT&T's network is by keeping us off of it. And the technology to save it is not some new R&D breakthrough, but a technology that even Grandma's got. [AT&T, Image via jliba/Flickr]

Newest iPhone 4.0 Beta Implies That AT&T Is Finally Ready For Tethering

Yes! Yes! Yes! Those sounds you heard moments ago are the horrified screams of your nearest AT&T towers. Why? Because iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 4 brings us a new option in the settings menu: Tethering.

AT&T's Super-fast HSPA+ Network Will Cover 250 Million People By the End of the Year

We're told that AT&T President and CEO John Stankey announced in New York today that their next gen 3G network—HSPA+, not 4G LTE—should cover around 250m people by the end of the year, pending their software rollout. What does this mean? If you've got a compatible device (you probably don't, right now) AT&T says this'll double your 3G speeds as compared to their HSPA 7.2Mbps network, which is already fairly peppy.

T-Mobile's HSPA+ network, which the company says will cover around 185m people by the end of the year, is stupidly fast, so if AT&T's even comes close, well, this is awesome news.

Why Streaming Video Over 3G Sucks

The thing about wirelessly streaming video to millions and millions of phones is that it's, like, hard.

Wireless vs. Wired

Why is it, you might be wondering, that wireless speeds can't just zoom zoom, faster faster, the way that Verizon or Comcast seem to press a button and magically, new, faster internet speeds appear. Well, for one, it's not that magical—even cable and fiber optic "wired" broadband costs billions of dollars per year for new internet pipe, with plenty of griping from carriers about videos and torrents and other bandwidth hoggery, hence all the buzz about net neutrality.

But there are more demanding constraints when it comes to wireless broadband:

• Speed: No matter what happens, wired technologies will be faster than wireless, because electrical impulses guided upon a wire, or optical impulses running through fiber, are more efficient than radio waves scattering themselves into the air in the hope of getting picked up.

• Reliability: Even when you can consistently pick up wireless signal, its strength may vary, not just because of how close you are to the cell tower or Wi-Fi hotspot, but because radio is blocked by the foliage on the trees, or the water in an aquarium.

• Cost: Delivering the same bandwidth wirelessly will always be more expensive, because radio waves—due to the above constraints—require massive amounts of power to work well. As we'll see, there's also a matter of paying for the right to use radio waves, a privilege that is only granted after payouts in the billions of dollars.

If that sounds a bit remedial, it's supposed to: Wireless always, always lags behind wired. Think of how much faster gigabit ethernet is compared to Wireless N. It's just how the world works. But people want wireless connections, in their pockets, for obvious reasons. What we're talking about is why it's so hard to pull off well.

What's Coming

See that chart up above? That's the growth of data traffic on AT&T's network over the past four years. Despite all the email, photos, music, tweets, apps and voice data traveling across the network, the single largest type of traffic is video. Funny thing is, the true video explosion hasn't happened yet.

What do I mean by that? Well, take Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming video service, for example. Right now, the only mobile device it's available on is the iPad, with an iPhone app promised by the end of the year. But Netflix's vision is to be on basically every device with a screen. Imagine a world where every phone, millions and millions of them, can stream nearly any movie over the air. Where phones with bigger, better, higher res screens demand serious quality video to take advantage of the extra pixels. Multiply that by apps current or future apps for Hulu, SlingPlayer, ABC, CBS, NBC, HBO, Vimeo, and oh yeah, YouTube.

Not to mention streaming video from phones, which are on the verge of universally breaching HD quality recording. Today, Microsoft's Kin phones—running on Verizon's 3G network—automatically upload every 5- and 8-megapixel photo, every 720p video you record, to the cloud. They're just the first, to be sure.

Two years from now, that bar at the far right of the chart may appear as tiny as the one at the beginning, compared to the traffic that's coming.

There are three major constraints on streaming video to a mobile device over the air: wireless spectrum, backhaul, and the device itself.

Need More Spectrum, Dude

Wireless spectrum, while invisible, is not an infinite resource. In fact, it's pretty damn constricted, at least in crowded urban areas.

To radically simplify it, an easy way to think about spectrum is kind of like a highway, divided into lanes. In the US, the FCC designates who and what's allowed to travel in each lane. (Check out the FCC's spectrum dashboard to see who owns what spectrum where.) The FCC typically divides the spectrum into "blocks" (stick with the mixed metaphor here) that are 10- or 20-MHz wide (so a carrier would get, say, a slice from 700MHZ to 710MHz). A standard configuration is for a carrier is to use half of each block to send a signal, and half to receive (outbound and inbound traffic). Each lane/block can only carry so much traffic. So when you get a ton of people pumping a ton of stuff over the airwaves in a small area, you run into issues.

The solution, though, is not simply to build more cell towers for a given frequency ad infinitum—it doesn't actually create more wireless spectrum in the universe for signals to travel on, and in fact, if you crowd too many towers too close together, you get bunch of noise and interference. Basically, you don't paint extra lines on a freeway in order to make way for more cars.

The best solution, from a carrier perspective, is to get more spectrum allotted from the FCC. Typically the rights have to be purchased for billions of dollars, as you might've noticed during the frenzied devouring of the 700MHz block by AT&T and Verizon for their upcoming 4G LTE networks. The thing about 4G is that is uses really fat channels—really wide lanes—which is why they can transfer data really fast.

As a side note, not all spectrum is the same: If you remember your high-school physics, lower frequencies travel farther with less energy, and penetrate buildings better too. As such, they are better suited for sharing massive amounts of wireless data, hence the popularity of the 700MHz block, for carriers who generally deal with spectrum from 1700MHz to 2100MHz.

No matter how many FCC auctions, limited spectrum availability for carriers dealing with a data tsunami is going to continue to be an issue—Clearwire says a 120MHz-wide slice of contiguous spectrum is what's needed for legit mobile broadband. The wireless industry association CTIA says the whole industry needs about 800MHz of spectrum total, as opposed to around 400MHz currently allotted. That's why part of the FCC's national broadband plan is to reallocate 300MHz more for mobile broadband in the next five years.

Need More Backhaul, Dude

Next up is backhaul, which is basically the connection between cell towers and the rest of the network. Even if a carrier had a virtually infinite amount of spectrum to carry all of that data back and forth between phones and towers in a fantasy world with exceptional signal strength and no interference, they'd still need fat pipes running from each and every cell tower.

Without decent backhaul, cell towers will run into the same kind of congestion problems you run into at home when you're trying to torrent more than your internet connection can handle. Everything slows down, and it sucks. The problem is that a huge portion of the cell towers in the country are still connected using slow copper lines, and running fiber backhaul to them is expensive. (No carrier will reveal how much of their backhaul is actually fiber for competitive reasons.)

There is also the option of a wireless microwave backhaul, but it requires cell towers that are in the same line of sight, and at some point the data still has to go wired.

The Phones, They Are Puny

The final constraint on delivering streaming video over the air? The phones themselves. Sure, the chips inside of them may technically support wireless broadband speeds of 3.6 or 7.2Mbps, or even faster, but actual speeds tend to be about half of their theoretical maximum, in part because running full blaze would kill their batteries that much faster. And remember those phones with the antennas you had to yank out? Tech may have gotten better, but those antennas went away for mostly cosmetic reasons—we'd be better off with big old metal wands sticking up out of our Droids and iPhones.

Let's Talk About the Video

Okay, so let's talk a bit about the actual video, and the ways it gets it to you. As it turns out, there are actually special standards in place for mobile video that are a bit different from the more familiar standards for the general internet, since they're designed specifically for phones. But, with phones getting better and better at handling the real web—since they're just very personal computers—a shift is happening, so that mobile standards are more like the real internet.

Some of the most standard, um, standards are defined by the 3GPP and 3GPP2—the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (roughly, GSM stuff, so in the USA, T-Mobile and AT&T) and 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (roughly, CDMA stuff, concerning Verizon and Sprint)—which lays out standards and specifications for telecommunications things, including mobile phone multimedia. In fact, they even have specified container formats for audio and video (the file candy coatings around the codec center, like h.264 or MPEG-4 or MP3) called 3GP (defined by the 3GPP for GSM phones) and 3G2 (designed by the 3GPP2 for CDMA phones) that most 3G phones can play.

More importantly, though, is the 3GPP's specification for a packet-switched streaming service—explained in great detail here (PDF)—and its protocols like Real Time Streaming Protocol and the Real Time Transfer Protocol (RTSP and RTP), which define one of the major frameworks used to stream video to mobile phones. The main thing to know about is that they're designed to be global standards, and they're built to adapt to wildly varying network conditions, adjusting bitrates on the fly. And if a carrier or service is serving 3GPP video to mobile phones, they need special servers to do it.

But because of wirelessly connected netbooks and devices like the iPad, more and more video comes over mobile networks in the form of good ol' HTTP. The hyper-text transfer protocol—the basis of all web browsers—comes in two general flavors. There's non-adaptive HTTP streaming, which is incredibly simple, just a stream pumped out at a given bitrate, no matter what the network conditions. Trouble is, it's so simple, you're apt to see plenty of stutters and freeze-ups if your network connection suddenly goes south.

HTTP adaptive streaming is what it sounds like, a smarter take on HTTP streaming that it adapts in real time to network conditions, switching to different bitrates depending on what the current bandwidth situation is like. It doesn't require a special server, either. It's actually what Apple uses as its standard for streaming video over-the-air to the iPhone and iPad. (They call it HTTP live streaming.) Microsoft has its own spin, called smooth streaming.

A quick word on codecs. Just like much of the internet has anointed h.264 as the standard for internet video, so goes mobile video. Verizon and SlingPlayer, for instance, both currently use WMV for their streams, but without promising anything, Verizon says "h.264 looks like it's got a lot of promise," while Sling says they're definitely moving to h.264 (as they already have on the iPhone), since it's a "tighter codec" that'll help them use a little bit less bandwidth and support hardware accelerated decoding. Of course, Apple's HTTP live streaming only supports h.264, so if you use an app that streams video over 3G, it's coming via HTTP live streaming, and it's encoded in h.264.

(In case you were curious, most of the 3GPP video is encoded in h.263 MPEG-4, with AMR audio, but it's gradually shifting to h.264, too.)

An Alternative Approach to Streaming

So, there are two broad approaches to get video to you—unicasting and multicasting. Unicasting is what I mostly described above, and what you're probably most familiar with, actually. When you look at a YouTube video, pull up a Netflix stream, watch a video on a site, or any kind of standard internet video, it's probably unicast—it's going to you on demand, from start to finish. Multicast, on the other hand, is basically broadcasting—it's being pumped out there continuously for any number of people to pick up. It works best for live events, like news or sports, but if you don't jump in at the start of an event, you'll miss something.

The most prolific of the multicasters in the US is Qualcomm's MediaFLO, which exists as a separate service, and is offered through Verizon's VCAST and AT&T's Mobile TV. It requires specific phones with MediaFLO-support, since they need the MediaFLO receiver and decoder chipset. The basic flow, if you will, is that Qualcomm takes content from a broadcaster, sends it out to its own national network of broadcast towers, and phones can tune in—just like broadcast TV, but beamed using the FLO protocol.

The advantage of multicasting is that it's extremely scalable: For crazy live events—say, the Super Bowl or World Cup—it's no more demanding to serve video to a million phones than it is to ten thousand phones. And since MediaFLO uses Qualcomm's own setup, it takes strain off of the main cell network for the carriers. That's why Qualcomm sees MediaFLO as complementary to the growing availability of streaming on-demand internet video.

The Current State of Video

What kind of video are we actually getting today, anyway? Does it actually look decent? Well, here's a brief assessment.

Verizon's VCAST service adapts to the device—meaning they have to encode a single video several times at varying quality levels—so at the top end, a phone like the HTC Incredible would get a stream at around 256kbps and 15fps and Verizon is exploring going higher, up to 400kbps with 30fps. AT&T still prefers 3GPP video, since most of its phones support it, streamed at bitrates between 64-200kbps. Qualcomm's MediaFLO broadcasts a single stream of 320x240 stream. And Apple's HTTP live streaming specs for cell networks—which every video streaming app for iPhone and iPad has to use, from Netflix to Sling—run from 64kbps to 240kbps. All of them are a long, long way from HD.

Netflix over 3G is actually impressively watchable today. But with 4G networks—LTE and WiMax—and new devices with faster, more energy efficient processors, a near-future where we're all streaming near-HD video anywhere and everywhere isn't so far away, if you squint hard enough.

You know, unless we really do explode the internet.

Still something you wanna know? Send questions about streaming video, sprinkling, or squirting here, with "Giz Explains" in the subject line.

AT&T Selling Micro SIM with Full SIM Adapter? (Update: Don't Think So)

The iPad 3G may require a micro SIM—a lilliputian SIM card incompatible with anything else you own—but AT&T will be selling each bundled with a full SIM card adapter—meaning you could potentially use your data plan elsewhere. UPDATE:

UPDATE: Actually, a better look from BGR shows us that this seems to be a punch out scenario in which you can't reuse the larger SIM casing once you choose to break away the Micro SIM. It's probably just going to make stocking at AT&T easier. Luckily, given that SIM and Micro SIM have the same contacts, adapters (even homemade ones) are likely to be available soon. [BGR and Engadget]

How Much Less AT&T Is Sucking

Sure, sure, AT&T added another 1.9 million subscribers and activated 2.7 million new iPhones. But the most interesting slide in their earnings statement was the one detailing, statistically, how much less they suck. With graphs and stuff.

The improvements are indeed caveat-loaded. Dropped 3G calls in Manhattan, one of AT&T's admitted trouble spots, are down 6 percent, and 9 percent overall in NYC. That's great, especially if you consider they've been adding subscribers. But note that's not calls on EDGE, which some people are stuck with, or resort to in an attempt to pull a more reliable signal—which, since AT&T's mostly focused on improving 3G, presumably haven't gotten any better.

Faster 3G speeds via AT&T's deployment of HSPA 7.2—32-47 percent faster downloads—are only happening where they've actually deployed fiber backhaul. Thing is, limited backhaul—the pipes that actually run to cell towers—has always been a huge aspect of AT&T's data crunch. The fact the boosts are only happening where they've deployed new fiber backhaul shows how tapped out they are. Given that they made nearly a billion dollars more in data revenues vs. last year, this is non-trivial. [AT&T]

This Is How to Fix Your Horrible AT&T Reception: 3G MicroCell

I tapped dial. There's ringing, and the call goes through. It's the first call I've made from my house in two years. All it took was AT&T's 3G MicroCell to give me 5 solid bars where there were none.

Price

$150, no monthly fee, with no strings attached—but it counts against your monthly cell minutes. It's $20 a month for unlimited MicroCell calling. If you get an unlimited plan, the MicroCell drops to $50 after rebate. (If you have AT&T broadband, it knocks another $50 off.) Update: If you complain loudly enough to the right rep, you might be able to snag one for free.

It's a Lifechanger

A box about as big an oversized cable modem, the MicroCell is a mini cellphone tower that plugs into and passes calls through your existing broadband connection, giving you about a 40-foot radius of solid cell reception. Dead zones crackle to life; calls can be made without dropping.

The setup process is mostly plug and play—if you've got a router, it jacks into that, or if you plug your computer directly into a modem, it has a port for passthrough. You just activate the MicroCell through AT&T's website and then wait for about an hour as it springs to life (which is agonizing if you're revving to make the first call from your house in over two years. The MicroCell's only inconvenient installation requirement is a view of the sky for GPS reception—a necessity for 911 location services (and presumably the way AT&T prevents you from using it overseas).

It only works with AT&T numbers, and you can only have 10 numbers registered at once tapping into the MicroCell. Since you have to assign the numbers through AT&T's site every time you want to add one, friends who're just stopping by (or your neighbors) won't be able to take advantage of your newly awesome reception, unless you add them to the list. And, even if you're friendly enough to add your buddies to the list, if they (or you, for that matter) have original iPhones, they won't be able to hop on—the MicroCell supports 3G phones only. The plus side is that it's the only femtocell that supports data, so you can actually use it to check email on your phone.

AT&T's stated range of 40 feet held up flawlessly in our tests, passing through a wall and delivering strong reception 30 feet outside of the apartment (thanks to its combo of 850MHz and 1900MHz bands). Where it got sticky was at the edge of the reception zone—our test phones continued to show full bars until the connection abruptly died completely, and the phones began hunting for new signals.

It's nothing short of revelatory, to suddenly have full reception where there was none, to make calls where one couldn't before.

There is a philosophical problem though: Should you buy a device that makes a service you already pay for simply work the way it's supposed to? Every carrier offers some form of in-home extension of their service—Sprint's Airave femotcell, Verizon's Network Extender, and T-Mobile's @Home—and they all charge you for it, even though you're routing calls over your own broadband connection. (And even though using the femtocell eats up your minutes, unless you pay even more for unlimited.) It sucks. Maybe we should take a stand, refuse to pay more just to make cell service usable, and demand that they fix it or give the boxes away.

On other the hand, if you're not interested in making a stand, and just want to use your phone on the toilet after two years of not being able to, maybe $150 is worth it to you.

I CAN MAKE CALLS FROM MY HOUSE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN TWO YEARS

Basically perfect reception within a 40-foot radius

Only femtocell that pipes data too

Only available in a handful of cities so far

$150 to fix the service you already pay for

3G phones only

[AT&T]

Vonage VoIP Apps Now Available for T-Mobile and AT&T Android Phones

T-Mobile and AT&T customers with Android phones can now finally download a Vonage VoIP app to their devices to make cheap international calls over Wi-Fi or 3G. They'll also get free domestic calls, but only over Wi-Fi.

Vonage Delivers Worldwide Calling Savings to T-Mobile and AT&T Android Users

HOLMDEL, N.J., April 9, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — Vonage Holdings Corp. (NYSE: VG), a leading provider of high-quality voice and messaging services over broadband networks, today announced the expansion of its Vonage Mobile offerings to AT&T and T-Mobile devices that use the Android mobile operating system.

Vonage Mobile will be available to download for AT&T and T-Mobile Android devices at www.vonage.com later today and is already available for iPhone(R), BlackBerry(R) and iPod touch(R) devices. Vonage Mobile customers enjoy high-quality, outbound international calling over Wi-Fi and cellular networks as well as free domestic calls over Wi-Fi.

"We are focused on ensuring that our customers can enjoy all the benefits of their Vonage service from any location using any device that can access the Internet," said Michael Tempora, senior vice president of product management. "We will continue to expand our offerings in 2010 to include a robust set of voice and messaging services that utilize Wi-Fi and 3G wireless networks."

The Vonage Mobile application gives customers the flexibility to choose between Vonage World Mobile, which includes unlimited international calling to more than 60 countries, or Vonage Mobile Pay-Per-Use. Vonage Mobile Pay-Per-Use provides savings of more than 50% - compared to rates charged by wireless carriers - for calls to dozens of countries.

With Vonage Mobile, there are no access numbers or new phone numbers to give to friends and family. Customers simply enter an international number or select a contact from the existing contacts on a mobile device and hit send.

To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage_voice. To become a fan on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/vonage.

*iPhone allows calls on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. BlackBerry allows calls over cellular networks. iPod touch allows calls over Wi-Fi networks. Service subject to minimum monthly usage fee, taxes and certain other fees. Forfeiture rules apply. See Terms of Service for details. There are important 911 limitations when using Vonage for Mobile service. See vonagemobile.com/tos for details.

[Vonage]

AT&T MicroCell 3G

Sure, we kinda think AT&T's cell-reception boosting MicroCell 3G should be like, free, since it's using your pipes to route calls, but I suppose this is about as swell as we could've hoped for—$150 with no monthly fee.

A femtocell, briefly, is sorta like a mini cell tower—it hooks into your broadband connection, and amplifies the cell signal inside your house. The difference between AT&T's MicroCell 3G and Sprint's Airave femtocell, which is $100 plus a mandatory $5/month fee, is that the AT&T MicroCell also transfers data, not just voice. (Though I'm not sure why wouldn't just use Wi-Fi in your own house.) Still, the AT&T femotcell works out cheaper over the course of the year. Up to 10 lines can be setup to use it, and 4 can use it simultaneously.

It counts against your minutes while you're using it, unless you spring for unlimited MicroCell minutes, which is $20 a month for individuals or families. That's a bit crappier than Sprint's pricing, which is $10/month for an individual line, and $20 a month for multiple. But, you get a $100 mail-in/rebate, making the MicroCell $50 in that scenario. And if you buy U-Verse or AT&T DSL at the same time, you can knock another $50 off making it free. They start rolling out next month, but it's going to take until the end of the year before they're available everywhere. I pray dearly SF and NY are on the very tip top of that list.

AT&T* today announced that AT&T 3G MicroCell plans to begin its national roll out beginning in mid April, with new markets activating in cities across the continental U.S. for the next several months. AT&T 3G MicroCell is an innovative solution that allows residential customers to route wireless phone calls and data connections (or sessions) across a home broadband connection. This solution is designed to benefit customers who live in homes that have coverage impediments that consistently interrupt wireless spectrum, such as dense wall and roof construction or unfavorable terrain.

AT&T 3G MicroCell is the only femtocell to support both 3G data and voice services. Developed in conjunction with Cisco and in a public trial in select markets since September, AT&T 3G MicroCell is available for a one-time cost of $149.99.

Consumers with AT&T 3G MicroCell will be able to easily activate the device the same day it is purchased, thanks to easy, self-install instructions. Technical support is available for customers who need it.

Consumers manage AT&T 3G MicroCell though their online MyWireless account at www.att.com/mywireless. Through this online management, only those phones chosen by the customer may use the MicroCell. Customers may define up to 10 lines to have access and up to four may operate on it simultaneously. Minutes used through the MicroCell affect only the account of the phone making the call – there is no requirement to purchase separate service for the 3G MicroCell.

In addition, AT&T will offer a companion rate plan option for MicroCell customers – especially customers on Family Talk plans — who want to supplement their existing voice plans. For $19.99 a month, individual or Family Talk customers can make unlimited calls through a 3G MicroCell, without using minutes in their monthly wireless voice plan.

Consumers who select 3G MicroCell calling plans at purchase are also eligible to receive a $100 mail-in-rebate toward the purchase of AT&T 3G MicroCell – effectively making the device about $50. Customers who also purchase a new line of broadband service with AT&T (DSL or U-verse 1.5MB or higher) are also eligible for $50 via mail-in-rebate– effectively making the device about $100. If a customer is eligible for both rebate options, the customer will be able to get the device for $0, after mail-in rebate.

For more information on AT&T 3G MicroCell, visit www.att.com/3gmicrocell. For the complete array of AT&T offerings, visit www.att.com.

[AT&T]

Eternal optimist Verizon calls iPad launch 'an opportunity' to sell some data plans

That's the "glass is half full" attitude we like, Verizon -- always looking for a way to sign a few more of those lucrative data contracts, no matter the circumstances! Turns out Big Red is tipping off its staffers on how it can encourage customers to go with the WiFi-only version of the iPad and pair it up with a device like the MiFi rather than shelling out $130 more for integrated AT&T 3G and waiting a few extra weeks. As usual, Verizon's keen on playing up the anti-AT&T sentiment it's cultivated in its recent ad campaign by openly calling its biggest competitor's 3G network "overloaded," but we see one big hangup: 5GB of data on a Verizon MiFi is going to run you $60 a month, twice as much as AT&T will be charging for its dedicated, unlimited iPad plan. Then again, AT&T's own boss thinks WiFi's a bigger deal than 3G for this thing, so who knows -- maybe this is a zero-sum game for both of these guys.

[Thanks, Mark]

Dell Mini 9 Available for $99 with a Two-Year AT&T Contract

AT&T and Dell are now working together to offer the Dell Mini 9 for $99 with the purchase of a two-year service agreement that'll cost you $60 a month.

The offer is valid until January 31, and in order to receive the $99 pricing, you have to mail in a $350 Dell rebate. The two-year contract must be a qualifying AT&T LaptopConnect agreement. The subscription is pretty pricey, but its cheaper than the $120 Dell Mini price is still lower than it was a few months ago. [Dell]

Velocity and Turbo: Your Two New Options for AT&T LaptopConnect 3G

If you want to use a dedicated 3G dongle for your laptop, hardware choices are always limited. Here are AT&Ts two new offerings, the LG Turbo and Option Velocity. And no, you're not the only one who thought "American Gladiators."

LG Turbo

Free with a two-year contract, the Velocity is a no-frills card, with HSPA 7.2 support, MicroSD slot for thumb drive capability and a swiveling head that should allow you to—well, if you've actually used one of these 3G sticks, you know that they can be unwieldy. So it helps.

Option Velocity

Despite its plastic design, the Turbo is AT&T's new premium 3G stick. It, too, supports MicroSD, but it also adds aGPS and will set you back $30 with two-year contract.

Both new dongles will be available starting March 7th.

DALLAS, March 1, 2010 – AT&T* today announced two new 3G LaptopConnect devices: the AT&T USBConnect Turbo from LG and AT&T USBConnect Velocity from Option. Both will be available in AT&T retail stores, business channels and online beginning March 7. The Turbo and Velocity enable customers to stay connected on their laptop while on the go with the nation's fastest 3G network.

The Velocity, is the first GPS-enabled LaptopConnect device from AT&T. The built-in aGPS functionality opens the door to location-based applications making it easier than ever for customers to get to their desired destination. Option offers a free software application, the Option GPS Control Panel, that leverages location-enabled sites like Yahoo! Maps and Bing for directions and local points of interest. Option GPS Control Panel will be available for download on the Option support web page beginning March 7. Additionally, through TeleNav Track LITE™ and Xora GPS Locator from AT&T, enterprise customers can add tracking and location awareness thus improving response time by easily locating the closest worker to a service call.

The Turbo is AT&T's first LaptopConnect device from LG and features a compact, lightweight design. Turbo's HSPA 7.2 capability offers a high speed Internet connection that allows users to meet their professional and personal computing needs away from their office or home computer. The ergonomic design and unique USB connector makes Turbo compatible with a wide variety of laptop configurations.

Both devices feature an integrated microSD card slot making them portable storage devices that allow users to carry the data and files they need at their fingertips. LaptopConnect devices allow customers to get more done on-the-go as well as keep up to date with their professional network from anywhere AT&T provides data coverage.

"Velocity and Turbo both offer a first for AT&T: our first GPS enabled LaptopConnect device and our first LaptopConnect device from LG," said Michael Woodward, vice president, Mobile Phone Portfolio, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "In addition to being compatible with our latest HSPA technology, the two devices let AT&T customers get more done while on the go. From traveling professionals to students, AT&T offers a LaptopConnect solution for everyone."

Pricing and Availability
Beginning March 7, both the Turbo and Velocity will be available online and in AT&T stores nationwide. AT&T USBConnect Turbo will be available for free after mail-in rebate and a new two-year DataConnect contract of at least $35 a month (pay $99.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two-year agreement and DataConnect plan required).

AT&T USBConnect Velocity will be available for $29.99 after mail-in rebate and a new two-year DataConnect contract of at least $35 a month (pay $129.99 and after mail-in rebate receive $100 AT&T Promotion Card. Two-year agreement and DataConnect plan required).