AT&T customers that have a 4G LTE capable device living in the below-listed cities are about to experience data speeds like never before. Ranging from Florida to Washington state, AT&T is clearly expediting the roll out of their 4G LTE coverage, staying way ahead of the curve in front of Sprint and T-Mobile’s LTE coverage. Sure, it’s not Verizon’s footprint, but according to recent studies, AT&T’s LTE speed dominates them all. 

One of the downsides to joining a prepaid network has always been their lack of connectivity when it comes to 4G LTE networks. Some can take advantage of HSPA+ speeds, but none at this time connect to LTE networks from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint. Well, until today. AT&T will allow customers on their GoPhone prepaid plans to connect to LTE and HSPA+ going forward, as long as they have an LTE phone or iPhone.

Currently, the smartphone GoPhone plan runs $65 and only includes 1GB of data, along with unlimited talk and text. But hey, LTE on prepaid? We have to start somewhere.

Via:  Engadget | AT&T

Cheers thebeeobee!

During the beginning of Verizon’s comical J-Lo themed press event this morning at CTIA in Las Vegas, COO Marni Walden did announce at least one important bit of information. Their 4G LTE network now covers 497 markets, which is 95% of their 3G network. Remember that their initial goal was to cover 100% of their 3G network by the end of 2013, but have since moved the date up to mid-year as LTE build-out has increased dramatically. With 95% complete, I’d say they’ll hit their goal and then some. Back in January they were at 473 markets, so already this year they have added another 20+ along with countless expansions in existing markets.

Is anyone not yet covered by Verizon’s LTE network?

Over the last year or so, we’ve talked a lot about switching carriers. With policy changes frustrating consumers, tiered data hampering usage, and phones not being offered across the board on all carriers, there may not be a better time than now to consider a move. One downside to moving, though, is the worry of coverage with a new carrier not being equal to what you were previous receiving. The last thing you want to do is commit to a new carrier, only to find that your phone can barely hold a signal at home or that LTE won’t be in your neighborhood for years. 

Taking place in Las Vegas this week is CTIA, another annual mobile/tech industry conference much like CES that takes place in January. Some well-known names are attending this year’s meetup, companies such as HTC, NVIDIA, LG and Verizon are all in attendance. Demoing their Tegra 4i processor with built in i500 LTE modem is Santa Clara’s NVIDIA, showing the industry that thanks to an update, their chip is capable of flying through large amounts of data in no time at all. 

Rather than a Nexus 5 is there a chance that Google releases a new version of the Nexus 4 this summer? According to a new rumor that is making the rounds and appearing in our inbox far too often, this is the word on the dark, back alley, make-sure-you-have-a-tight-grip-on-your-purse, streets. The rumor is this – Google is going to release a new variant of the Nexus 4 with both CDMA and LTE radios inside, along with 32GB of storage. It’ll be unveiled at Google I/O in May. So, what do we think? 

Verizon dropped a “save the date” into our inbox this afternoon, asking that we reserve some time on May 22 at CTIA for a “special announcement” from COO Marni Walden. We were actually planning on skipping CTIA this year as the wireless tech conference has become a waste of time over the last two years, but this certainly means we’ll be in attendance. The question is, “What kind of announcement are they going to make?”

The Facebook announcements continue on this morning with HTC and AT&T partnering up to release the first Facebook-focused phone, the HTC First. It’s available April 12 (same day as Facebook Home) for $99.99 on contract at AT&T. You can pre-order today if you’d like. Oh, it has LTE as well. The device sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 dual-core processor, 4.3″ 720p display, 5MP rear camera, 1GB RAM, and runs Android 4.1.