When I saw that CTIA had booked the 4 CEOs from the top 4 U.S. carriers to get on stage and banter about the industry, I immediately penciled it into my schedule. They ran a similar keynote last year, but with the AT&T and T-Mobile merger still up in the air at the point, it was missing T-Mo’s CEO. With that merger now squashed, this will be the first time that all 4 will gather. It’s moderated, but it should make for some entertaining commentary.

We were chatting with our industry friend @P3Droid yesterday when he started dropping talk of the entire new DROID line of phones from Verizon being unlocked to work on AT&T and T-Mobile GSM networks. At launch, we knew that most (if not all) of these phones had GSM radios buried within, but that Verizon had shut them down so that owners wouldn’t be tempted to switch carriers. Thanks to a little hackery from our dev community, things have changed a touch. We were told that the phones can work on AT&T’s HSPA and T-Mobile’s EDGE networks. We were also told that the full instructions would be out later today once P3 and the boys polished up the process and made sure it worked flawlessly. It appears as if some instructions and files are already available at the XDA thread we linked below though.

Interested? Let us know how it  goes.

Via:  @P3droid | XDA

I know that you probably just finished up reading our HTC One X review from yesterday, but it’s time now to shift gears onto its little brother, the HTC One S. Announced at the same time as the One X during MWC in February, the One S might come off on paper as being less of a phone, however, once you use it you will realize that it is a little beast of its own. This device is headed to T-Mobile, but variations of it will arrive on other carriers – like the Incredible 4G on Verizon. So let’s dive into it and share some thoughts. 

Isis – the NFC mobile payment system that was started by Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T – received its first banking partners today, along with a product name and some details on how they plan to roll out. The product will officially be called Isis Mobile Wallet and will welcome in Capital One, Chase and Barclaycard as their first card partners. Since they already secured Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover, it’s now up to the rest of the banking industry to give their cards the thumbs up.

Not familiar with Isis? Again, this NFC-based mobile payment system was created by Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T with hopes of making NFC and mobile payments a common practice. They fell under scrutiny a couple of months ago when it was discovered that Google Wallet (a direct competitor) was not accessible on the Verizon Galaxy Nexus. Most pointed fingers directly at their Isis product as the reason why Wallet was not allowed on the phone. Verizon denied that they were blocking it and that it had anything to do with Isis.

So far though, we have not heard any of Isis’ plans to actually produce a product that we can use. According to their press release today, we should see the first markets go live some time in mid-2012. The first two cities to get access are Salt Lake City, UT and Austin, TX with a nationwide rollout happening soon after.

No matter what, this is amazing news for the NFC industry. With these 3 carriers behind it, all of the major credit card companies, and a first batch of banks, mobile payments will soon be in your lives. NFC chips are becoming more common in newer phones and by the end of the year or early 2013, you may be ditching your wallet after all.

Via:  Isis

Verizon has been in talks with companies such as Comcast and Time Warner to acquire additional spectrum to beef up their network. The spectrum in question just so happens to be the same frequencies that  T-Mobile’s HSPA+ runs on, so naturally, T-Mobile is not good on this deal. T-Mobile argues that the nation’s largest mobile carrier does not need this additional network and that T-Mo could actually do a better job at deploying and making use of it.

We can’t blame T-Mobile for trying their hardest to get some more slices of the pie. It’s now in the hands of the FCC and as many have stated, we sometimes wish there was better regulations when it came to issues of spectrum purchases.

More coverage at Android Life.

Though the iPhone has been the Apple of countless eyes and ears for quite some time, T-Mobile’s 4G Android-Powered Smartphones are quickly streaming into view.

And these smartphones aren’t satisfied with just keeping up. Sure, the iPhone 4S is fast, sleek, competent and stylish, and many swooned at its release as they will at the next Apple product introduction. However, T-Mobile’s newest 4G smartphones are loaded with features sure to leave iPhone users feeling like they’ve got nothing more than a core.

T-Mobile’s max theoretical data download speed clocks in at a lightning quick 42 Mbps, compared to the iPhone’s max theoretical speed of 14.4 Mbps. (This is possible because of currently being America’s largest 4G network.)

Equipped with a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S3 Processor that’s got a 1.5 GHz dual-core CPU, T-Mobile’s Samsung Galaxy S II boasts a 4.52” Super AMOLED Plus screen, blazing fast Internet downloading that puts your home PC to shame, Google Voice Search capabilities for a truly hands-free experience, and access to T-Mobile’s best plan ever: subscribers get two lines – just $49.99 each – with unlimited data, talk and text and up to 2GB of high-speed data.

Smitten by the Samsung Galaxy S II? Encourage others to take a bite: share the latest video touting its dynamic qualities.

This is a sponsored post written by T-Mobile.

Within the hour, AT&T has announced that it has ended its bid to acquire T-Mobile. At this point, we shouldn’t be surprised at this after seeing the FCC and DOJ do their best to shut it down. The big question is, “What does AT&T do now?” One thing is clear, that they have a lot of catching up to do with Verizon. Over the last month, Big Red has purchased an enormous amount of spectrum to help stabilize their network even further, while also giving them a chance to grow it without sacrificing the quality that we have all grown accustomed to. Oh, AT&T also has to pay Deustche Telekom a cool $4 billion for this failure.

More coverage at Android Life.