latestinfozone: Cellular

Saturday, 3 March 2012

US Cellular Announces Initial 4G LTE Markets, Devices

by Brian Klug on 2/1/2012 1:04:00 PM
Posted in smartphones , US Cellular , LTE , Samsung , Galaxy S Aviator , Galaxy tab 10.1

Not to be left in the dust by their big national counterparts, regional carriers are also moving onward to 4G LTE, and US Cellular today announced its initial 4G LTE markets and two devices. US Cellular has made a coverage map tool visible with its initial rollout markets, and noted that additional market announcements will happen later this month. US Cellular also makes note of its intent to deploy 4G LTE onto 700 MHz spectrum licensed to King Street Wireless.

A quick check on the spectrum dashboard indicates that indeed US Cellular will likely deploy 4G LTE into a host of 700 MHz Lower A and B block licenses, both of which are 5 MHz FDD. A quick spot checking of the announced markets revealed that most are regions where both lower A and B are held, though Des Moines Iowa has both A and B, so it seems as though 5 MHz and 10 MHz FDD will be the name of US Cellular's LTE game.

King Street Wireless National 700 MHz Spectrum Holdings

The two devices US Cellular has in store are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE, and the Samsung Galaxy S Aviator, the latter of which looks virtually identical to the Droid Charge we've already reviewed. No doubt the Aviator will turn out to be based on the same hardware platform given the similar choice of air interfaces shared between Verizon and US Cellular (CDMA2000 1x/EVDO and 4G LTE).

Source: US Cellular (Devices), (Press Release)

Print This Article

4 Comments View All Comments Post a Comment Des Moines by BigDH01 on Wednesday, February 01, 2012 Des Moines is not in Idaho. I currently live near there and am sick of people asked about our potato harvest.

BigDH01 Reply RE: Des Moines by Brian Klug on Wednesday, February 01, 2012 My bad, fixed now!

-Brian

Brian Klug Reply US Cellular has AWS-1 to deploy to also... by Doormat on Wednesday, February 01, 2012 US Cellular holds a decent amount of AWS-1 spectrum as well, and they could deploy LTE there too.

Doormat Reply abkfenris by abkfenris on Thursday, February 02, 2012 Any word on how the current US Cellular - Verizon roaming agreement will work out for Verizon LTE users? I end up roaming back and forth constantly at home (in Maine) on 3g or 1x, so if LTE could roam seamlessly it would be great.

US Cellular still seems to have better service up here, so if sometimes if VZ is unfortunate, you just need to hide better before it will hop to a good US Cellular connection.

abkfenris Reply Subject Comment Post Comment

Please login or register to post a comment.
User Name Password Remember me? Login

1 View All Comments Post a Comment

Follow AnandTech

Latest from AnandTech Pipeline

Submit News! Apple Releases OS X 10.7.3, Safari 5.1.3 AMD Radeon HD 7950 Launch Recap Apple Updates Final Cut Pro X, Brings Back Features from Final Cut Pro 7 Firefox 10 Releases Today, Fixes Add-On Compatibility Issues Microsoft Makes Changes to Windows 8's File Management Changes Microsoft Office 15 Reaches Technical Preview Milestone Motorola Announces RAZR XT910 Developer Edition with Unlocked Bootloader Apple Updates AirPort Utility, AirPort Base Station Firmware - Adds iCloud Remote Access Samsung Announces Galaxy S Advance Intel Releases Seven Sandy Bridge CPUs Snapdragon S4 “Krait” – MSM8960 GPU Benchmark Surfaces DailyTech Sources: Apple is Building New ARM SoC In-House, Possibly for iPad 3 Facebook $5B IPO Apocalypse Kicks Off 2/1/2012 Daily Hardware Reviews Brain Activity Decoded To Produce Words, Could Produce Method of Mind-Reading Whoever Wins, We're Winning Too: ARM Holdings Posts Record Earnings Nikon Launches New Range of Digital Cameras Microsoft Takes a Swipe at Google Privacy With Newspaper Ads Amazon Profit Drops in Q4 2011 Earnings Report Sony Announces Kazuo Hirai as New CEO GeForce GTX 580 Slayer: Radeon HD 7950 is Cheaper, Faster Than Its Foe Former GM Vice Chair Bob Lutz Attacks "Right-Wing Media" Over Negative Volt Coverage Exclusive: Marvell Says it Will Find a Home in Chinese Windows Phones 1/31/2012 Daily Hardware Reviews -- Radeon HD 7950 Edition "Angry Birds" Maker Says Piracy Isn't All Bad, Can Generate Business RIM Escapes to Fantasy World, Imagines Superheroes Will Save It... Literally Google Offers Clarification on Privacy Policy Updates 1.0-liter 3-cylinder EcoBoost Launches with UK Market Ford Focus Twitter @PatrickMoorhead that was seriously hilarious @kiddfroster depends on the CPU but it should issue halts/underclock first @techtow should be fixed now :) AT and Forums back up :) @techtow thank you for the heads up! passed it along to our dev @kyhwana moved to a new host, will give everyone the info on where we ended up when the time is right - still working on migration now :) @Patranus just as an option if users don't have good DNS to begin with :) Main site is back up, restoring forums now Migrating servers & datacenters, you'll see some downtime/hiccups while we bring everything back up. @CDemerjian hahahah leave my big nose alone!

Copyright © 1997-2012 AnandTech, Inc. All rights reserved. Terms, Conditions and Privacy Information.
Click Here for Advertising Information

Monday, 13 February 2012

US Cellular launching 4G LTE in March; Samsung to provide the devices

"> Tweet

Galaxy Tab 10.1

We’ve known this was coming for some time now, but US Cellular has finally laid out specific details on their 4G LTE launch. You’ll be able to kick the tires and light the fires and of course also satisfy your need for speed in March. That is of course assuming that you are in one of the select cities in Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and/or Wisconsin that are part of the initial class[1]. Additional coverage will be announced later this month.

The next logical question is what are you going to be able to use on your nigh unlimited new super network and the answer is a bit of a letdown as the two devices that will be available first are the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Samsung Galaxy S Aviator.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is going to arrive first in March and it should be indistinguishable from the versions that have been available for about 8 months now. The Galaxy S Aviator is a new name, but it bears a striking resemblance to last year’s Droid Charge. It has the same 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus display with an 8MP rear-camera, front-facing camera and HDMI port. If you were forced to go with one of the early 4G LTE phones from Verizon that probably would be my pick, but it would have been nice to see something more in line with the Galaxy S II or of course the Galaxy Nexus as was rumored.

While the devices might not be blockbusters it’s nice to see the regional carriers putting pressure on the majors like this. If US Cellular can get a second round of devices out in late Q2 or early Q3 that are a little more in line with at least today’s top-end devices they will be worth serious consideration if you live in one of their LTE regions.

Show Press ReleaseU.S. CELLULAR ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF 4G LTE NETWORK

NEXT MONTH ALONG WITH UPCOMING DEVICES

Brings up to 10 times faster download speeds and better web browsing experience

CHICAGO (Feb. 1, 2012) – U.S. Cellular (NYSE: USM), in conjunction with its partner, King Street Wireless, is launching a 4G LTE network next month that will enhance the wireless experience with countless entertainment possibilities and help customers simplify and organize their lives. The 4G LTE network will cover 25 percent of U.S. Cellular’s customers and will coincide with the launch of the Android-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1 4G LTE mobile tablet followed shortly by the Samsung Galaxy S® Aviator™ 4G LTE smartphone.

4G LTE speeds allow customers to begin watching a movie in seconds and enjoy smoother video streaming with little to no buffering, and video chatting with family or business colleagues is seamless.

With the Samsung Galaxy S® Aviator™, customers have the ability to talk and access the Internet at the same time. They can talk to their family about dinner plans while downloading an app to find nearby restaurants and simultaneously check out reviews online.

The March rollout of 4G LTE includes select cities in Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, North Carolina, Texas and Oklahoma, including some of U.S. Cellular’s leading markets such as Milwaukee, Madison and Racine, Wis.; Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; and Greenville, N.C. U.S. Cellular is the first wireless carrier to offer 4G LTE in several of these markets. The next wave of market launches will be announced later this month.

“With 4G LTE speeds, you can quickly get what you want when you need it,” said Mary N. Dillon, president and CEO of U.S. Cellular. “This 4G LTE network builds upon our industry-leading network satisfaction and is the only one that comes with a valuable rewards program and other unique benefits like Overage Protection and Battery Swap that make our customers the happiest in wireless.”

The Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1 is powered by Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) and has a 10.1-inch WXGA TFT touchscreen. It features superior multi-tasking capabilities, a video watching experience similar to TV and smooth graphics and responsive controls for faster gaming. Apps are downloaded faster on the sleek Samsung Galaxy S® Aviator™ smartphone that comes with Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread). It has a 4.3-inch WVGA s-AMOLED plus touchscreen, 8 megapixel rear camera and front-facing camera for easy video chatting. Both devices will provide download and browser speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G and be similar to a cable Internet connection.

The 4G LTE network builds on the 3G data services that U.S. Cellular customers already enjoy on the carrier’s high-quality nationwide network. U.S. Cellular has the highest call quality and network satisfaction of any national carrier. For more information about the 4G LTE experience, visit uscellular.com/4G.

ReferencesLaunch cities include Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa; Portland and Bangor, Maine; Greenville, North Carolina; and Madison, Milwaukee, and Racine, Wisconsin. ↩

Source: US Cellular

Sean has been obsessed with mobile since first using his dad's bag phone and Android has been on his radar since its earliest days. For his thoughts on gadgets and tech outside of the Android universe you can also find him at Technogasms. Tagged#4g#Galaxy Aviator#Galaxy Tab 10.1#lte#Samsung#US Cellular .nrelate .nr_sponsored{ left:0px !important; }.nrelate .nr_sponsored{ left:0px !important; } 5 Comments Join the discussion!Sort by DateRating

92spazby 12 hours ago Thumb upThumb down 0

I want sammy to be everywhere!!!

95Sean Riley 11 hours ago Thumb upThumb down 0

They are definitely going to try to oblige you. After seeing the Metro PCS TV/Phone from Samsung I’m pretty sure they’ll do anything to make sure a carrier uses their phones.