Filed under: LTE
If your LTE modem’s feeling a bit sluggish, well… first of all, we hate you for having access to that kind of network and equipment already. Secondly, you’re insane. Thirdly, though, you’re in luck — because the European Union has just agreed to shell out some €18 million (about $25.4 million) toward development of LTE Advanced, the next logical step in the world’s wide-area wireless roadmap. Negotiations for claiming the funds will start next month, while research is expected to commence in January of next year — in other words, this labor isn’t going to bear fruit for a while yet, but that’s quite alright considering we don’t exactly have a plethora of plain-vanilla LTE networks commercially available at the moment.
Europe sinks €18 million into LTE Advanced development originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 18 Aug 2009 17:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: HSDPA, UMTS, HSUPA, LTE
Take yourself back — way back — all the way to 1987, when cellphones were still in their infancy and the nations of Europe threw together the forward-thinking GSM Directive. GSM, of course, would go on to become the world’s dominant digital cellular technology, but here’s the thing: it’s not 1987 anymore. Sadly, part of the original Directive are still in full effect, and the 900MHz band is stuck in a world of days gone by while the bulk of mainland Europe happily whizzes along on the 3G-blessed 2100MHz spectrum up above it. Not all is lost, though — the Council of Ministers has finally approved a plan to allow 3G and 4G services on 900MHz, which it believes will end up saving operators around €1.6 billion ($2.28 billion), ostensibly because lower frequencies allow towers to be spaced further apart from one another. Normally we’d be opposed to adding yet another band into the worldwide hodgepodge of GSM bands, but in this case, we feel like we’re welcoming an old friend back into the club, you know?
[Via the::unwired]
Europe pulls 900MHz out of its 2G funk originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, Orange, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, Android
We may have scored HTC’s latest Android-infused device for a brief window of time, but if you’re hoping to snag one for keeps, you’ll need to jet over to the UK and sign away your cellular soul to Orange. Based on a brief but pointed tweet from a carrier representative, the HTC Hero will be “available from Orange UK retail stores [starting] tomorrow.” The phone is already up on the operator’s website in a delightful graphite hue, and the price of £0.00 on a pay monthly contract sure is luscious. So much for T-Mobile Germany getting a jump on everyone, huh?
[Via Twitter, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
HTC Hero on sale tomorrow at Orange UK originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 21 Jul 2009 15:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Handsets, Palm
Alright, move along folks, nothing to see here. Remember that Palm Pre support page that showed up on Dutch provider Hi’s website? Seems like that’d indicative a possible future collaboration, but according to a spokesman for KPN (of which Hi is a part), it’s all a misunderstanding. While not meant for public viewing at this time, the page in question was apparently intended to explain what settings you’d need for using a Hi SIM card, whether you got the device from them or via another provider. Still seems fishy, if you ask us. Of course, he added the company is very interested in the Pre (as if we thought otherwise), but that nothing’s been announced at this time anywhere in Europe. Let’s just hope that rumored UK announcement pans out this week, and maybe the rest of the continent will follow suit.
[Thanks, Wesley]
Palm Pre cameo on Dutch carrier Hi’s website much ado about nothing, says spokesman originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Vodafone, HSDPA, UMTS, HSUPA
Sprint and Verizon have been enjoying their CDMA femtocells stateside for a while now, but Vodafone becomes the first to do the honors in Europe today by launching the continent’s first commercial 3G femtocell, christened the Vodafone Access Gateway. The device — seemingly sourced from Alcatel-Lucent — requires an in-home broadband internet connection with a minimum speed of 1Mbps. It’s rumored to be capable of full HSPA, enough horsepower to feed even high-end Voda handsets with WiFi-free broadband in places around the home where reception’s normally a little dicey (or absent altogether), and it’ll drive up to four authorized phones with it at the same time. Anyone on a £30 monthly contract or higher can get it at no charge, but otherwise, you can expect to pay £160 (about $263) for the pleasure of building out Voda’s network on its behalf. So, AT&T, what’s going on over there, guys?
[Via Slashdot and eWeekEurope]
Vodafone launches Europe’s first 3G femtocell today originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Handsets, Palm, GSM, EDGE
Having the Palm Pre on Sprint might be good for Americans driving their pick ‘em up trucks down the CDMA data highway, but it doesn’t do Europeans (or Palm’s bottom line) any good over in the Old World. Now we’ve got video and images of a GSM-loving Palm Pre on the loose in Vietnam. Why ‘Nam? Easy, as workers gain more rights and higher wages in China, manufacturers of all our fancy consumer electronics are heading further south in search of cheap labor. While this doesn’t mean a damn thing regarding launch, it’s still good to see a functioning GSM Pre in the wild on the way to launch sometime before the end of the year, possibly sooner. Video after the break, as the saying goes.
[Thanks, Enzo]
Continue reading Video: Palm Pre caught playing with GSM SIM in Vietnam
Video: Palm Pre caught playing with GSM SIM in Vietnam originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Accessories
While the free-market works pretty well when, uh, left alone to be free, sometimes it needs a push from a visible hand. Case in point, phone chargers, at the moment some 30 different types of chargers are used on handsets throughout Europe. Today, the European Commission received industry backing of its phone charger standard that relies on a micro-USB socket. The standard is now backed by all the majors (representing 90% of the European mobile market) including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Apple, LG, NEC, Qualcomm, Research in Motion, Samsung and Texas Instruments with compatible devices starting to appear in Europe next year. Or course, the micro-USB charger standard already has the blessings of CTIA, OMTP, and GSM Association which implies a broader adoption beyond Europe, someday. One charger for any mobile phone… where’s the catch?
Nokia, Apple, RIM and others agree on micro-USB phone charger standard for Europe originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Handsets, Palm, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS
It boggles the mind that Palm is still totally silent on the issue of global Pre availability; yes, granted, Apple employed similar foot-dragging following the original iPhone’s launch, but the difference there was that Apple was under way, way less pressure from consumers and investors to immediately deliver a monster hit. We’ve heard rumblings as recently as late May that Telefonica has signed a deal to deliver the Pre on its various networks around the world, but since then, nothing — and that’s where some scrappy little distributor in Romania comes into play. A company called IRIS — a smartphone distributor for years and Romania’s authorized Apple outlet — says that the Pre will be hitting shelves over there in September for something in the range of $550 unsubsidized, putting it right in range with what Sprint is charging off contract. Of course, by September, the Pre will be fighting a readily available iPhone 3G S and gobs of new Android sets, but webOS itself already proves that the new Palm knows how to work under pressure.
[Via GSMArena]
Palm Pre coming to Romania (and the rest of Europe) in September? originally appeared on Engadget Mobile on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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