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LightSquared's Phil Falcone talks to CNBC, airs his feud with Verizon and AT&T (video)
Time to call in the wireless waahmbulance. LightSquared's billionaire backer Phil Falcone made his television debut on CNBC's Power Lunch to cry foul at the behind-the-scenes lobbying drama that could put the brakes on his 4G dreams. The hedge fund manager pointed his finger at AT&T and Verizon, claiming both are trying to "stomp out innovation" and competition by working in cahoots with the Save Our GPS Coalition. The soon-to-launch LTE network continues to encounter significant opposition from the group, as its tests have shown LightSquared's planned 40,000 stations will transmit signals "up to 800 billion times" more powerful than low-powered GPS, effectively blocking it out. Falcone insists that all parties involved knew of the potential interference issues back in 2003, when the FCC first mandated the network's build-out, and promises a switch to the company's lower block of spectrum will remedy 99 percent of the problem. Whichever side of this he said / they said brouhaha you believe, one thing's for sure -- the 4G race is getting pretty ugly.
Engadget Investigates: Samsung Nexus S 4G WiMAX performance issues
In Engadget Investigates, we explore major issues, working with tech manufacturers and service providers to improve your experience with the gadgets we've all come to depend on. If you'd like us to look into an issue, please send us a tip, including "Investigate" in the subject line. Samsung's highly-anticipated Nexus S 4G joined the WiMAX family this month, pairing Google's popular Nexus handset with Sprint's 4G network. But with the honeymoon over, customers have noticed that the Gingerbread device isn't living up to Sprint's former flagship mates, such as the Epic 4G, with last year's model besting the new guy on both speed and network reception tests. Customers also noticed issues with battery life, though so far we've found it to be consistent with other WiMAX smartphones. We took both out for a stroll around New York City, and on a quick weekend getaway to Miami Beach, and we're sorry to report that we've confirmed your fears about performance. Sprint and Google have confirmed that they're looking into the performance issues, and we hope they can patch things up with some over-the-air update therapy, but in the meantime, jump past the break to see what we found.
