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Cricket brings 4G LTE to Las Vegas, outs new Huawei Boltz modem in celebration
Cricket's parent company, Leap Wireless, announced earlier last week its intentions to start blanketing more customers with LTE service, though it didn't say which markets would be the ones to get the same experience as folks in Tucson, Arizona. Today, however, Cricket's claiming that subscribers in the Las Vegas area can finally get a taste of savory Long Term Evolution, making this the second market where the newfangled network's now present. To go along with this, Cricket has said a revamped, LTE-ready version of that $150 Huawei Boltz modem will be available online and at retail stores around Sin City (and Tucson) for customers eager to try out the new service. No word on when the carrier plans to bring its "true 4G" network elsewhere, but, according to Leap CEO Doug Hutcheson, the idea is to have "approximately 21 million covered POPs by the end of the year." [Image credit: Cricket Wireless Premier Dealer]
ZTE Engage for Cricket hands-on
MobileCon 2012 hasn't exactly been the mecca for new products, but that scenario is ideal for giving prepaid carriers like Cricket some time in the trade show spotlight. The company showed off its latest creation from ZTE, the Engage. Despite its stellar name, don't expect the device to pull a Picard and launch you into the mobile equivalent of warp factor nine, but it's nothing that will come as a surprise to Cricket users: already available for the non-contractual price of $250, you're getting a handset that runs a stock version of Ice Cream Sandwich and offers a 1.4GHz single-core Snapdragon S2 processor, Muve Music, a 4-inch WVGA (800x480) display, 1,900mAh battery, 8MP rear camera and VGA front-facing cam, Bluetooth 2.1 and microSD slot (with a 4GB Muve Music-branded card included). Its 13mm thickness may seem to be a little too much for most, and at 5.4 ounces (153g), its weight comes in on the heavier end of the spectrum for its particular form factor and overall size. Not a spec-buster by any stretch of the imagination, but prepaid users may find it to be worthy of the price tag. Head below to see a few more shots of the Engage.
Leap finally gets LTE, rollout starts next week
Leap customers, go ahead and jump for joy. The CDMA-based carrier is finally rolling out its first LTE market next week after about a year of testing it in Tucson, Arizona. (The first official market has yet to be named, however.) With its spectrum swaps finally complete, Leap hopes to spread LTE to around 21 million POPs by the end of this year and to around two-thirds of its current network by the end of 2015. Its only LTE offering is a Huawei Boltz mobile hotspot, but it promises LTE-capable smartphones soon. Curiously, the carrier does offer the LTE-capable iPhone 5, but there's no word if Leap's LTE network will support it. The only nationwide carrier without LTE at this point is T-Mobile, though it has promised rollouts starting next year; here's hoping that merger with MetroPCS (which already has LTE) will hurry that along.
Leap Wireless swaps spectrum with T-Mobile, buys all of Savary Island
Leap Wireless can go ahead and pop the champagne, as it has just completed the spectrum transactions announced earlier this year that will hopefully lead to larger LTE growth. Leap's own Savary Island Wireless exchanged spectrum with T-Mobile USA and Cook Inlet/VS GSM VII PCS LLC (itself a T-Mo business), resulting in Cricket's parent company acquiring 10MHz of additional AWS spectrum in Phoenix, AZ and Houston, Galveston and Bryan-College Station, TX, among others. In return, T-Mobile received spectrum in various markets in Alabama, Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin. There are also several intra-market exchanges in Philadelphia, Wilmington, Atlantic City, New Mexico, and Texas. In addition to the spectrum exchange, Leap also formally acquired the entirety of Savary Island Wireless for around $5.3 million (It previously only owned an 85 percent share) so the company has even more cause for celebration. Just don't overindulge on the Cristal, okay Leap?
PSA: iPhone 5 available in 22 more countries, on Cricket and US regional carriers galore
Disappointed that your country or favorite carrier missed the initial cut for the iPhone 5 launch? Odds are that you're all good now. Worldwide, 22 more countries have joined the mix as of today, including wide swaths of Europe as well as New Zealand; you'll find the full list in the release here. Americans also don't have to turn to the big carriers, as they can now opt for prepaid carrier Cricket in addition to a slew of extra providers that include C Spire as well as regionals like GCI and nTelos. In some cases, you'll even snag a discount by going with one of the smaller networks. If you bagged an iPhone in Barcelona, or caught one on Cellcom, let others know how it's going in the comments. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
ZTE Engage cleared to land at Cricket on October 2nd for $250
We recently caught first sight of the ZTE Engage at a press event in New York, but while Cricket was more than happy to let us play with its latest smartphone, the carrier stopped short of providing us with its pricing or arrival date. All of that changed this afternoon, as we now know that the ZTE Engage will become available on October 2nd with a no-contract price of $250. As a quick refresher, the handset will feature a near-stock Android 4.0 environment and a Snapdragon S2 SoC with a CPU that's clocked at 1.4GHz. Other relevant specs include a 4-inch WVGA (800 x 480) TFT-LCD display, an 8-megapixel rear camera with a VGA front-facing counterpart and a 1,900mAh battery. For complete details, you'll find the full PR right after the break.
Hands-on with ZTE Engage and Alcatel Authority for Cricket
With September's spate of big smartphone reveals now safely out of the way, it's time for the smaller carriers to trot out their new mobile wares. And here at Pepcom's event in New York City, Cricket's showing off two newly announced phones -- both from OEMs that haven't quite achieved household name recognition. The powerfully named devices -- ZTE Engage and Alcatel Authority -- are actually rather modest in the spec department. ZTE's handset sport a 4-inch WVGA display, an 8-megapixel rear camera and runs a vanilla version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich atop a single-core CPU clocked at 1.4GHz. As you might imagine, there's a definite lag when navigating through the homescreens and even when accessing the app drawer, but that's simply par for the course with a phone of this low-end caliber. Alcatel's 4.3-incher is actually the nicer looking of the duo, oufitted with the same 800 x 480 resolution and processor, but that's where the similarities stop. Like that other ZTE phone we just spent time with, this handset ships with Gingerbread onboard, so it's certainly no screamer. We're still waiting on official pricing and release dates for both devices, but you can likely count on an October retail bow. In the meantime, check out the gallery below for some extra shots.%Gallery-166210% %Gallery-166211%
Daily Update for September 13, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS Note: Because of technical difficulties with Castfire, the Sept. 12 Daily Update wasn't published until a few hours ago. You can listen to our recap of the iPhone 5 announcement here.
iPhone 5 to launch on US carriers Cricket and C Spire Sept. 28
A week after the big three wireless carriers in the US offer the iPhone 5, Cricket and C Spire will begin carrying Apple's latest iteration of the iPhone. If you're a customer of either, mark September 28 on your calendar.
iPhone 5 coming to Cricket September 28th, keeps the pre-paid faithful happy
Well, there wasn't any word about it from the stage yesterday, but we're happy to report that the iPhone 5 will be going pre-paid from (almost) day one. The contract-free Cricket will be first to offer the latest from Cupertino in a pay-as-you-go format, repeating its claim to fame with the 4S. Price is still up in the air, but we expect the 16GB iPhone 5 and 4S to land at the same price points already on the books for pre-paid iOS handsets -- $499 and $399, respectively. It doesn't look like there will be a pre-order period, so you'll just have to carry yourself down to your local Cricket shop on September 28th if your want your 4-inch iOS without the commitment. You'll find the exceedingly brief PR after the break.
Cricket and RadioShack confirm No-Contract Wireless, ship two Huawei phones to celebrate
RadioShack might have had a difficult time keeping a lid on its partnership with Cricket, but that doesn't mean we aren't interested in the official news. Launching under the expected RadioShack No-Contract Wireless banner, the unfettered phone service includes lets shoppers pick either $25 or $35 plans for basic feature phones or, more importantly, some tempting $50 and $60 smartphone plans. On top of unlimited domestic voice and messaging, these last two rates offer a respective 1GB and 2.5GB of data before throttling kicks in, with hotspot support, international text messaging and visual voicemail reserved for the highest-end tier. You'll find just two Huawei phones if you wander into a RadioShack store for the Wednesday launch: the $40 Pillar, a keyboard-touting basic phone, and a white-tinged, $150 Mercury Ice that iterates on the Android 2.3-toting Mercury only in the change of color. We're promised two additional, unnamed phones before the end of the month, and smartphones on the No-Contract service will be the only Cricket devices shipping with 8GB microSDHC cards to feed that Muve Music habit. The nitty-gritty of the hardware and plans await after the break.
Open Signal Maps offers geographic best-coverage comparison
Getting ready for the new iPhone? Here's a tool that will help. The Open Signal Maps site compares coverage in various cities across the US, UK, Italy, Germany and Spain. Select a country, enter your address or zipcode (do not be put off by the limited "city" pull-down list) and check the signal stats in your location. In Denver, Verizon had the highest scores. The interactive map allowed me to switch back and forth between Verizon and AT&T to spot-check particular places. How does your location rate? Is the map showing you a carrier you hadn't considered? Drop a comment and let us know whether this information changes your mind. Hat tip to Matt Yohe
Cricket now including Muve Music on all new Android smartphone plans
From today, Cricket is bundling its all-you-can-listen Muve Music service as a standard part of its Android smartphone plans. The offering gives users unlimited text, picture and video messaging, mobile web and a big catalog of banging beats you can pull down to your phone for those impromptu tap dancing sessions. The plans start at $50 a month, and you can access the sonic buffet if you pick up the Huawei Mercury, Ascend Q and Ascend II, HTC One V, Samsung Vitality or the ZTE Chorus. After all, if it's included in the price, you might as well, eh?
Verizon and Leap Wireless announce $120 million spectrum swap in wake of FCC approval
Go ahead and put a bow on it, as Verizon Wireless and Leap Wireless (the parent company of Cricket), have announced a successful spectrum swap. The agreement follows the recent stamp of approval from the FCC, which was issued as part of a larger deal between Verizon Wireless, SpectrumCo and Cox. For its part, Leap will divest itself of excess AWS and PCS spectrum across the US; in exchange, Verizon will pay $120 million to Leap and provide it with 12MHz of A Block 700MHz spectrum in Chicago. Leap will use the new holdings to supplement its existing 10MHz of the A Block within the Windy City, and will use the cash to build up its LTE infrastructure across the US. The company currently expects to provide LTE coverage to at least two-thirds of Cricket's current footprint over the next three years -- or, maybe sooner. Just check the PR to watch the company waffle.
RadioShack No Contract Wireless rate plans leak, $60 will get you everything
We're just about a week out from the rumored launch of RadioShack's Cricket-based No Contract Wireless plans, and more details are beginning to trickle out about the prepaid service. Specifically, we've just received information concerning how much The Shack intends to charge on a monthly basis, and it's just about what you'd expect: you can choose between featurephone and smartphone options, with the former hooking you up with unlimited messaging and your choice of 300 minutes for $25 or 1,000 minutes for $35. As for the smartphone plans, you'll get unlimited voice, messaging and Muve Music downloads on both selections; the $50 option will get you one gigabyte of 3G data (before throttling ensues), while $60 bestows you with 2.5GB data and mobile hotspot use, Visual Voicemail access, unlimited international text and all-you-can-eat directory assistance. As a comparison, Cricket's $35 featurephone plan will give you unlimited voice and SMS, compared to 1,000 minutes and unlimited SMS / MMS / 1X data on The Shack. The carrier's basic smartphone option is $55 and offers unlimited voice, messaging and 3G data (throttled at 2.5GB); this may seem like the better deal -- unless you're interested in using Muve Music. Since you have to pay an extra $10 to add the unlimited music service into the mix on Cricket, you'll see a monthly savings of $5 if you waltz into The Shack for the top-tiered plan. We're still waiting for RadioShack to come clean and acknowledge the existence of the NoContract service, but we'll continue to reveal more details as they come down the pipeline. Check out the featurephone rate plans after the break. [Thanks, Anonymous!]
FCC approves Verizon deal to buy cable company spectrum, asks for concessions
Verizon received the Department of Justice's blessing for its cable company spectrum purchase last week, and now it's the FCC's turn to rubber stamp the plan. The agency has followed Chairman Julius Genachowski's recommendation and voted that Verizon can snap up the relevant AWS airspace as part of its LTE network expansion. Some riders are attached to the deal, although they're not all weighty. Verizon has to make an "unprecedented divestiture" of spectrum to T-Mobile in addition to its swap with Leap, promise certain coverage levels in the newly acquired zones at 3- and 7-year milestones, guarantee some roaming deals and provide updates on how its DSL service adoption is impacted by all that 4G. That Verizon has 45 days to finalize the T-Mobile deal gives some idea of how quickly everything has to move, although it could be a long while before we see AWS-ready Verizon devices in the shops. To no one's surprise, advocacy groups are still upset: the Alliance for Broadband Competition believes the FCC decision "does not go far enough" to keep a level playing field, for example, and wants to voice its problems to the FCC. Anxiety still exists that just about any deal concentrates too much spectrum in the hands of Big Red. Still, there's a sense among groups like these that Verizon has had to at least partially address worries over unfair competition.
HTC One V makes the leap to Cricket's lineup September 2nd for $270
The One line hasn't seen much carrier love lately, but that's all set to change next month. Beginning September 2nd, the littlest member of that smartphone troupe -- the One V -- will be hitting Cricket's lineup at $270, no contract necessary, and notching two milestones in the process. Aside from offering subscribers a belated first taste of Ice Cream Sandwich, the Sense-skinned 3.7-incher's release also counts as HTC's official hardware debut on the network. In case you've forgotten and need a bit of a spec refresher, the odd-lipped Legend throwback bucks the de rigeur multi-core trend for a single 1GHz Snapdragon S3 CPU running Android 4.0, a 5-megapixel rear camera powered by ImageSense tech and, for better or worse, features Beats Audio integration. It's no heavyweight as current smartphones go, but if you're keen to push things forward, this lil' fella packs a considerable punch. Check out the company's official presser after the break.
RadioShack No Contract Wireless may be getting ready to launch September 5th
Evidence of a RadioShack-branded wireless carrier popped up just a few days ago, and now we have word from another tipster that reveals when it may launch. As seen above, the screen reveals a planned launch date of September 5th (a suddenly crowded day on the mobile calendar with the Nokia / Microsoft and Motorola / Verizon events, among others) to debut the Cricket Wireless-powered service, dubbed RadioShack No Contract Wireless. It has, as you may assume from the name, no contracts and claims an exclusive over other Cricket services by sliding an 8GB SD card in along with all Muve Music phones. If the information in the image holds true, we should have all of the details confirmed just three Wednesdays from now. [Thanks, anonymous]
RadioShack Mobile leak suggests Cricket Wireless-based MVNO on the way
Tired, perhaps, of juggling mainstream cellular carriers, RadioShack may be launching its own wireless branding. According to a tip we've received, the Shack is gearing up to launch RadioShack Mobile, a no-contract MVNO based on Cricket Wireless. A pair of leaked screenshots (above and after the break) seem to show a RadioShack Mobile-ready HTC One V listing and a snippet of an accompanying product page that promises low monthly rates without the shackles of a 2-year agreement. The Cricket connection? That can be found under the page's "getting started" section, which lists an activation number that pipes into Cricket's customer service line. Details on pricing and plans are scarce, but we're being told that RadioShack Mobile is expected to mirror Cricket's existing offerings, and may also offer the Huawei Mercury, the Huawei Pillar and a 4.3-inch Android device from Alcatel. We contacted RadioShack for a statement and were told that it couldn't comment on rumors or speculation. [Thanks, Anonymous]
Cricket ships Huawei Ascend Q, offers Android chatting for $140 prepaid
Huawei had said it would deliver the Ascend Q in August, and it didn't waste a moment -- Cricket is selling the Android 2.3 messager as of today for $140 on its prepaid smartphone plans. While the OS, 800MHz processor, 3.2-inch display and fixed-focus 3.2-megapixel camera won't knock any socks off, we found the Ascend Q a solid phone for compulsive chatters when we tried it last month. There's also a 4GB microSD card in the box to get the ball rolling. One minor surprise: Muve Music is getting a minor boost through DTS audio processing that reportedly fills out the sound. As long as there's no expectations of a media extravaganza, Huawei's new hardware could be one of the better bargains in Cricket's stable.
