Verizon's mmWave 5G is one of the fastest ways to get online right now, but that's assuming you can actually find it. The carrier is aiming to make its 5G Ultra Wideband service more useable - particularly indoors, where mmWave struggles to penetrate - by offering extenders that will help bring its highest speeds to more locations.
Xfinity Mobile announced today that it's hopping aboard the 5G train and adding service to its unlimited and by-the-gig plans. Xfinity is hoping to stand out from the other major carriers and MVNOs already offering 5G service by further announcing that it won't charge its subscribers extra to tap into 5G. That's in contrast to Verizon specifically, which has indicated that it will eventually charge subscribers extra to add 5G to their plans.
Now that Sprint and T-Mobile have their merger in the books, it looks like the Sprint brand is living on borrowed time. That won't come as a shock to anyone as the goal from the start has been to have T-Mobile absorb Sprint's network and customers, but in just a few months' time, we could see the Sprint consumer brand begin to disappear from storefronts, salesperson polo shirts, and bill headers.
Verizon today announced that it's launching a new smartwatch, but unlike most smartwatches we see, this one has a fairly limited target audience. Dubbed the Care Smart Watch, this new wearable is meant primarily for elderly customers. That, of course, means that it's being positioned as a device that can give families peace of mind when it comes to elderly relatives who live alone.
The Internet has never become more critical than it has been until these past weeks. Social distancing has forced many interactions and activities to be moved online. Naturally, that means using up more data than you normally would have in a given period. Normally, that leads to higher fees or slower speeds when you hit data caps. Following the lead of major US carriers, Google Fi is now announcing its own changes to its policies, including increasing limits but only temporarily.
The T-Mobile merger with Sprint is complete, leaving John Legere has a lot more free time on his hands and subscribers awaiting the promised huge increase in 5G coverage. It brings to an end a protracted period of regulatory attention, controversy among consumer rights advocates, and big boasts from T-Mobile itself.
T-Mobile has pulled forward the launch of its cheapest smartphone plan, slicing months off the timeline to offer $15 per month service. The launch - which also sees a new Metro by T-Mobile plan arriving - comes as many Americans find themselves working from home, furloughed, or unemployed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
You'd be forgiven for thinking that the humble text message is just about as mundane as telecoms tech gets right now, but startup Lynk is aiming to correct that assumption. The company has become the first to directly send a text message from an orbiting satellite to a standard cellphone back on Earth, and it turns out that's a big deal - and a huge challenge.
Access to the Internet has proved to be more than just a luxury as cities or even whole countries lock themselves down to prevent the spread of the dreaded COVID-19 virus. Work and schools are moving their activities online and social media and messaging have become the only ways people can safely keep in touch. In the US, however, consumers are facing concerns that their increased Internet use may also increase their expenses. Fortunately for AT&T subscribers, that won't be the case, at least during the coronavirus crisis.
When Verizon bought up Yahoo in 2017, there was a lot of question about what it would do with the declining web company. After merging some portions of Yahoo with AOL and shutting down others, Verizon is ready to put the name to use, today announcing the launch of Yahoo Mobile. Yahoo Mobile seems to be a new prepaid plan that combines services from both Verizon and Yahoo in one package.
5G is big in mobile but that's not the only place it'll be in, naturally. Desktop and laptop computers are also fair game but only if they have the hardware to slurp from that high-speed network. Most will use external peripherals but Qualcomm is, of course, pushing a new breed of Always On, Always Connected PCs that this year will gain the ability to tap into 5G networks. And to reassure future buyers that they will be getting their money's worth, the chipmaker is listing which network operators will be supporting Snapdragon-powered 5G PCs when they launch this year.
Today we get our first major glimpse of what Google developers are doing to prepare Android 11 (or Android R) for 5G connectivity. We see the next-generation operating system update with the Android 11 Developer Preview, a bit of software that was just released for app developers today. With 5G, the Android experience expands in a number of exciting ways - but it begins at the base, with features like "dynamic meteredness" and a newly updated bandwidth estimator API.