August 25 - 1:10pm EDT   Verizon Wireless is distributing a guide to sales agents in a bid to retain customers tempted by an iPhone 3G, a leak claims. The sheet, labeled "3G iPhone Myths," attempts to challenge key selling points of the iPhone, which in the US is carried only by AT&T. The guide notes, for instance, that AT&T's HSPA (3G) network covers "only 40-50%" of Americans, approximately half the amount handled by Verizon's EVDO Rev. A technology. Similarly, while it is now cheaper to buy the actual iPhone hardware, Verizon observes that the extra $10 per month on data plans from AT&T means that, by the end of a two-year contract, the 3G iPhone ultimately costs more than the original ... [full story]

August 14 - 9:45am EDT   Unusual reception problems with the iPhone 3G are indeed attributable to Infineon's 3G chip, say two anonymous sources. Described as "well-placed," the individuals claim that approximately 2 to 3 percent of iPhone traffic is suffering from connection troubles, which may also include continual shifting between 3G and 2.5G networks. By comparison, the normal rate of dropped calls for AT&T is about 1 percent. [full story]

May 21 - 11:25am EDT   AT&T will have a complete HSPA-based 3G cellular network by the end of June, the company has announced on Wednesday. The carrier plans to have added the faster, more upload-driven HSUPA component of the spec to six of its remaining 3G markets by the end of next month, giving those areas DSL-like access speeds over wireless: users can anticipate real-world speeds of as much as 1.4Mbps downstream and between 500Kbps to 800Kbps for uploads, AT&T claims. [full story]

May 13 - 1:20pm EDT   Swedish telecom company Ericsson is collaborating with Dell, in a bid to put HSPA modems into the latter's notebooks, the companies have announced. HSPA is one of the most widely-used forms of 3G cellular broadband, and typically supports download speeds of up to 3.6 or 7.2Mbps; in the United States, AT&T runs a national 3.6Mbps network, and T-Mobile is expected to offer a rival service of some sort later this year. In buying a notebook with HSPA built in, users can connect to the Internet without using Wi-Fi or an add-on external modem. [full story]

March 10 - 12:15pm EDT   The end for Wi-Fi hotspots may already be in sight, claims the chief marketing officer of telecom multinational Ericsson. Speaking today at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Johan Bergendahl commented that at least in Europe, cellular broadband is growing so rapidly that it is surpassing any rate ever achieved by either mobile or fixed voice networks. "In Austria," says Bergendahl, "they are saying that mobile broadband will pass fixed broadband this year." [full story]

February 28 - 4:40pm EST   Umbrella technology company Gigabyte has offered a brief peak at a new cellular modem, the MD800. Buyers will have the option of three different interfaces -- ExpressCard, mini-USB or PCMCIA -- and gain access to 3.5G-level broadband, likely some form of HSPA. The card should also be the first to combine this with both GPS and assisted GPS abilities, expanding the functions of phones and/or computers. [full story]

February 14 - 10:10am EST   AT&T on Thursday expanded its data card options for its newborn HSPA 3G network with two adapters from Option. Both the ExpressCard/34-based GT Ultra Express and the standard GT Ultra (pictured) for older PC Card-equipped notebooks provide access to the HSUPA component of the carrier's network, permitting faster speeds in areas with the faster coverage: practical download speeds range between 600Kbps and 1.4Mbps while uploads run between 500Kbps and 800Kbps, AT&T estimates. [full story]

February 11 - 11:25am EST   Sierra Wireless has introduced two new HSPA mobile broadband modems -- the AirCard 885E ExpressCard and Compass 885 USB modem. Both devices boast a small form-factor and offer the latest high-speed mobile broadband technology for use worldwide. Both the AirCard 885E ExpressCard and the Compass 885 USB modem are slated for shipment in mid-2008, and are compatible with Mac as well as Windows systems. [full story]

February 11 - 8:35am EST   Novatel today upgraded its Ovation USB adapters with the MC930D. A variant on the MC950D, the new modem exchanges the tri-band HSDPA of the earlier model for full-fledged HSPA access in Europe: on advanced portions of networks from Vodafone and other carriers, the device can download at rates up to 7.2Mbps and upload at a far faster 2.1Mbps than usual. Its design is less than half an inch thick and is built to be pocketable when not plugged into a notebook. [full story]

February 10 - 3:40pm EST   Sony-Ericsson has finished up its announcements in Barcelona with word of a 3G ExpressCard line and a stereo headset. The EC400 and its GPS-equipped counterpart the EC400g are Sony-Ericsson's first mobile Internet cards to provide HSPA while using the ExpressCard format; both plug into the EC/34 slot of Mac OS X and Windows PCs to provide up to 7.2Mbps downstream in peak conditions as well as up to 2Mbps for uploads. An auto-configuring process ensures a near pain-free setup process, the company explains. [full story]

February 6 - 12:30pm EST   AT&T today said it would rapidly expand its third-generation (3G) cellular data network over the course of 2008, greatly improving coverage of the relatively fledgling service. The carrier intends to introduce its HSPA-based Internet access to 80 new cities throughout the year to include a total of 350 areas. Many if not all of these current and future areas will be upgraded to use the faster HSUPA (High Speed Upload Packet Access) format, AT&T adds. Practical speeds for these networks are estimated to range between 600Kbps and 1.4Mbps with downloads and between 500Kbps and 800Kbps for uploads, enabling video uploads as well as more two-way Internet features. [full story]

February 4 - 4:20pm EST   Texas Instruments today said it had reached a major milestone by introducing a new platform for HSPA+, a new form of "3.5G" high-speed cellular Internet access that builds on today's normal HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) connections. The technology, currently based on a new signal processing chip, would effectively turn a cell tower's base station into a standard IP (Internet protocol) router that uses standard Ethernet to make its connection. This plus other optimizations should permit downloads as quick as 42 megabits per second and uploads at 11 megabits per second; the uplink speed would be roughly double that of already advanced 5.8Mbps HSPA uploads, while downstream ... [full story]

December 17 - 10:20am EST   Although a 3G iPhone has been guaranteed for 2008, its importance has been overrated, says Shaw Wu of American Technology Research. HSPA 3G is intermittent in Europe and Japan, Wu says, let alone in the United States; so while the technology can offer speeds up to 3.6Mbps (through the likes of AT&T), users end up defaulting to 2G technologies such as EDGE most of the time. 3G also comes with increased costs: parts such as power amplifiers may add as much as $15 to the price of building a phone, an amount that may then be saddled onto the backs of shoppers. [full story]

December 3 - 11:10am EST   In an aggressive step, Qualcomm on Monday announced the RTR6570, the first new cellular chipset designed with upcoming 700MHz wireless networks in mind. The transceiver explicitly supports the longer ranges and higher speeds made possible through the new frequency, even if they use competing standards: a device using the chipset could connect both to a CDMA network (such as Sprint or Verizon) as well as an HSPA or UMTS (AT&T and potentially T-Mobile) networks adapted to the newly opened airwaves. [full story]