John Legere will serve as President and CEO, with former MetroPCS Vice Chairman and CFO, J. Braxton Carter, serving as CFO of the combined company. T-Mobile and MetroPCS will continue to operate as separate brands.

“By uniting T-Mobile and MetroPCS, we have created a dynamic new player in the wireless industry that has the right strategy and management team in place to compete successfully in today’s marketplace,” said Tim Höttges, currently Deputy CEO and CFO of Deutsche Telekom, who will serve as Chairman of the Board. “We look forward to realizing the tremendous potential of the new T-Mobile.”

Under the deal’s terms, MetroPCS effected a 1 for 2 reverse stock split, made a cash payment of $1.5 billion to its stockholders (approximately $4.05 per share prior to the reverse stock split), and acquired all of T-Mobile’s capital stock from Deutsche Telekom in exchange for about 74% of MetroPCS’ common stock on a pro forma basis.

The combined company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. It also maintains a “significant” presence in Richardson, Texas.

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The 16GB iPhone 5 starts at $99.99, with a monthly payment of $20 per month got 24 months. Without the plan, it’ll cost $579.99 up front. The 32GB iPhone with with run $199.99 with a 2-year plan, $679.99 without. And the 64GB device will cost $299.99 with the plan and $779.99 without.

The phone will ship on April 12th.

Also, if you want a cheaper option, T-Mobile is offering the iPhone 4S for $69.99 down and $20 per month for 24 months and the iPhone 4 for $14.99 down and $15 per month for 24 months.

“This is an important day for people who love their iPhone but can’t stand the pain other carriers put them through to own one,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile USA when he announced the addition. “We feel their pain. I’ve felt the pain. So we’re rewriting the rules of wireless to provide a radically simple, affordable iPhone 5 experience — on an extremely powerful network.”

Speaking of pain, plenty of T-Mobile customers painfully waited for the company to offer the iPhone 5. As you probably know, T-Mobile was the last of the major U.S. carriers to offer the device, trailing AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.

Apple’s App Store went down early this morning, but it wasn’t because of the T-Mobile addition. When buying an iPhone via the Apple online Store, T-Mobile has yet to be included as an option.

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First up is S Translator. Much like Google Translate, Samsung’s software can translate text to speech and vice versa to provide translations in multiple languages. It will be interesting to see if Samsung’s software can outperform Google’s own translation software.

Air View is one of the more interesting features coming to the Galaxy S 4 as it allows users to simply hover their finger over the screen to preview content. The demonstration shows that Air View will also work when a user is wearing gloves.

Dual cameras on smartphones are nothing new, but Samsung is doing some interesting things with how the software interacts with the hardware this time around. Users can take pictures of friends with the rear-facing camera while snapping a photo of their face with the front-facing camera. The software then combines the two for a picture of your friend coupled with your disembodied head.

The final feature on display today is called “Sound & Shot.” The feature allows users to couple a sound clip with a photo so one can save sounds alongside a photo for an extra dosage of nostalgia. It’s the epitome of gimmicks, but I can see some people getting a kick out of it.

There’s sure to be more information on the Galaxy S 4 released in the coming weeks and months, including its price and launch date. Samsung may even reveal more software features before launch.

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• 62 countries already have at least one LTE network.
• LTE will be present in a projected 83 countries within the next two years, which will drive the production of lower-end LTE-compatible smartphones.
• LTE’s dramatic improvement in speed and latency from 3G shows that it has the potential to be as transformative an advancement as the evolution from 2G to 3G was – especially true in countries that do not have established fixed line internet infrastructure, meaning that broadband internet can be made widely available through cellular connections.
• The arrival of cheap handsets that are able to make use of LTE will help expedite mass adoption, leading to the potential for dramatically increased broadband penetration in developing countries.

One really interesting technical point of the many that Open Signal makes is regarding 4G network speed compared to other connection types. All mobile operators talk about how fast their 4G is compared to 3G and even compared to wifi.

It helps to see what that means:

These are averages, according to Open Signal, across all the countries they reviewed. But the numbers do appear to support the high 4G (LTE) speed claims of the mobile operators.

For the past few months, I’ve been enjoying the experience of “faster everything” on a mobile device, a Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE courtesy of mobile operator EE and the ambassador programme I’m participating in. The SIII connects me to EE’s LTE network in the UK. It’s the only 4G network in this country at the moment.

EE’s network is fast: my experience behind the phrase “faster everything” is one that is very noticeable when compared to 3G, when you do the kinds of things you, well, do on a modern mobile device: take and post Instagram photos, tweet, like something (or someone) on Facebook, +1 on Google, add a comment to a discussion on LinkedIn, watch a video, do your email, etc.

I’m convinced that device hardware capabilities are a big part of that overall “faster everything” perception: LTE-optimized hardware (and software) and a speedy network, the two go hand in hand.

So I was a bit surprised when I saw Open Signal’s chart that shows the speeds you can expect in the top nine countries they reviewed – and the UK wasn’t one of them:

Then I spotted that they’re measuring download speed rather than overall speed. That’s something that still puzzles me in my “faster everything” experiences.

What I typically get on an LTE network connection is a pretty slow (comparatively) download speed, and a faster upload speed according to speed tests I’ve run with the mobile testing app from Speedtest.com.

Actually, you can see that my LTE download speeds aren’t that bad – the first one in the list, for instance, is better than speeds shown for seven of the nine countries in Open Signal’s chart.

I realize these are just a couple of tests and may not reflect a constant in any way concerning network speeds up or down. Yet it seems to go against what research like Open Signal’s talks about. And I never see any network operators talking about upload speed – it’s always about download speed.

Even cable broadband companies like Virgin Media only talk about download speeds (although with their pathetic less-than-5mbps upload speed, I’m not surprised)

Still, I suppose I shouldn’t be concerned about being puzzled when I’m able to just get things done on EE’s 4G LTE when out and about in London, much faster than I can with 3G. It’s not as if upload speed is a factor mentioned in the pricing element of service; neither is it highlighted in any operator’s marketing messaging (those might become more important, though, once 4G LTE competition heats up in the UK later this year).

Meanwhile, I’ll keep calm and carry on!

(Via GigaOm)

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The company has launched an Indiegogo campaign that asks for $850,000 to fund the next step of their plan. Here’s how the company is planning to bring Wi-Fi to rural Americans across the country:

Over the past two years, the company has invested heavily in R&D to optimize software protocol thereby enhancing the ability of 802.11 platforms. The core strategic alliance is to merge with existing national and international rural stations and utilize its terrestrial infrastructure to deliver the bundled services and content. The infrastructure has been successfully tested and is used in limited areas benefiting rural schools and emergency services. The company started with two positive cash flow remote radio stations and internet radio in Iowa. GlobalWirelessPOD has identified multiple rural radio stations in the U.S. Midwest that are ready to align to the multipoint network.

The company is in need of $ 800,000 to start the build-out, merges & acquisition of target rural stations and ramp up customer premise equipment (CPE) inventory . This includes globally scalable joint-ventures in Brazil, Philippines, Vietnam-ASEAN arena awaiting entry memorandum of agreements. If goal amount is not reached, a second round will commence combined with current positive cash flow. Proprietary and specific long range strategy are disclosed with a completed non-disclosure agreement to interested Pioneer Partners.

For those who contribute, there’s a wide variety of rewards available in multiple tiers. The lowest tier starts at $11 and those who contribute this amount will receive a thank you note. Bumping your support up to $33 nets you a GlobalWirelessPOD ball cap. Upping your pledge will net you everything from a military grade unit jacket to a board meeting lunch with the folks at OpenWirelessPOD.

There hasn’t been much money raised yet, but the campaign has just started. OpenWirelessPOD has 116 days left to raise $850,000, but its flexible funding campaign ensures that it will at least receive whatever money is pledged to the cause between now and the campaign’s conclusion.

It’s going to take companies like GlobalWireless to get Internet into the hands of consumers as the FCC has done a rather terrible job so far in furthering its National Broadband Plan. The unwillingness of ISPs to actually foot the bill of extending service to those who need it most isn’t helping either.

Those in Appalachia and other rural regions are constantly targeted as regions that need help, but rarely does that help ever come. It’s nice to see somebody working on campaigns to improve the lives of people living in these communities.

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Let’s say you opt into Verizon’s data collection service. Here’s what Verizon says they’ll be doing with your personal information:

Simply put, Verizon Selects will use location, web browsing and mobile application usage data, as well as other information including customer demographic and interest data, to create specific insights. Verizon Selects analyzes this information about customers to see whether they fit into certain audiences Verizon or third party marketers are trying to reach. Depending on the results, participating customers will receive marketing messages or offers that may be of more interest to them than what they see or receive today. These messages could be delivered in various ways such as email, text, postal mail or online or mobile advertising.

Verizon notes that it will not share any personally identifying information with anybody outside of the company. That’s vague, and kind of scary considering that law enforcement is trying to push for greater access to mobile carriers’ records, especially SMS.

Regardless, it’s entirely optional at this point. If a coupon is worth a company potentially making millions off of your personal information, you can sign up for Verizon Selects here. Concerned customers can also opt out of it and other targeted ad networks at the above link.

[h/t: Droid Life]

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The NTSB requires effective, reliable and stable communication capabilities to carry-out its primary investigative mission and to ensure employee safety in remote locations

The agency is contracted with Verizon Wireless to provide it with wireless service, and it currently deploys some iPads to employees. It’s decision to use the iPhone 5 instead of Android devices came partly because of that the iPad use:

The iPhone 5 has been determined to be the only device that meets the dual requirement of availability from the existing wireless vendor and is currently supportable by existing staff resources. The NTSB also anticipates the benefit of synching of the iPad devices and the iPhone devices, allowing users to seamlessly transition between the use of multiple platforms while retaining the same applications and capabilities.

Research in Motion (RIM) has been losing large enterprise clients at a disturbing rate this fall. In September, Yahoo announced it would be giving free high-end smartphones – but not BlackBerrys – to its employees. Government contracter Booz Allen announced last month that it’s 25,000 employees will be transferred to Android or iPhone devices, and the U.S. Department of Defense is looking to hire a contractor to manage hundreds of thousands of Android and Apple devices.

RIM is currently hanging its hopes of revitalizing its business on the January 30 launch of its new BlackBerry 10 platform. Analysts, however, are not convinced the new OS and devices will be enough to bring the company back to the dominance it enjoyed five years ago.

(Via AllThingsD)

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• Samsung maintained its leadership position in the worldwide smartphone market, posting another record quarter for itself and the industry, and more than double the total volume of its next closest competitor, Apple.
• Apple iPhone shipments finished the quarter nearly flat from the previous quarter, reaching a total of 26.9 million units. Although the iPhone 5 was only on the market for one week in 3Q12, the aggressive rollout of the device resulted in more than 5 million iPhones sold in the first weekend of availability
• Research In Motion’s shipment volumes appear to have flattened though the company posted the second-highest year-over-year decline of any the leading vendors.
• ZTE finished among the top 5 smartphone vendors globally thanks to continued international diversification efforts last quarter.
• HTC clung to the number 5 smartphone spot last quarter thanks to sales of key models such as the HTC One X and the EVO 4G.

See more info – Smartphones Drive Third Quarter Growth in the Worldwide Mobile Phone Market

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This isn’t the first Kindle product that Amazon has killed off in the past few months. The Kindle Touch was killed off without even a mention from Amazon right before the company’s Kindle event. In that particular case, it was pretty obvious that the Kindle Paperwhite was meant to replace the Touch. What about the Kindle DX though?

Amazon already has an answer – the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD. The company’s larger tablet offering will be going on sale in November. It’s cheaper than the ridiculously expensive Kindle DX, and it offers the consumer much more in the way of entertainment consumption. The Kindle DX was just a big e-reader, whereas the Kindle Fire HD is positioned to do everything else.

Regardless, there are still some people who may just want a large e-reader. Perhaps the Kindle Paperwhite just isn’t doing it for them. We’ve reached out to Amazon to see if the company has any plans to bring back the Kindle DX in any way. We’ll update this story if we hear back.

For now, Kindle DX fans can pick up the tablet from authorized resellers for about $230. At that price, you’re probably better off just getting the new 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD. Amazon even thinks you should as the new tablet shows up in searches for the Kindle DX.

[h/t: The eBook Reader]

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