Chalk up another one for the LTE team, as it has yet another big proponent in the ever-raging 4G war. Not even two months after Verizon gave LTE the nod over WiMAX / UMB, the board of the GSM Association has now voted to support Long Term Evolution as the mobile broadband solution to follow HSPA. The GSMA also noted that it would be interfacing with other outfits / organizations that are developing LTE technology and begin work with the NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks) initiative. Furthermore, Rob Conway, the entity's CEO, reportedly called on the International Telecommunication Union to "ensure the industry wins the spectrum needed to offer mobile broadband." 'Course, we've already heard that things are shaping up nicely (in testing) for the standard, but winning over the GSMA is likely to incite some serious celebrating in the offices of LTE backers everywhere.

If you've ever wondered just how much functionality could be crammed into a single PC Card, it seems that Onda and Siano are out to give you an answer. Deemed the "world's first combined DVB-H / HSDPA card" for Italy's TIM, the DT501HS enables users to suck down mobile TV and internet content in one fell swoop, but we've no idea if / when this thing will be made available on any other carrier(s). Notably, this device relies on Siano's wee PCB-mounted SMS8021 antenna, which means that you won't find any external protrusions here. As for pricing, we weren't able to locate any hard figures, but those parked in Italy should be able to snap one up anytime now in TIM stores.

[Image courtesy of Cellular]

Although the most recent hunch about a handset release did indeed prove true, we're not so sure about these HTC claims. DigiTimes has it that High Tech Computer is "expected to launch its second touchscreen-controlled smartphone supporting a 3.5G standard perhaps as soon as September," and while it didn't confirm, the site did insinuate that the mobile in question is the P5500 "Nike." Additionally, the rumors suggested that the phone will be "built using a CPU from Samsung and chipsets from Qualcomm," while also supporting W-CDMA. Of note, these same "sources" claimed that a device codenamed Vogue would be hitting North, Central, and South American shores, and we certainly can't find any room to argue with that.

[Via TheUnwired]

Samsung's SPH-W2400, which we spotted a month or so ago thanks to the FCC, finally has a face and a few more details to boot. The snazzy Anycall-built slider sports a unique rotating screen, DMB TV tuner, a two-megapixel camera, MP3 player, Bluetooth, microSD slot, TV out, language translation software, and HSDPA connectivity. Best of all, it appears that this phone will basically work in every corner of the modern world, but sadly, we've no idea where you'll actually find one for sale nor how much you'll be asked to cough up for it once you do.

Not content with simply making some of the best smartphones on the planet, Taiwanese powerhouse HTC is now looking to get into the data card game, with the company prepping a new HSDPA card through its BandRich subsidiary. The C100, as it's known, will offer download speeds up to 7.2Mbps where available, and is said to be just the first of many mobile modems BandRich is planning. DigiTimes is reporting that the C100 will be priced north of €200 ($269), so although we don't yet know when/where these are gonna drop, it looks like you'll have to part with at least a few C notes if this model lands in your neck of the woods.

[Via jkOTR]

Step aside Samsung i520 and Nokia N95, you've got company. That's right, LG's first Symbian S60 slider rides the glossy success of their Chocolate phones and is said to feel remarkably light considering the kit packed within. No official announcement has been made, but from the looks of reports spillin' outta London's Symbian Smartphone Show, the Joy is set to deliver Symbian OS v9 and S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, a 2.4-inch LCD screen, GSM / EDGE / HSDPA radios, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, a full xHTML browser, microSD expansion slot, a 2 megapixel camera for snaps and a second shooter for VGA quality video calls. Damn near identical specs as the Sammy. But you won't hear us complaining about choice, albeit not ours, since we won't likely be screaming for Joy Stateside anytime soon.

[Via All About Symbian]

The handset itself might not be anything spectacular in terms of specification, but one aspect of LG's CU500 clamshell makes it extraordinarily interesting: it's North America's first retail HSDPA handset. A little private investigation on our part (meaning we called a few stores) reveals that the phone officially drops in Cingular's 3G markets tomorrow, but several persistent individuals have managed to get stores in the Boston and Atlanta areas to part with their units a day early. HowardForums has a rather active thread heralding the news, which you can read after you give your local store a call, eh?

[Thanks, The Bullfrog]

As if this handsome little bugger wasn't already the "world's most desirable laptop," the Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook Q2010 won't just have Bluetooth, WiFi, 1GB RAM, a black "piano lacquer" finish, an eight-hour battery, a weight of about 2 1/2 pounds, and 3G -- it'll be 3.5G. That's right, T-Mobile Austria intends to equip the laptop with HSDPA data access for use on their high speed European network. The $5,000 price tag on the Q2010 just became that much easier to justify.

South Korean consumers looking for some serious mobile bandwidth need not wait until June to pick up one of LG's SH100 handsets that we brought you earlier today, because SK Telecom has just announced that their HSDPA network is live in 25 cities as of today, and that a new model from Samsung is available for the rollout. Besides 2G, 3G, and 3.5G data support, the new Samsung SCH-W200 -- which is the first of five impending HSDPA phones, including the SH100, that will available by year's end -- offers both a two megapixel as well as a VGA camera, S-DMB TV capabilities, MP3/AAC playback, text-to-speech, and perhaps most importantly with all these features, multitasking. Although theoretically capable of 12Mbps downstream traffic, SKT's HSDPA network will currently only deliver a relatively pokey 1.8Mbps to the W200 -- with 3.6Mbps promised for later this year -- but claims to be the only WCDMA network in the world to offer guaranteed video conferencing performance through circuit, and not packet, switching.

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Read- Samsung SCH-W200