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Sprint lights up WiMAX in NC, Chicago and Dallas, launches subsidized Mini 10

by Darren Murph posted Nov 2nd 2009 @ 9:44AM

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Or better yet, when a leaked roadmap doesn't get delayed in the slightest? After months upon months of waiting, broadband-lovin' citizens in the North Carolina Triangle and Triad will be celebrating alongside DFW residents and Chicago natives as Sprint's 4G WiMAX service rolls into town. As of right now (that's today, junior), consumers in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point and Charlotte, NC; Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas and Chicago, Illinois can roll into a Sprint store and snag a U300 3G / 4G WWAN modem on a $69.99 monthly data plan. We're told that San Antonio and Austin will get lit up later this month, while Honolulu and Maui, Hawaii; Salem, Oregon and Seattle, Washington will join the fray before 2010. Oh, and did we mention that Palm's favorite carrier finally snagged itself a WWAN-equipped netbook? 'Cause the Dell Mini 10 is available starting today for $199.99 at select Sprint stores in the metropolitan Baltimore area.

Update: Looks like Sprint changed "Baltimore" to "Bay Area." Odd.

Read - Sprint WiMAX in the Triangle
Read - Sprint WiMAX in the Triad
Read - Sprint WiMAX in Charlotte, NC
Read - Sprint WiMAX in Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX
Read - Sprint WiMAX in Chicago, IL
Read - Sprint's first netbook is Dell Mini 10

Clearwire and Sprint slinging WiMAX to NC, HI and TX in November / December

by Darren Murph posted Oct 23rd 2009 @ 4:27PM

We knew Clearwire would be snaking its 4G services to select markets in North Carolina, Hawaii and Texas before the year's end, but it's always reassuring to hear a corporation come right out and affirm that those leaked dates are still solid. What's interesting about the latest announcement is that both Clearwire and Sprint will be offering 4G in these same cities under their own brands, even though the signals and towers used will be the same. Starting next month, WiMAX will officially land in Greensboro and Raleigh, North Carolina (Charlotte is already lit up, despite these companies' claims) and Austin; Dallas/Fort Worth; San Antonio, Texas. In December, the companies will get things fired up in Honolulu and Maui, two areas where we're certain techs from Sprint / Clearwire are more than eager to go "test things out." So, now that this has all panned out, how's about another leak sheet for 2010 rollouts?

Leaked Sprint WiMAX roadmap names new cities for 2009 rollout

by Ross Miller posted Aug 1st 2009 @ 3:47PM

Well, what do we have here? One of our readers sent us a screenshot from Sprint's Sales Portal that included the above roadmap for its WiMAX rollout this year. A number of the yet-to-be-launched cities we've already heard about -- Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Charlotte -- but to the best of our knowledge, the rest of them are brand new entries. Additionally, Baltimore residents can look forward to some sort of coverage update in the fourth quarter. We'd be lying if we said we weren't jealous that Salem (population 3,000) and Milledgeville (population 19,000) are getting the wireless network before most of us on staff, but the service has to start somewhere, right? No indication here of 2010 plans, but last we heard that included Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Update: As tipster Carlos points out, Clearwire's website already has some coverage maps for some of the cities listed in the third quarter, as well as some markets not listed here.

AT&T's network down in parts of Texas

by Chris Ziegler posted Feb 25th 2009 @ 5:59PM

We've gotten word that AT&T's airwaves in Texas are a bit spotty today due to some sort of "equipment issue" that's causing handsets to be unable to authenticate to the network. Good news is it should be resolved later today, if it hasn't been already -- anyone out there being affected by this? Follow the break for AT&T's official statement.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Update: AT&T tells us that everything was patched up and good to go as of 7:15 CST.

Continue reading AT&T's network down in parts of Texas

AT&T moves HQ to Dallas from San Antonio

by Nilay Patel posted Jun 27th 2008 @ 8:54PM

What's that, you didn't know AT&T was based in Texas? Yeah, ever since all those mergers (re-)created AT&T, its HQ has been in the former SBC offices in San Antonio, which is why certain services tend to roll out there first. It looks like the Alamo City isn't quite big enough for Ma Bell, though -- it's just announced that it's moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas in order to be closer to the airport. Yes, the airport. Dallas-Fort Worth Internation is country's third-largest airport, and AT&T wants travel to and from HQ to be more convenient and cost-effective. AT&T also has about 1,300 different suppliers and vendors in the Dallas area who employ some 45,000 people, so moving closer to them seems like a no-brainer. The company's Telecom Operations unit is staying put, however, so only about 700 of the 6,000 workers currently in San Antonio will be schlepping across the state. The transition should be completed within the year -- here's hoping some of those cost savings make their way down to us.

Continental Airlines expands paperless boarding in US

by Darren Murph posted May 5th 2008 @ 11:24AM

Handset addicts traveling domestically through Houston's Intercontinental Airport have likely utilized the paperless boarding option if hopping on a Continental flight, and apparently the initiative is going over so well that the aforesaid airline and the TSA are expanding it to three more venues. As of now, passengers traveling within the US can enjoy the same luxury at Boston's Logan International Airport and Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C; later this month, the program should slide into Newark International Airport in New Jersey. As expected, only folks traveling alone can take advantage, as the airline feels that pulling up passes for an entire group would actually slow the flow of boarding. There's been no word given on future expansion plans, but at this rate, we wouldn't be shocked to see it hit even more airports in the not-too-distant future.

[Via WBZTV]

Continental Airlines testing cellphone boarding passes

by Darren Murph posted Dec 5th 2007 @ 11:57AM

Paperless boarding schemes aren't exactly revolutionary, but they're still far from common at US airports. Now, however, Continental Airlines has announced that it will be trialing a cellphone-based boarding setup at Houston's Intercontinental Airport, which will enable single passengers to show personnel a jumbled mixture of blocks alongside their ID in order to hop on board. The three-month program will allow guinea pigs to receive a paper pass should their mobile / PDA run out of juice before boarding time approaches, and while hard plans for future use aren't laid out, it was noted that the process could spread to other airlines and airports if things go smoothly.

Math teacher gives kids questionable SMS homework assignment

by Sean Cooper posted Sep 10th 2007 @ 9:16PM

A Grand Prairie, Texas teacher is in hot water with parents after a homework assignment doled out to his students this week. Rather than your typical 2 + 2 exercises, he went high tech and had them decode 20 text message abbreviations. Unfortunately, the exercise went pear-shaped when parents of the grade six students noticed things like NIFOC (Nude In Front Of the Computer) and IWSN (I Want Sex Now) was in their evening duties -- at least this teacher wasn't using SMS to buy pot. We dig tech like no other, but, those might have been omitted and replaced with things like LOL (Laugh Out Loud) or TTIAB (Talk to you In A Bit). The teacher now waits for the school district to make up its mind on his fate -- though we'd hazard a guess he's likely learned his lesson.

[Via textually.org]

Thieves take off with $50,000 worth of cellphones

by Conrad Quilty-Harper posted Jun 25th 2007 @ 12:49PM

The anecdotal evidence for a spike in electronics robberies is piling up, with the latest high profile robbery netting the thieves $50,000 worth of cellphones from a T-Mobile store. Three armed men walked into the store in Fort Bend County in Texas on Thursday, and demanded the "good phones" from the store's safe and the tapes from the CCTV. Staff were tied up, and the thieves deposited the phones into black plastic bags and walked out. Unfortunately for the robbers, T-Mobile keeps a good track of its inventory, and can identify any of the phones if they turn up on the network (meaning that the $50,000 sticker value is much lower on the black market). Crime doesn't pay, especially when your stolen goods can be tracked.

[Via textually]