wireless carrier

Six months after launching trials of its new 4G Long Term Evolution network, Verizon Wireless has reported wireless data speeds faster than its own and competitors' existing networks. The recorded speeds are also faster than any competitors' promised 3G network speeds.

Trials in Boston and Seattle show the LTE network is able to hold peak download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second and peak upload speeds of 20 to 25 megabits per second, the New Jersey-based wireless carrier announced Monday.

Internet search giant Google has slashed its fee for returned Nexus One smartphones by more than half. The fee went from $350 to $150 after consumers clogged Internet forums with complaints about the fee.

Effective immediately, customers who bought Google's Nexus One phone and cancel or downgrade their wireless plan within 120 days from activation may be charged a $150 equipment recovery fee, according to the company's U.S. terms of sale. Customers who return the device to Google within 14 days won't be charged the fee.

AT&T has tapped Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson to deliver network equipment and related engineering services for the U.S. wireless carrier's upcoming deployment of a high-speed 4G network based on long-term evolution (LTE) technology. The financial terms of the supplier contracts were not disclosed.

AT&T Wireless has agreed to provide 3G connections for Apple's new iPad tablet with prepaid plans priced at $15 a month for 250MB of data and $30 a month for unlimited data access. Analysts see AT&T's latest deal with Apple as a significant development for the wireless carrier, which beat out Verizon Wireless for the contract.

After being flooded with complaints that the Nexus One can't stay on 3G networks, a Google employee has told users that it will soon offer a patch to repair the technical glitch responsible.

"Our engineers have uncovered specific cases for which a software fix should improve connectivity to 3G for some users," a Google employee named Ravi posted on the Nexus One Forum, which is not affiliated with Google but describes itself as an "enthusiast site."

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs has unveiled the iPad, a tablet-style computer that resembles the iPhone, but larger.

"It's so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone," Jobs said Wednesday at the device's highly anticipated debut in San Francisco.

Apple had kept its "latest creation" tightly under wraps, though many analysts had correctly speculated that it would be a one-piece tablet computer with a big touch screen, larger than an iPhone but smaller than a laptop.

Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless got the highest ratings in overall satisfaction among the four largest wireless carriers in a survey of business owners released Wednesday by the Yankee Group and Mobile Enterprise magazine. The two carriers also showed the most consistency in categories of satisfaction.

"Among large businesses, these two carriers are neck and neck for both wireless voice and data service relationships, and Verizon holds a slight advantage in the SMB voice space," wrote Eugene C. Signorini, a vice president of the Boston-based Yankee Group.

Here's the thing to know about the Nexus One right off the bat: The much ballyhooed "Google phone" that the search behemoth unveiled this week isn't as cool as the iPhone. Still, it is a very fine smartphone. In some respects it compares favorably to Apple's wunderkind, but it comes up short in other key measures, such as storage for downloadable apps.

It advances the ball compared with previous handsets that run Google's Android mobile operating software, if not dramatically so.

Google's Nexus One "superphone" was highly anticipated, but now some observers are calling it overhyped. Less than a week after the monumental announcement that some thought would change the wireless industry, the Nexus One is getting more complaints than praise. At least the complaints are louder.

Google's Nexus One "superphone" was highly anticipated, but now some observers are calling it overhyped. Less than a week after the monumental announcement that some thought would change the wireless industry, the Nexus One is getting more complaints than praise. At least the complaints are louder.