Sidecut Reports

Samsung’s mobile hotspot for Verizon’s LTE network. Credit: Verizon.

Samsung’s portable Wi-Fi hotspot for the Verizon LTE network is now available from the Verizon Wireless website, for $100 after rebates and a 2-year contract; however those wishing for an unlimited plan are out of luck, since the mobile hotspot will use the same data plans as the already launched LTE USB modems — $50 for 5 GB per month, or $80 for 10 GB per month.

The device (which we saw working live in the wild last week at CTIA) will be in stores Thursday, according to Verizon. In addition to LTE access it also provides backward-compatible access to Verizon’s 3G network so it can be a reliable broadband supplier to as many as five Wi-Fi devices you may have in your arsenal. For road warriors who spend a lot of time in major airports this device may be just the ticket since Verizon’s early LTE rollouts have made airport access a priority. It will be interesting to see how sales of this device stack up against the first offering in this arena, the Sprint Overdrive, which is now in its second iteration. Let the 4G pocketspots battle begin!

It was shown at CES, but it hasn’t yet been made available — but the Samsung LTE Mobile hotspot is apparently making appearances in the wild, since the SSID list pulled up from our hotel room here in Orlando Sunday night saw the Verizon SCH-LC11 Samsung tag. Too bad it was locked, preventing us from doing some in-hotel wardriving to see if that LTE network is really as hot as folks say it is. C’mon Verizon insider! Share the wealth!

An availability announcement might be on tap this week — but it might get lost in the discussion of the week of CTIA that is already trending on Twitter as #ATTMobile. Sidecut Reports hadn’t been in Orlando more than 15 minutes before hearing barroom chatter about AT&T and T-Mobile while watching the end of the Kansas-Illinois game. The good thing is that while we were traveling many hard-working telco reporters were cranking out some great instant reporting and analysis. Links below. And if you have a working Samsung mobile hotspot, tell us how it performs!

GigaOM’s Stacey H with a straight news take w/Sprint comment

GigaOM’s Stacey again with a good regulatory/DOJ take

All Things D’s Ina Fried does a Q&A with AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega (who finally admits that his company has a spectrum depth problem and is willing to pay $39 billion to fix it)

When AT&T announced the availability of the HTC Inspire last month I thought it was kinda funny that nobody picked up on the fact that AT&T was selling what it called a “4G smartphone” but wouldn’t tell anyone where the company’s “4G” HSPA+ service was up and running. Without any fanfare, press release or even a list, all that has apparently changed now since AT&T’s 4G promo page now lets you drill down to see very detailed network-coverage maps showing live HSPA+ services in several big cities, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas and Boston, among a few others.


AT&T 4G coverage map screenshot, showing a live market in San Francisco.

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