FCC has approved the transfer of AWS spectrum licenses from AT&T to T-Mobile USA, clearing the way of operator's planned $4 billion network modernization and 4G evolution plan. Earlier announced operator's LTE roadmap had assumed successful reframing of spectrum and regulatory approval of AT&T break-up spectrum transfer.

87 million 4G devices are expected to be sold in 2012, says ABI Research. With 294% year-on-year increase, 4G subscriptions are really going to take off in 2012. LTE will take major share of this market as WiMAX is running out of favor from vendors and operators.

LTE smartphones will top 65 million units in 2012 and will help push the total royalty 14% higher in 2012, says ABI Research. Mobile wireless royalties for GSM, WCDMA, and LTE smartphones were just under $20 billion in 2011. LTE handsets will make only total 4% of the total handsets shipped in 2012 however total royalty revenue will be higher.

Recently published GSA report confirms that 63 manufacturers have announced 347 LTE-enabled user devices so far. In 2011. around 250 new LTE user devices were added. GSA further says that the number of smartphones has increased by one third since January 2012. The number of LTE-capable tablets increased 72% in the same period.

Sprint has announced the next evolution of the HTC EVO family: HTC EVO 4G LTE. It will be available in the second quarter for $199.99. The availability date will be announced later.

Global LTE phone shipments will grow tenfold from 6.8 million units in 2011 to reach 67 million units in 2012, Strategy Analytics said last week. Companies leading the growth spurt will include Apple, Samsung, HTC and others. Major countries driving LTE growth this year will include the United States, Japan and South Korea. 

According to IHS iSuppli, the new iPad is more expensive to produce than the iPad 2 at the time of product launch, even though the retail price points are the same. The 32GB LTE model’s bill of materials (BOM) is nearly 9 percent higher than an iPad 2 equipped with 32GB and 3G wireless, which carried a cost of approximately $335 at the time of product launch.

Operators worldwide are embracing LTE at faster rate now. According to a recent GSA report 301 operators have committed to commercial LTE network deployments, more than 50% jump in a year.

With rumors floating around for possible support of 4G LTE, a new report surfaced today which indicates that Apple plans to add LTE equipped radio to its third-generation iPad.

Qualcomm's next generation Gobi modem chipsets will begin sampling in Q4 2012 and will support both HSPA+ Release 10 & LTE Advanced. The new chipsets will support LTE carrier aggregation and true LTE Category 4 with data rates of up to 150 Mbps.

China's ZTE has announced two new LTE handsets running Android Ice Cream Sandwich with 1.2GHz and 1.5GHz chipsets. Company plans to showcase them at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress telecoms industry show in Barcelona.

Huawei has announced the commercial launch of the Automatic Neighbor Relation (ANR) feature on LTE networks in Cologne, Germany. The 3GPP standardized ANR feature is one of the important features of overall Self-Organizing Network (SON) solution. 

LTE is driving current mobile devices and equipment market and is expected to claim the major share of wireless spending next few years as mobile carriers migrate

LG has launched the Optimus Pad LTE, a 4G LTE capable 8.9-inch tablet running Android Honeycomb operating system.