T-Mobile this week introduced a new Un-carrier-branded, budget device – the T-Mobile REVVL. The phone runs on Android Nougat and includes a 5.5-inch HD screen, fingerprint sensor, 32 GB of storage (expandable to 128 GB), a 13 mp rear camera, and 5 mp selfie camera. T-Mobile is offering the handset for $0 down and $5 per month, starting Thursday.
T-Mobile has also expanded its JUMP! On Demand upgrade program to include devices on its “Smartpicks” list rather than just top-tier devices. The T-Mobile REVVL is among those devices given the Smartpicks designation. Others include the Samsung Galaxy J3 Prime, the LG Aristo, and LG K20 Plus.
Speaking of T-Mobile, the Un-carrier’s prepaid MetroPCS brand came out swinging with a new unlimited promotion this week offering two lines for $75. The first line of unlimited will run customers $50, but four additional lines can be added for $25 each. The deal comes in just below Cricket and Boost Mobile’s respective offers giving customers two lines of unlimited for $80 per month.
Nokia Bell Labs said this week it’s leading a consortium of industry vendors, operators, IT companies, small and medium-sized enterprises and European academic institutions to build a Next Generation Platform-as-a-Service (NGPaaS) for the 5G era. Work will proceed over the next 24 months, and comes as part of the 5G Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership (5G-PPP) that was launched in 2014.
Nokia said it’s hoping to develop a cloud-native platform that will be capable of facilitating the building, shipping, and running virtual network function (VNF) applications with ‘telco-grade’ quality in terms of latency, reliability and capacity. Additionally, the company said the platform will also combine third-party applications with those VNFs, breaking silos between connectivity and computing.
Nokia will be working with ATOS, BT, Orange, Virtual Open Systems, Vertical M2M, B-COM, ONAPP, the University of Milano-Bicocca, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, and IMEC.
Antenna Company has joined the CBRS Alliance, as debate about the future of the 3.5 GHz band in the United States rages on over at the FCC.
“Antenna Company believes that spectrum sharing in the CBRS band is an important industry initiative and that antenna system performance will be critical to achieving expanded coverage and capacity,” Antenna Company CEO David Favreau commented. “Antenna Company is pleased to join other CBRS Alliance members in developing the ecosystem needed to realize the potential of LTE-based solutions in the 3.5GHz band.”
Cambium Networks, a provider of wireless networking solutions, has introduced its ePMP Force 190 wireless broadband module.
When configured for a point-to-point wireless link, Cambium reports the system provides up to 200 Mbps of connectivity for streaming video, voice, and data applications. When deployed in a point-to-multipoint configuration with the ePMP 2000 or ePMP 1000 Access Point (AP), the Force 190 Subscriber Module (SM) provides up to 200 Mbps of bi-directional throughput to a long range with its 22 dBi antenna.
“The Force 190 design is based on input from wireless ISP service providers around the world,” Cambium’s SVP of Product Management Scott Imhoff said. “The solution provides an affordable, quality connection that is interference-tolerant and can be rapidly deployed to provide a high-speed link almost anywhere in a matter of hours.”
