Flickr/Gawen947

According to NPD, 35 percent of the smartphones sold last year run on a 4G network, even under the loosest definition of 4G. While that’s up from 6 percent a year ago, it still means nearly two out of three new phones are 3G-only.

One big factor in that is the iPhone. Of all of Apple’s devices, only the iPhone 4S on AT&T’s network runs at a speed higher than 3G, and that one just barely fits the bill.

The fastest of the new networks are the LTE networks being rolled out by Verizon and, more recently, by AT&T. But most of the 4G smartphones out there are the ones that run on HSPA+, a more evolutionary technology. That technology is in use at T-Mobile and also at AT&T, and accounted for 22 percent of smartphone sales.

Phones supporting LTE accounted for 7 percent of smartphone sales, with 6 percent of smartphones using WiMax, the 4G technology adopted by Sprint.

What started out as an alphabet-soup marketing war, though, is now converging. Sprint plans to start rolling out its LTE network later this year, while T-Mobile has said it will start offering such a network next year, though it hasn’t said how it will do so. (Update: T-Mobile says it has been clear, maintaining it will be able to launch an LTE network through re-use of existing spectrum and the spectrum the it acquired from AT&T as part of the failed merger.)

“With all major U.S. carriers committing to LTE as their 4G future, it is clearly the cellular network technology that will determine the baseline for the next generation of advanced smartphones,” NPD Group analyst Ross Rubin said in a statement.

(Image courtesy of Flickr/Gawen947)

While Sprint has invested heavily to get the iPhone on its network, it’s not so fortunate when it comes to the new iPad.

Apple’s latest tablet will run on AT&T and Verizon, including their fastest new LTE networks, but won’t run at all on Sprint’s network. Nor will T-Mobile USA be offering the new iPad.

“At this time, Sprint is not a carrier for Apple’s iPad products,” Sprint said in a statement, while T-Mobile pointed to its lineup of Android tablets.

Meanwhile, Verizon and AT&T are no doubt sharpening their pitch to compete against one another for sales of the new iPad.

Verizon clearly has the more widely deployed LTE network, available in far more cities. AT&T, meanwhile, can tout that in spots where there is no LTE, its iPad shifts down to an HSPA+ network that is much speedier than Verizon’s CDMA network.

Both carriers say they are offering the same data plans they have offered in the past with the iPad. Verizon said it will support the new iPad’s option to act as a wireless hotspot to connect other devices to the Internet, while AT&T said it is working with Apple to enable the feature. There are a bunch of options for AT&T and Verizon, laid out on their respective Web sites.

Of course, with all those extra pixels on the new iPad screen and the faster connection, one will able to burn through those usage levels far faster.

Although both AT&T and Verizon will have LTE versions of the iPad, they use different bands and thus buyers will have to make a choice as to which model they want. Apple says both models will be able to roam internationally on 3G networks.

And, of course, there remains the option to forgo the cellular modem entirely and go with a Wi-Fi-only model that costs $130 less than its LTE-equipped counterpart. With past iPads, the Wi-Fi models have proved more popular, and it will be interesting to see how and if that shifts this time around.

While LTE capability is important in the U.S., most other countries have yet to build such networks. Apple is supporting a wide range of networks globally, including a bunch of different flavors of the HSPA networks common throughout Europe.

Correction, March 16: AT&T said it is working with Apple to enable the hotspot feature, but it will not be available at launch, as initially reported here.

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The carrier, while never making the cap point clear, had been slowing service when consumers hit about 2GB of usage within a billing cycle. Today, it announced two formal choke points: 3GB for customers using its HSPA+ network and 5GB for those using LTE. Once either point is reached, AT&T will warn the affected subscriber and then throttle his or her usage until the end of the billing cycle.

How does AT&T define throttling? That’s still not clear, and the company made no mention of what speeds subscribers who reach the 3GB and 5GB choke points will experience. But at least the company has issued guidelines, which is a start.

With mobile data usage continuing to skyrocket and the availability of spectrum scarce, AT&T, like other wireless companies, manages its network in the most fair way possible so that we can provide the best possible mobile broadband experience for all our customers.

How we’re managing the network only affects a small minority of the heaviest smartphone data users still on unlimited plans. Put another way, this does not impact more than 95 percent of our smartphone customers.

Our unlimited plan customers have told us they want more clarity around how the program works and what they can expect. Here’s what customers need to know:

Customers with a 3G or 4G smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – will see speeds reduced if they use 3GB (gigabytes) of data or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle. For context, less than 5 percent of smartphone customers use more than 3GB per month.

For customers with a 4G LTE smartphone – who also still have our unlimited data plan – data speeds will be reduced if usage is 5GB (gigabytes) or more in a billing cycle. Speeds will return to normal at the start of the next billing cycle.

Customers will get a text message from us before experiencing a change in speed.

Even with reduced data speeds, these customers will still be able to email and surf the web, and continue to use an unlimited amount of data each month.

Not impacted by this program, launched last year, are customers on our tiered data plans.

The reason reduced speeds only apply to unlimited smartphone customers is because their data usage is significantly higher than those on tiered plans. For example, in January, the top 5 percent of our unlimited data plan customers used an average of over 50 percent more data than the top 5 percent of customers on tiered plans.

Because spectrum is limited and data usage continues to soar, we manage our network this way to be as fair as possible and so we can provide the best possible mobile broadband experience to everyone.

We encourage all of our customers to use Wi-Fi whenever possible – especially when watching video, which is the most data-intensive activity.

That’s because data activity over Wi-Fi does not count against the threshold for unlimited customers that triggers reduced data speeds or against customers’ tiered data plans.

Also getting the service are Austin; Chapel Hill, N.C.; Orlando; Phoenix; Raleigh, N.C.; and San Diego, Calif.

That’s in addition to the 15 other markets in which AT&T launched LTE last year. Of course, AT&T still trails Verizon, which has coverage in 190 markets, with service available to more than 200 million people.

Sprint, meanwhile, has much of the country covered with an alternate 4G technology, WiMax. However, Sprint has announced plans to launch an LTE network of its own later this year.

Constrained by spectrum, T-Mobile USA has focused on rolling out ever-faster variants of its 3G network. The company had hoped a merger with AT&T would solve its problems, but is now scrambling for other options since that deal collapsed.

Update, 1 p.m.: In a Twitter posting, Sprint noted on Wednesday that it plans to launch its LTE service in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio by mid-year.

The company will start selling a data stick and a mobile hotspot, both capable of running on both its existing HSPA+ and the forthcoming LTE network. AT&T has said that its LTE network will be available later this summer in five cities: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The company aims to have service in at least 15 markets by the end of the year.

On the pricing side, AT&T said those who buy the new devices will pay the same $50 for five gigabytes of data as it charges for HSPA+ data access.

Verizon is further along with its LTE network, having begun its launch last year, while Sprint was even earlier with its WiMax-based 4G network. T-Mobile has gotten its fastest speeds through HSPA+, an evolutionary improvement to its 3G network. AT&T also has HSPA+ technology. All of these technologies are marketed by the carriers as “4G.”

In a hint of the marketing battle to come, AT&T noted that its network will be the only one to offer LTE and fall back to HSPA+ speeds where LTE is not available. While Verizon offers LTE in far more places, it falls back on older CDMA-based technology in places where LTE is not available.

Such an unlocked phone means there is no contract and you are free to use it on any supported carrier. For that privilege, it means paying full price for the phone–starting at $649 for the 16GB version.

The reason the price tag is so high is that what keeps the iPhone cost generally low is the fact that the carrier (either AT&T or Verizon) is footing a huge chunk of the cost in return for nailing down a customer for at least two years. With an unlocked phone, the user is picking up the full tab.

The unlocked model is still a GSM phone, so in the U.S., that basically means it runs on T-Mobile and AT&T. And, while it can make calls on T-Mobile, it can only send data over T-Mobile’s old EDGE network, not its 3G network, and certainly not its faster HSPA+ network. It won’t work at all on Sprint, which uses a CDMA network.

That said, if one really wants to buy an iPhone 4 for use on T-Mobile, there is now an officially supported means for doing so.

It also might have some appeal for someone who is still under contract and just got a new phone, or perhaps someone who has lost or damaged their device.

The biggest use for an unlocked iPhone is likely for frequent international travelers. Buying an unlocked model means that those going overseas can just pop in a micro-SIM (the iPhone uses a smaller version of the standard SIM card) for whichever country they happen to be in, avoiding AT&T’s exorbitant international fees.

For true jet-setters, one can actually save money over the long haul, as international calling and data roaming can easily lead to three-figure monthly bills — as many have found out the hard way.

The carrier said it will light up LTE networks in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio this summer, with 10 or more additional markets coming in the second half of the year.

AT&T is in the process of both adding an HSPA+ network, similar to the kind of higher-speed network used by T-Mobile, as well as LTE, which is the technology being used by Verizon Wireless. Spring’s high-speed network–the oldest of the bunch–uses WiMax technology. All are marketed as “4G,” making it hard to tell what’s what.

“We also have plans to add 20 4G devices to our robust device portfolio this year, with some of those being LTE capable,” AT&T CTO John Donovan said in a blog post. “We’re positioning to deliver a great mobile broadband experience in the near term with HSPA+ and a growing LTE footprint.”

The company said its LTE network should cover 70 million Americans by year’s end. AT&T talked a bit about its LTE plans back at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but Wednesday’s comments are the most specific it has been so far.

“We’ve invested $75 billion in our wireless and wired networks over the last four years–more capital invested in the U.S. than any company in any industry,” Donovan said. “And we plan to invest $19 billion in our wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects this year. The investments we’ve made to evolve our mobile broadband network in recent years, plus what we have planned for the future, put our customers in position to benefit fully from a host of coming mobile broadband innovations.”

T-Mobile also announced plans for a new mobile broadband hotspot coming this spring as well as a USB stick modem that will ship this week.

The carrier also announced the first three areas where it will introduce its fastest network technology–a so-called HSPA+42 network. The network is an incremental improvement on the network that T-Mobile already sells as 4G (although from a technology perspective both the current and faster flavors are based on T-Mobile’s existing 3G network).

Las Vegas, New York and Orlando will be the first to get the HSPA+42 network, which offers peak theoretical speeds double the fastest speeds available on its current “4G” network. Chicago will follow suit, with 25 markets due to get the speed bump by mid-year.

T-Mobile’s announcements follow those from rival Sprint, which earlier on Monday announced plans to offer a version of the Nexus S that runs on its Wi-Max-based 4G network. In a further tie-up with the search giant, Sprint also said that it will enable Google Voice to run on its complete lineup of CDMA-based smartphones.

There was also device news from T-Mobile’s would-be merger partner, AT&T, which announced plans for its first 3-D smartphone, the LG Thrill 4G. It will also carry an additional Windows Phone–HTC’s HD7S, notable for being the largest-screen device in AT&T’s lineup of Windows phones. The move comes as Sprint is due to begin selling the Arrive, its first Windows Phone. Both the Arrive and HD7S will come pre-loaded with Microsoft’s NoDo software update that adds copy and paste abilities.

An iFixit teardown of the CDMA iPhone 4 headed for Verizon reveals a world mode chip in the device’s innards: Qualcomm’s MDM6600, which supports CDMA and EVDO network standards as well as GSM and HSPA+. It’s the same chip used in the Droid Pro, Motorola’s “global ready” Android phone.

In other words, Verizon’s CDMA iPhone isn’t a world phone–but it could have been, given a SIM card and some additional engineering. Which makes it likely that the next iteration of the iPhone will be. And if iPhone 5 proves to be global ready, iPad 2 likely will be as well, as Wedge analyst Brian Blair, who first floated the idea of the World iPad, notes.

“This is the proof of my thesis, I think,” he said of iFixit’s findings. “This is a dual–band GSM/CDMA chip that I believe will not only be in a “World iPad” in April as I mentioned last Fall but I also expect it will be in the new iPhone 5 in June. It makes sense for many reasons: but the main one is that Apple engineers will only have to design a product one time, same guts and parts for GSM as for CDMA.”

[Image credit: iFixit]

“T-Mobile is ideally positioned to grow in the expanding U.S. market with the mobile Internet, if possible to a disproportionately large extent,” T-Mobile Group CEO Rene Obermann said in a statement issued by parent company Deutsche Telekom. “Philipp Humm and his team have a broad-based strategy to put T-Mobile USA back on course for growth.”

Among its plans are to offer the most competitive data rates while also introducing a faster version of its HSPA+ network, the one T-Mobile bills as America’s largest 4G network. Lacking an iPhone to offer, T-Mobile has been running a pointed ad campaign poking fun at AT&T and, more recently, also at Verizon.

T-Mobile also hopes to boost its fortunes by increasing sales efforts to businesses and allowing other carriers–so-called MVNOs–to sell services on its network.

The company reiterated its plans to eventually move to a Long-Term Evolution network (the same technology being adopted by Verizon and AT&T). However T-Mobile said this will “probably not be for a few years.”

While T-Mobile spoke to the business and technical hurdles associated with moving too quickly to LTE, it also acknowledged the other big stumbling block–it lacks enough spectrum to do so.

“Deutsche Telekom is exploring various options to acquire additional spectrum and reduce the gap regarding economies of scale compared with its larger competitors, including partnering with other companies,” T-Mobile said.

T-Mobile also announced the Samsung Galaxy S 4G and said it would bring back the Sidekick brand with a 4G, Android-based device to be introduced in the spring.

“Our network will continue to keep pace with the growing demand,” said T-Mobile CEO Phillip Humm, who said the company is embracing its status as a challenger brand (marketing speak for “the little guy”).

T-Mobile used a press conference on Thursday to announce the network and show off the LG-built G-Slate tablet that it plans to introduce in the first half of the year. T-Mobile also said it expects to offer a 7-inch Dell Streak tablet in the coming weeks.The Streak has a dual-core Nvidia Tegra processor along with support for Adobe Flash and a Gorilla Glass screen. T-Mobile said it will be sold at a “consumer-friendly price,” but didn’t share details.

Humm told reporters that the company has now sold 900,000 devices that run on its HSPA+ network, which it bills as America’s largest 4G network.

“This proves the rapid adoption,“ Humm said, adding that the carrier expects to be offering more than 25 4G devices by the end of the year, ranging from smartphones to mobile broadband.

T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray showed a slide that he says shows that HSPA+ has a strong road map to get faster in the coming years, though he said that T-Mobile does believe in moving to LTE in the future when the time is right. (T-Mobile currently lacks the spectrum to build such a network, among other issues.)

Ray said that T-Mobile has been testing T-Mobile’s new HSPA+42 network in Las Vegas and said its average speeds are on par with those provided by Verizon’s LTE network, even before that network has much load on it.

Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show, AT&T executive Ralph de la Vega said that the company plans to release 20 4G devices this year both for the LTE network and for its current HSPA+ network.

De La Vega said just after that that the company will have devices on the Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7 operating systems. (Update: 12:12 p.m.: While some in the audience, including Mobilized, heard an implication that there would be a 4G iPhone, an AT&T representative said De La Vega was only saying that the iPhone would be part of AT&T’s smartphone lineup and not suggesting a 4G version.)

Among the devices that will be on AT&T’s HSPA+ network is the Motorola Atrix 4G, a dual-core-powered Android phone from Motorola. The phone, which also packs 1GB of RAM, was launched by Sanjay Jha, CEO of newly split-off Motorola Mobility. one of the more interesting features is the phone’s optional “lap dock,” which allows the phone to power a small laptop capable of running a desktop version of the Firefox browser, among other programs.

AT&T will also have a new phone from HTC that will include a new version of the company’s Sense user interface and also connect to a new HTCSense.com Web portal.

“HTCSense.com makes your smartphone even smarter,” HTC CEO Peter Chou said, demonstrating a feature that lets you ring your phone when it is lost in the house or send a lost-and-found message to appear on a phone you left in a cab.

By building both HSPA+ and LTE networks, De la Vega said that the company will offer more speed and flexibility.

“More importantly, we will deliver an experience our competitors will not be able to match,” De la Vega said.

T-Mobile already has its ads that liken its network to a motorcycle as compared to AT&T’s scooter, but the carrier plans to rev its engine a bit faster at CES. Mobilized has learned the carrier will use the show to outline its plans for HSPA+42, a faster version of its current HSPA+ network.

In an interview, Senior Director of Engineering Mark McDiarmid said that it will unveil its plans for the faster network in Vegas and added that the technology will be integrated into smartphones next year.

“We think it’s a huge benefit,” he said. The new network offers theoretical maximum speeds that are twice as fast (42 megabits per second) as the current HSPA+ network, and T-Mobile said that devices built to take advantage of the new network should also see a comparable boost in average speeds. (Users typically get far less than a network’s maximum speed. For example, on the 21 Mbps network, T-Mobile says users of its MyTouch 4G have seen average speeds of 5 Mbps and peak speeds of 12 Mbps in some cities.)

While others have been talking about (and in many cases rolling out) all-new 4G networks, T-Mobile has been focused on speeding up its current network. In point of fact, it’s really its only option given it lacks the spectrum at this point to build an LTE or WiMax network as Sprint and Verizon are doing. However, T-Mobile maintains that focusing on faster versions of existing technology will provide similar speeds at a lower cost and with fewer headaches for users.

In an email to Mobilized, T-Mobile offered a few more hints at the directions we can expect it to take at CES.

“T-Mobile is big on Android, big on faster 4G speeds and big on 4G devices including tablets,” the carrier said. “We will continue to drive innovation on these fronts in 2011.”

T-Mobile is also expected to talk more about its tablet plans. The carrier had previously said it would have tablets that support HSPA+ in the new year.

“RIM has struggled in the U.S. during 2010,” Kvaal wrote. “Net add momentum has slowed and market share for data has ebbed. RIM acknowledges that the pace of technical advance in network technology exceeded its expectations in 2010.”

Evidently, RIM didn’t expect carriers to be quite as aggressive about moving to WiMAX, HSPA+ and LTE as they ended up being. Rather than skating to where the puck would be, RIM spent the year chasing after it–occasionally in an entirely different game.

But that’s not going to happen in 2011. With the PlayBook tablet headed to the market, perhaps along with a Touch Bold, refreshed versions of the Curve and the Storm in the works, and a smartphone migration to RIM’s new QNX OS on the horizon, the company is poised for a good year.

“We believe 2011 will bring a steadily improving line of products to the U.S. market in general, with AT&T and Verizon particularly noteworthy,” Kvaal said. “AT&T, for example, is demonstrating clear evidence of its desire to diversify away from the iPhone in recent months. We highlight the Torch and Motorola’s Android phones as examples. We also believe that Verizon is likely to be more supportive of BlackBerry in 2011 following a difficult 2010. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam has indicated that he considers BlackBerry one of the top platforms in the U.S.”

A good forecast all around for RIM, then, though with an interesting side note about Verizon’s LTE network. Said, Kvaal, “RIM’s planning process suggests to us, however, that RIM may not participate in Verizon’s 4G device launches in January.”

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis appears at D: Dive Into Mobile later today.

The official announcement of the new phone—dubbed the G2—spurred Web searches for the device and made it a trending topic on Google (GOOG). But the carrier temporarily pulled down a new promotional site for the phone after discovering that the website showed some visitors the names and email addresses of other people registering for information about the device.

The G2 is the follow-up to 2008’s G1, the first phone based on Google’s Android operating system, and T-Mobile promises that it “will deliver tight integration with Google.” The carrier also is touting the phone as the first to take full advantage of the faster speeds on its new HSPA+ network, which is speedier than regular 3G.

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“The planned transfer of Nokia’s wireless modem business enables Renesas Electronics to maximize the value of Nokia’s technology assets and engineering expertise in delivering advanced mobile platform solutions to the market by combining them with Renesas Electronics’ market-proven multimedia processing and RF technologies,” Nokia said in a statement.

Unloading a wireless communications hardware business as Nokia (NOK) is doing here might seem an odd move for a wireless communications hardware maker, but in this case it’s quite wise. Wireless modems are a low-margin business. Nokia is far better off dumping it and focusing more of its energy on its smartphone and Internet services businesses, which have been lagging for far too long.