Nokia has already released their Lumia 800 with its 3.7″ AMOLED screen, Nokia N9 polycarbonate derived body in Europe. But for the US, Nokia has released at the CES the oft-rumored Nokia Ace, now known as the Nokia Lumia 900.

Tech Specs

• Networks: GSM/EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 850/1900/2100, LTE Band 4 (1700/2100) & 17 (700)
• OS: Windows Phone Release 7.5 – Mango Commercial Release 2 (Mango + LTE)
• Memory: 512MB RAM
• Storage: 16 GB internal memory (14.5GB user memory) + SkyDrive cloud storage
• Weight: 160g (5.6 ounces)
• Dimensions: (max): 127.8 x 68.5 x 11.5 mm (5 x 2.7 x .45 inches)
• A-GPS
• Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n)
• USB 2.0 high-speed
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR

Sporting larger 4.3″ AMOLED screen and larger single polycarbonate body than the Nokia N9 and Nokia Lumia 800. Also comes with the standard 8mp camera (at least for the Nokia N9 and Nokia Lumia 800) as well as a larger battery and a forward facing 1.3 megapixel a must have for the upcoming Skype release for Mango/Tango – the Nokia Lumia 900 will hopefully reinsert Nokia as a household name in the US.

[ Links: Nokia Conversations ]

Our long, dark, and frequently-ridiculous Verizon iPhone rumor nightmare is over. Verizon this morning at a press event here in New York City confirmed longstanding rumors that AT&T has lost their exclusive arrangement with Apple, and that Verizon will be getting the iPhone. According to Verizon, the device will appear next month and will be CDMA/EVDO only not LTE. According to Verizon, this is the culmination of two years of discussion between the two companies. “We have enormous respect for the company this team has built and the hard-won loyalty they’ve won from their customers,” Verizon COO Tim Cook proclaimed on stage. “This is just the beginning of a great relationship between Apple and Verizon.”

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Verizon today unveiled more detail about their LTE wireless broadband launch, announcing that they’ll be offering the 5-12 Mbps service in 38 markets and 60 airports starting December 5. Most importantly, Verizon finally unveiled their pricing for the new service, which after a year filled with endless hints by executives about wanting to try something new winds up being somewhat underwhelming, traditional, and expensive.

The base pricing for LTE laptop connectivity via USB modem (there will be no smartphones at launch) is significantly more expensive than the 3G pricing they unveiled in October, though the caps are obviously higher. Verizon’s current EVDO USB modem plans come in two flavors: $40 for 250MB of usage and $60 for 5GB of usage. Verizon’s LTE pricing will now be $50 for 5GB of usage, or $80 for 10 GB of usage, with $10 per each additional GB. Sayeth big red:

Verizon Wireless customers can choose from two 4G LTE Mobile Broadband data plans: $50 monthly access for 5 GB monthly allowance or $80 monthly access for 10 GB monthly allowance, both with $10/GB overage. For laptop connectivity, two 4G LTE USB modems will be initially available: the LG VL600 is available at launch and the Pantech UML290 will be available soon, each $99.99 after $50 rebate with a new two-year agreement. Both USB modems provide backward-compatibility with Verizon Wireless’ 3G network. If laptop users travel outside of a 4G LTE coverage area, they will automatically stay connected on the company’s 3G network.

It’s interesting to note there’s not even really an entry level LTE plan (say $25 for a gig of use) after literally dozens of Verizon executive comments claiming usage-based pricing was going to be the future. We’ll assume this pricing may evolve as the company begins offering LTE smartphones, which Verizon today announced will arrive sometime in “mid-2011″. Verizon also again today confirmed these devices will initially use 3G/CDMA for voice until LTE voice standards are hashed out. As an added aside: the service will only support MS Windows based PC’s at launch.

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Verizon finally aired their first ever commercial for their upcoming LTE network during last night’s Sunday Night Football. The Stephen Spielberg-esque ad ad features a lightning bolt delivered by snail mail, and confirms rumors that the network is “coming in December.” As previously noted, Verizon’s initial launch next month will be fairly significant, the 5-12 Mbps service covering 38 markets (roughly one third of the population) and 60 airports right out of the gate. We’re still waiting on Verizon to reveal their pricing for the speedier service, which as of last week the company still claimed they weren’t sure of.

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As we mentioned in March, Harbinger Capital Partners is building a new nationwide LTE network dubbed “Lightsquared” using spectrum owned a satellite subsidiary by the name of SkyTerra. Leaked launch information indicates that the company should have 20 markets live by 2012. While they may not have built any cell cites yet the company this week announced that they’ve launched their SkyTerra 1 satellite, which will provide the satellite half of their network build equation.

According to the company, the new bird is one of the largest ever built:

The satellite, a Boeing 702HP built by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, is designed to provide wireless mobile services to millions of subscribers. LightSquared’s SkyTerra 1 satellite features a 22-meter L-band reflector-based antenna the largest commercial antenna reflector to be put into service. The satellite, among the most powerful commercial satellites ever built, will provide ubiquitous nationwide coverage and enable integrated satellite-terrestrial service using products that are similar to today s typical mobile devices in terms of size, capabilities and build costs.

Lightsquared plans to sell wholesale access to their LTE network, which will use this new satellite for rural coverage and emergency communication services. The LTE portion of the network will cost about $7 billion and will be built by Nokia. On the more terrestrial news front, it was revealed this week that Harbinger is being investigated by the SEC for a $113 million loan taken out by Harbinger founder Philip Falcone to pay personal taxes and potential “preferential treatment” of certain investors.

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Buried in what occasionally reads like a love letter to Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, Fortune is the latest to proclaim that the iPhone is headed for Verizon, despite Seidenberg himself all but shooting down the possibility last month.

That so many Americans covet Verizon iPhones “is partly a testament to the efforts of Ivan Seidenberg,” insists Fortune, though in really it’s mostly a “testament” to AT&T’s inability to complete phone calls in the New York and San Francisco markets. Between blowing kisses, Fortune reconstitutes rumors already seen elsewhere, such as Apple and Verizon fighting over control, and the fact this first Verizon iPhone will be CDMA, not LTE:

…people familiar with its development say it is a fait accompli. Verizon, sources say, will sell its own version of the iPhone 4, which will work on Verizon’s CDMA-based 3G network. Unfortunately for globe trotters, the first version of the phone likely won’t be built to work outside the U.S. it probably won’t carry a special chip that can turn it into a “world phone.” However, it may have some of the features on the iPad distributed in Verizon’s stores, like live TV for customers of the FiOS cable service.

Apple supposedly won’t even consider an LTE iPhone until 2012, preferring to wait until initial headaches and battery life issues can be negotiated into the iPhone’s traditionally slim form factor.

That may not be a bad thing for say unhappy AT&T iPhone customers that just signed a long term contract to get the iPhone 4. Given AT&T’s new $325 ETFs are pro-rated (slowly reduced each month), waiting for an LTE Verizon iPhone would make more financial sense; assuming you’re an AT&T iPhone customer that can actually make phone calls with the device.

In other words, if Verizon does get the iPhone, expect the subscriber hit AT&T takes to be staggered and more pronounced in 2012, and expect AT&T to repeatedly proclaim the loss as “no big deal” during 2011. AT&T’s remaining confident in the face of non-exclusivity in part due to their new higher ETF, but also because they believe many subscribers are on family and business plans and can’t (or won’t) defect.

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Verizon has made no secret of their interest in expanding beyond broadband and eventually becoming a company that offers you, well, everything including home automation and security services. To that end, Verizon this week has invested in home automation outfit 4Home, and in January at CES, Verizon and 4Home will be showing off home automation services that will work over Verizon’s upcoming LTE wireless broadband network.

Of course maybe before Verizon gets into smart refrigerators they can offer FiOS users that 802.11N-capable router they told us was supposed to arrive last month? We’ve asked for an update on that, but in the mean time you can check out some of what 4Home offers here.

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Back in July, slides shown at a T-Mobile manager’s meeting suggested the company wanted to push their 3G HSPA network toward downstream speeds of 42 Mbps. T-Mobile today confirmed those ambitions. T-Mobile’s busily deploying HSPA+ upgrades capable of 21 Mbps downstream speeds (though users see half that), and 42 Mbps speeds will arrive sometime in 2011.

While technically still just 3G, the company will be offering speeds as fast as fourth-gen services, including Verizon’s upcoming LTE service (5-12 Mbps) and Clearwire (3-6 Mbps). Granted, many users are more interested in coverage and reliability above of a few extra megabits per second.

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Nearly every major global telco plans to embrace LTE, a number of high profile major global WiMax supporters have either shifted from WiMax to LTE or shut down and WiMax’s poster children here in the States, Sprint and Clearwire, have both clearly stated they’ll jump to LTE if the wind blows that way (and it is).

That’s of course not stopping the WiMax 2 (802.16m) standard from being finalized by the IEEE this November, with initial deployments potentially in 2012. Earlier this year Clearwire stated they were in no rush to test the new standard. WiMax 2 can deliver 120 Mbps downstream and 60 Mbps upstream by using a 4X2 MIMO antenna configuration with a single 20 MHz TDD channel.

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It was already known that T-Mobile planned to nurse HSPA+ for as long as possible, and that their fourth generation wireless broadband plans were murky at best. Rene Obermann, CEO of T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom, says the company won’t even consider making a move on LTE for at least two years. According to Obermann, the company isn’t worried that they’ll lag LTE efforts by Verizon and AT&T, who’ll both have deployments underway by that time. Says Obermann:

“We’ll get a fourth-generation wireless network either by buying spectrum or re-farming existing spectrum, or potentially leasing spectrum together with others. I don’t think we’ll trail others in the next two years. With HSPA+ we’re in a very good position. We still have plenty of capacity, so we are competitive” said Obermann.

T-Mobile does have some time (but not a lot) to dilly dally as they consider their next move. The company’s current upgrades allow theoretical downstream speeds of up to 20 Mbps, and there have been rumors they’ll try to push HSPA+ towards 40 Mbps down the line. While Verizon plans to offer 4G services by the end of this year, their LTE deployment will be initially capped at 5-12 Mbps downstream. AT&T meanwhile is taking their time on the shift to LTE, and like T-Mobile is nursing HSPA+, albeit less aggressively.

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Back in June, the long-standing, to the point of being utterly ridiculous, rumor that Verizon was finally going to be getting the Apple iPhone popped up at Bloomberg with the outlet claiming “two people familiar with the plans” had confirmed a January launch. Now Techcrunch now claims the rumor may be true, given Apple has ordered a massive number of baseband CDMA Qualcomm chips. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg is giving the keynote at CES this year in January, and it would certainly give him something to talk about.

That said, if the Apple iPhone hits in January, battery issues likely mean it won’t be dual mode and won’t be able to run on Verizon’s upcoming LTE network, which by January is expected to be available in 30 markets.

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An insider recently told Engadget that the company would be ditching unlimited wireless data pricing to shift to a billing model more like AT&T’s as soon as next week. While that wouldn’t be surprising given Verizon’s repeated hints at their interest in such a model, Verizon has also repeatedly said such a change would likely come with the launch of LTE service.

To hear Verizon CFO John Killian tell it, Verizon’s not making any data plan price changes anytime soon. Said Killian on Verizon’s recent conference call:

Our business is continuing to perform extremely well. You have not seen us rush out to make any kind of a change. We will continue to monitor the situation, of course, and look at opportunities that will say what is the best equation for us to drive long-term shareholder value, and we will be very focused on that. I cannot say enough, though, about the opportunity we see ahead given where we are today with smart phone penetration.

Killian then goes on to talk about 4G and note that tiered pricing will, as they’ve consistently said, likely arrive with LTE:

We have indicated in the past, as we move to an LTE world and LTE pricing, we will probably look very hard at tiered pricing, and that continues to be our thinking right now. So more to come on that. By the way, I should say that all of our efforts, all of our plans on getting LTE launched in the fourth quarter are on schedule.

The original Engadget rumor pegged July 29 as the date for the change, so we don’t have long to wait. Verizon LTE isn’t expected to launch anywhere until November 15.

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