In a press release today, Sprint and Samsung "declared" that mobile WiMAX technology is "now ready for commercial service." Sounds exciting right? Well, it's kind of like saying that a car is "ready to drive" -- you still can't do much without the keys and a road. Since Sprint has seen recent delays, litigation, and various other forms of badness, this does kind of come off as an empty PR move. Nevertheless, they want to let everyone know that XOHM has "met Sprint's rigorous commercial acceptance criteria including overall performance, handoff performance and handoff delay." Honestly, we hope it gets off the ground soon -- we've got a pile of WiMAX N810's here we need to fire up.

See, it's not all dour news in the wireless industry -- oft-overlooked carrier Alltel just announced that it added over 1M gross wireless customers in the first quarter, and that it's committed to LTE in the next three to five years. The LTE news isn't particularly surprising, since Alltel's got roaming agreements to maintain and both Verizon and AT&T are committed to LTE, but the company did specifically say that it was picking LTE over WiMAX. (Oh, and if you're keeping score, that pretty much puts the final, final nail in the coffin for Qualcomm's UMB -- good thing it's got those LTE-compatible chipsets in the works.) Alltel's actually growing pretty fast -- this is the second quarter in a row it's added over 1M gross customers, probably due to those sparkling call-quality survey results -- but we still have our doubts when the company claims it's "America's Largest Network." Should be interesting to see how this all shakes out as 4G gets built out, no?

Read - Alltel Q1 results [Warning: PDF link]
Read - Alltel commits to LTE

The folks over at Computerworld just ran the current 3G providers in America through their paces, only to discover that AT&T came out on top in almost every category. Well, it appears the monolithic telco plans to keep its edge (er...) on the competition -- by upping its HSPA service to a whopping 20Mbps come 2009. Our main man Ralph de la Vega said that the process wouldn't require a major overhaul to the provider's infrastructure, and that they're already working on punching up the current 3.6Mbps speeds to 7.2Mbps "in the labs." Apparently, this won't stall plans for forthcoming 4G / 700MHz / LTE service from the company -- it'll just be icing on the cake.

Read - Which 3G network is the best?
Read - AT&T plans 20-megabit 3G by 2009

See there, we told you it was authentic. The hotly-anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4 BT headset is indeed more than a figment of your imagination, and IGN's UK branch has the photographs to prove it. Granted, the actual unit you see above is a pre-production sample, but nothing about it is slated to change before finalized products ship en masse. No, you won't magically become as phenomenal as Snake should you wrap this around your lobe, but you can get a decent idea if it's your bag by peeking the high-resolution shots in the read link below.

No need worrying that as much as you'd like to change the Dash Express, you can't. Because you can, savvy? Announced today, Dash Navigation has cracked its platform open for third-party developers and simultaneously launched the industry's first dynamic API program at O'Reilly's Where 2.0 Conference. Dash is hoping that eager devs will spend time crafting DashApps, which would theoretically provide web-based content to consumers while still in the car. The outfit also took the wraps off of the first five partner-created applications, which give Express owners Coldwell Banker Home Search, myFUNAMBOL Calendar, BakTrax Radio, Trapster and MyWeatherBug buttons. Unfortunately, details beyond that were slim, but you certainly tag the read link to learn more about the aforesaid few that are already created.

We knew it was coming, but Philadelphia's citywide WiFi is now officially being turned off, and Earthlink is planning on pulling down all of its access points. Like basically every other municipal WiFi project, it seems like the cost of keeping the system going outweighed the benefits, and Earthlink couldn't find a buyer willing to take things over. Current Earthlink customers will get 30 more days of service, until June 12, and then it's lights bytes out. Here's hoping Philly coffee shops are ready for an influx of urban warriors.

[Via Philebrity, thanks Andy R.]

Things aren't going so hot down Sprint way right now -- although the carrier recently entered into that landmark $12B WiMAX deal with Clearwire and several other companies, it lost over a million wireless subscribers last quarter and posted a net loss of $211M. That's enough for CEO Dan Hesse to smack the emergency button: he's laying off 4,000 workers, closing Sprint stores, and cutting rates in an efforts to gain back customers and get back into the black. On top of all that, word on the street is that Sprint may also start selling off other assets, including lame-duck Nextel, even though that would involve "significant complexities," according to Hesse. Still, just the fact that he's thinking about it seems like a sign -- too bad no one asked him about those Deutsche Telekom buyout rumors.

Face it, that sneakernet setup of yours is way tired. What you need is a racist wireless data transfer device that fires 3.5-inch floppy disks at deadly velocity. Really, you've earned it. Video after the break.

Hey, do you guys want to hear our AT&T impression? It's pretty awesome. Okay, okay, here it goes: "Great news, we're offering free WiFi to iPhone users! Wait, no we're not. Yes we are! Oh, no, wait, cancel that." Pretty spot-on, right? Sadly, it looks like we might need something else to rag on shortly, since an AT&T spokesman started clearing the air with the New York Times late last week. The bottom line -- for the moment, anyway -- is that AT&T has "long planned" to offer up its WiFi hotspots as a free value-add for the iPhone and all of the other WiFi-equipped devices in its arsenal, but that the brief enabling of the feature thus far and the mention on AT&T's site were results of human error, and the company isn't prepared at this point to commit to an actual launch date or details on how the service will work. Hey, at least we know we're not just suffering from some brutal hallucinations now.

[Via TUAW]

Eye-Fi's expanding from a single card to a family of three tonight. All are the same 2GB as before, but now we've got the new flagship Eye-Fi Explore ($129), which includes geotagging courtesy of Skyhook (the same WiFi-based location system that helps the iPod touch and iPhone find their way) and on-the-go WiFi via Wayport. Then you've got the Eye-Fi Share ($99) -- basically the same card we used to know simply as the Eye-Fi -- and finally the Eye-Fi Home ($79), which appears to only be able to upload photos through desktop software using your home network. Expect 'em all on sale come June 6th.

Google's been making all kinds of a fuss lately over what it claims are Verizon's plans to subvert the intent of the 700MHz open-access rules, but it looks like the carrier isn't interested in fighting it out (for once). Verizon issued a statement today saying that it "understood the FCC's rules," and that "of course we'll abide by those rules." Of course, that doesn't really mean anything until Big Red actually builds out a network and we see how it implements open-access -- which will take years -- but once again, it seems like Google is really the one in control of the 700MHz spectrum, even though it didn't win. Crafty!

Comcast, Time Warner, and Bright House all threw down in the new Sprint-led Clearwire venture yesterday, but it looks like Cablevision wants in on the fun as well: the company announced today that it's spending $350M on a new wireless broadband network in New York. Unlike the Clearwire partnership, Cablevision is apparently going to use straight-up WiFi for the service, but it's not revealing any details at the moment, saying only that it'll run at 1.5Mbps and eventually handle voice as well. The plan is to get up and running in NYC within two years, and existing customers will be able to log on for free -- and if this really is straight-up WiFi, we'd bet a lot of other people will be joining the fun as well.