Latest phones and cell review

Sprint today took to its community forums to announce that some shipments of the HTC EVO 4G LTE have cleared customs and will be delivered to those who preordered the device on or about May 24. Sprint said that it will provide more details about a national retail launch as soon as it can. The device was delayed last week due to a U.S. International Trade Commission exclusion order, which required that the devices be examined for compliance with the order.

Verizon Wireless today confirmed that four of its 4G LTE smartphones will be able to roam onto the GSM-based 3G networks abroad once updated with new software. The company said in a statement, "Customers will see a notification on their device when the software update is available for their device. After the software update, customers will be able to take their smartphone overseas and use voice service in more than 220 countries and receive data in more than 205 countries." The devices include the HTC Rezound, and the Motorola Droid RAZR, RAZR MAXX, and the Droid 4. The update is scheduled to be delivered later this year, though specific timing wasn't provided.

Kodak today announced that an administrative law judge found the Apple iPhone 3G and several older Research In Motion BlackBerries infringe on a Kodak patent. However, the judge also recommended that Kodak's patent be declared invalid. The patent at issue relates to a technology invented by Kodak for previewing images on a digital camera-enabled device that is fundamental to how those devices take pictures. Kodak plans to appeal the judge's validity recommendation, but the iPhone 3G isn't available for sale any more. Further, the ITC cleared Apple and RIM's current device line-ups from infringing on the patents in question. The full International Trade Commission will need to sign off on the law judge's ruling. Kodak has been mostly unsuccessful at using its patent portfolio as a litigation tool.

In separate filings, both T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS have asked the Federal Communications Commission to force Dish Networks to give up 50% of its spectrum in order to gain approval for its proposed LTE broadband network. Dish has 40MHz of S-Band spectrum in the 2000-2020 MHz and 2180-2200 MHz bands. Dish wants to repurpose this spectrum for a terrestrial LTE-Advanced network. T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS contend that Dish should agree to give up 20MHz of the 40MHz block in order to avoid a "windfall" should the company eventually sell to AT&T or Verizon Wireless. They believe that the spectrum could be auctioned off to non-dominant players and still allow Dish to recoup the cost of purchasing the spectrum. The Rural Carrier Association added its own comments, suggesting that if the FCC grants the waiver for which Dish is requesting, it should be required to offer competitive roaming rates to smaller operators. The RCA also wants to prevent Dish from inking roaming agreements with AT&T and Verizon Wireless without FCC approval. Dish's proposal is similar to that of bankrupt LightSquared, but Dish's spectrum doesn't abut GPS signals.

Virgin Mobile USA's payLo pre-paid service today announced a new plan that offers unlimited voice minutes, unlimited messages, and 50MB of data for $40 per month. The new plan is compatible with a number of payLo's feature phones, which are available from the payLo web site. payLo also offers 1500 minutes/messages and 30MB of data for $30 per month; and 400 voice minutes for $20 per month (messages costs $0.15 each, data costs $1.50 per megabyte).