AT&T turns on faster network

Some of AT&T wireless users might’ve seen the letters “LTE” next to their smartphone’s signal bars Friday morning. The wireless provider flipped the switch on it’s LTE network in Columbia Friday morning bringing faster download speeds to smartphones and gadgets compatible with the network, according to an AT&T press release. AT&T joins Verizon Wireless as Columbia’s only two LTE providers. The company also turned on the network in Greenville and Charleston Friday. LTE, which stands for Long-Term Evolution and is commonly referred to as “4G,” currently provides the fastest internet connections for wireless devices, the release states. Users connecting to the network can expect to download music and stream video up to 10 times faster than previously on AT&T’s network. Several of AT&T’s current smartphone offerings are compatible with the company’s LTE network, including the Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy SIII. Some of the company’s portable wireless hotspots and tablets are also compatible with LTE.

Easley bank takes on failed Georgia bank’s assets

WASHINGTON Regulators say they have closed a bank in Georgia, bringing to 50 the number of U.S. bank failures this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday seized Hometown Community Bank, based in Braselton, Ga. The bank had roughly $124.6 million in assets and $108.9 million in deposits as of Sept. 30. CertusBank NA, based in Easley agreed to assume all the deposits and buy essentially all the assets of the failed bank. The failure of Hometown Community Bank is expected to cost the deposit insurance fund $36.7 million.

Glitch puts food stamp cards temporarily out of service

MIAMI Millions of food stamp recipients in South Carolina and nine other states were unable to use their debit cards for about six hours Friday after an outage at JPMorgan Chase. Bank spokesman Mike Fusco apologized for the inconvenience and said the technical glitch was resolved around 1 p.m. Friday, but he declined to discuss details of what exactly went wrong. Angry users took to social media to express their frustration in the busy grocery shopping days before Thanksgiving. The outage did not affect regular debit, credit or other card holders.

R. Darren Price and The Associated Press contributed.