AT&T Wireless introduces 3G wireless
Yep, the rumors were true: AT&T Wireless officially announced their new 3G cellphone service just over an hour ago, confirming that they're using UMTS, or W-CDMA, for the network. If you live in San Francisco, Seattle, Detroit, or Phoenix you'll be to get download speeds of up to 320 Kbps on your cellphone (or laptop via a wireless card), which is more or less like being able to carry a slow DSL connection in your pocket. The only thing really like it in the States is Verizon's EV-DO service, which is limited to just San Diego and Washington, D.C. right now; AT&T says they'll expand to San Diego and Dallas before the end of the year. Crazy enough, they're only charging $25 a month for unlimited data access. (Pictured at right, the Nokia 6651, one of the first phones compatible with their new 3G network).
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dan Bock @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM
At $25 a month for unlimited access, this will make home DSL and cable access obsolete for many subscribers. What good is internet access you can only use at home? How quickly can AT&T spread this around the country?
Jeremy Davidson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM
It is $25/mo only for use from the handset. If you connect the handset to a pc/laptop or put the sim card in another device you get knocked with an additional $0.001/KB. It doesn't look like the umts pc card modem is available for consumers. It is available for business but for $80/mo.
eddie @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM
and ATT is going to know that you've paired your phone to your laptop via bluetooth and are using it as a modem how...?
Jeremy Davidson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM
I wish I knew! If I could figure out how they do it I'd be first to try to find a way around it. ;-)
wirobro @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM
...making a call is different from connecting to the internet? 3 network, http://www.three.com, (first main 3G provider in Europe, Australia) have been doing this in Australia for a while now, charging 0.1c/KB. Similar charging system to GPRS (in the UK, at least, we aren't lucky enough to have 'unlimited' plans like T-Mobile offers in the US).