We knew AT&T had an HSPA upgrade
in the works, and now the company has announced its plans, with initial rollout beginning later this year and reaching completion in 2011. That will overlap only slightly with LTE, which AT&T plans to put into trials in 2010 and start melting our faces in 2011. The HSPA upgrade takes the network from 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps in theoretical speed, and AT&T also plans to nearly double the amount of wireless spectrum it dedicates to 3G in metropolitan areas -- which should come as a relief to city dwellers who haven't managed more than a couple minutes of sustained conversation since mid-2008. To support the increased bandwidth of HSPA, AT&T also plans on adding thousands of new cell site backhaul connections, while also rolling out 3G service to 20 new metro areas and deploying 2,100 new cell sites in total. HSPA-sporting mobile data cards and smartphones will be available "later this year."
posted May 27th 2009 10:57AM
MAYBE!!!!
Obviously they don't make any promises, though.
3G is plenty fast enough for most people - it's an issue of whether they can actually GET the true 3G service in the first place. Waiting 40 seconds while my Mail app has the "Connecting..." status at the bottom, or while my Weather App is "Updating" gets old fast.
For me, it's not that the speed is the problem, it's the amount of time it takes to "connect" in the first place.
Wow so the fastest network in USA getting even faster!!!!
All part of new iPhone release probably.
Yawn...Sweden has had this for last 3 years...and 90% coverage
I've driven from one end of Sweden to the other in a day. Yawn.
Sweden: 449,964 km^2
United States of America: 9.631x10^6 km^2
Yes and USA doesn't have 50 million times more $$ than Sweden?
Special americans that spend all money on weapons, gas and food!
Still....when it comes down to fact Sweden > Usa
Even though I love your country...was there for 2 weeks and had the best time of my life :D
@PIMP
I'd move to Sweden in a heartbeat. Buy my plane ticket and I'm there.
I've been saying for years that I'm about done with the US, and Sweden always comes to mind.
I'm absolutely infatuated by your country. It helps that my absolute favorite bands reside there, in or around Gothenburg.
WOW!! FIBER TO THE TOWERS!! This is definitely awesome!!!
Im in Indianapolis, and the 3g service here is unbeliavable. 5 bars everywhere, and its incredibly fast with no dropped calls, in fact for the most part I dont even get on wifi anymore cause the 3g is plenty fast. I will admit though, everytime I make my way to Chicago to visit my parents, the 3g service is usually HORRIBLE, makes no sense.
No it makes TOTAL sense- every city and even region of a city is different due to tower buildout limitations, spectrum availability, geography etc. No carrier is the best everywhere because each one had certain advantages and disadvantages when it built out its network.
I was in indianapolis back in Feb and I ran speedtest on my iphone and I was getting OVER 2MB download average (2.1 or 2.2 or something) consistently. I couldn't believe it so I kept running the test in different locations but kept getting the same results. Must say, ATT did a good job with their network there. Streaming video played instantly and never had to buffer (even 'hq' video from m.nbc.com for example), everything loaded fast...it was great...oh to be back there.
They haven't gone to plaid yet? Wake me up when Ludicrous Speed is possible.
This is awesome...
now if I can only get a signal someplace other then the actual AT&T store were I got my phone....
Im in Indy as well, and i have to say, I have great service here and speed is great. I can't wait to see it even faster :)
5 bars everywhere
I understand AT&T wanting to upgrade their 3G, but come on! They could devote all those resources to the LTE development and have a network that is 3 times the 7.2Mbps this upgrade will do. =/ Then again I'm biased, I'm really wanting LTE to quickly replace the current 3G networks. Seeing 170Mbps download speeds in a moving car makes me want it even more.
Well if it's true they're upgrading the backhaul, they'd have to do that anyway for LTE. And the 3.6->7.2 part is just software
Well Fernando and his friend, I know that you two are probably the ultimate source in deciding what network is fastest and all, but there are other people in the world who might actually get different results than you. Can you believe it? I didn't think so.
http://www.speedtest.net/result/482647313.png
Whoa, and that's a Motorola RAZR (not RAZR2).
I'd rather they work on having better 3G coverage instead of trying to speed it up. It's just so spotty right now.
Test
AT&T already doubled 3G capacity in Austin, TX. It gave me double the dropped calls. Congratulations, AT&T. And, no, it's not my phone. I'm on my 5th one.
They are so going to f this up. They have had 3G for, what, 5 years now? It should have worked FIVE YEARS AGO!
I'll wait for Verizon LTE. At least they know what they are doing.
For now, Hello Palm Pre!
The fiber optic back haul is the key... http://www.netinsight.se/news.asp?id=590
That's all fine and dandy to keep updating the speed in metro areas, but how about sharing the wealth a bit with the 50%+ of the population NOT living in metro areas. AT&T in rural MN sucks.
Perfect, just in time for the next generation iPhone. Take that Zune HD... oh wait, Zune HD is not a phone. haha.
Perfect, just in time for the next generation Nokia N97. Take that iPod Touch... Oh wait, iPod Touch is not a phone. haha.
And yet they will keep the 5GB limit on their plans, making the extra speed essentially more likely to send you over the maximum limit.
Price Gouging at the Extreme
From the network operators side, speed upgrades are all about increasing capacity, not really better end-user speeds (although that's the only thing they can advertise).
Verizon isn't the fastest 3G network in the U.S........AT&T is the fastest. Verizon currently has slightly more coverage, but if you're in a well covered area, AT&T is the superior service. I live in Charlotte and have no problem what-so-ever with AT&T's service when traveling in the Southeast. I was with Verizon before the iPhone, and AT&T is far better in my area than Verizon. However, every carrier is going to suck in certain areas b/c they aren't everywhere just yet. With that being said, I'll take the fastest network if I must choose.
Engadget just did a comparison based off the 3G, USB cards from each service provider, so check it out........
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/engadget-labs-the-best-mobile-broadband-carrier-in-america/
Awesome! Now all of our drop calls, banned sling data, and non support of MMS will happen even faster!!
ATT sucks ass! I'm stuck with them for another year...
How fast do I need a phone to be? Really?
Most people don't need their phone to be that fast on the data connection. The only people that will actually see much of a difference here are people that use their smartphones for more than just a "look at me" cell phone. I use my omnia for gps/downloading files on the go/email(with and without large attatchments), pretty much anything i need to do on a computer when i dont have one with me.
I wish Verizon's speed were faster, they have unbeatable coverage in my area, but all the major carriers will get to LTE at the same time give or take a few months.
I think this is just AT&T trying to grasp at straws, they know a lot of their customers arent happy with them. Most people on the AT&T network likely wont be affected at all by it.
So they upgrade the speeds and include more spectrum to service more nodes....then sell a ton of subsidized netbooks and femtocells with data plans so that you end up with a net difference of nada for people on handsets. Ok that makes perfect sense.
Just in time for the 3G MacBook Air!
I'll believe it when I see it. I average 50Kbps on my EDGE iPhone.
Maybe you should buy a phone built on technology from the past 6 years?
hoping the new iphone will have 7.2
in skandinavie the teleoperators are upgrading to 21 mbps right now.. and going for 42 mbps in the end of this year..
AT&T Rolls out 7.3Mbps HSPA ................... Rest of World Yawns
I have been complaining to ATT bout their service where I live. As soon as this article was posted, roughly 2 hours an ATT service rep called to tell me techs were surveying the area and the problem was too many people on my tower and that another one would be added in my area and activated at the end of this year. Damn. They do NOT bullshit when they release info!
Woah, that picture's making me woozy. I'm not sure if it's caused by the blurred effect or the AT&T symbol...
What I'm optmistic about was the statement below. I'm tired of living in the heart of silicon valley and having my iPhone drop a call 5-times while driving on the 280. Love the phone...frustrated by the bandwidth.
"AT&T also plans to nearly double the amount of wireless spectrum it dedicates to 3G in metropolitan areas -- which should come as a relief to city dwellers who haven't managed more than a couple minutes of sustained conversation since mid-2008"
Awesome.
So i was reading Gizmodo today at around 8:15am, then about 42 minutes later i go to my 2nd source for technews, Engadget, because i like to read the same thing twice.
the end.