When you're rolling out a new
7.2Mbps upgrade to your network, it naturally helps if you've got some compliant hardware in the stable -- so to that end, AT&T has announced its USBConnect Lightning from Sierra Wireless today. Apart from 7.2Mbps downlink capability, the new model's little more than a run-of-the-mill USB stick so there's not a lot to say about it, though it features a trick swiveling USB connector that should make the thing more likely to work with unusual (and unusually tight) port configurations. It'll be available on November 22 for free after rebate on contract, just in time for service launches in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami expected by the end of the year.
posted Nov 9th 2009 12:54PM
It says most people can't see the forest for the trees.
That people will buy a iphone no matter what service it's attached to?
Its a fact, not a claim.
and data is required with the iphone.
i love how att claims to be the customers choice to buy smartphones, but thtats only because you can have a smartphone from att and not have a data plan. if verizon was like this, i would have had a smart phone 4 years ago.
cool story, bro!
it's pretty simple...the majority of the US lives in cities were 3G is avalible, it's just all about the numbers.
If anything one could say that Verizon installing high speed towers in low populace areas is a bad investment with little return.
Now I would still like the ATT&T 3G service work properly. :)
It says that Apple did a deal with AT&T for the iPhone. (Even if your iPhone is unlocked you are still stuck with a data plan on your carrier of choice to make any real use of it.)
@ yankee fever 02
at&t does require a data plan on all their smartphones. secondly Verizon is giving away blackberrys BOGO, so why are they doing that? is it because no one wants a blackberry on verizon when you can get a bold on at&t which cost $200 and do more with it by talk/surf or email at the same time.
The cheapest blackberry on at&t in $99 for a curve, on Verizon you can buy a blackberry storm or tour for $49.99 and get one free. Verizon must be really desperate to sell some blackberrys if they are selling them that cheap.
@ grammer delinquent- your 100% correct, although at&t doesn’t have 3G in the middle of west bumble f**k like verizon their coverage still covers about 85-90% of the US population. Although Verizon looks like the king of 3G on the map, financially having 3G in the middle of nowhere doesn’t get you return investments because no one is using it. So spending 2million on 3G upgrades in Montana so that a population of 2000 people can use 3G is not financially smart.
Seriously buddy...put down the needle...step away from the pipe...it's for your own good.
Just don't end up on the island of--
*cocks gun*
Ahhh I kid! I kid!
North Pole?
island of misfit?
Monkey Island?
Gilligan's?
And thanks to those bastards at Microsoft, I can't use this for my 360 because the USB ports only accept their crappy, overpriced WiFi adapters
Of Dr Monroe?
@JNorman3
Not sure why you would want to use this with a 360, latency would give you a license to ill in about any FPS. However it this is your 'only' option for internet access, first I pity your soul and secondly I would recommend you attach it to your computer/laptop/compatible router and use that to share internet with your 360.
Tether your Xbox 360 to a laptop with a Wi-Fi connection and share for the FAIL. Wi-Fi is terrible for gaming.
in before the anti AT&T fanboys... Looks cool hopefully it will be in nashvile soon.
*Verizon wireless guy steps in*
We got a map for that!
A map of up to 1.4 Mbps speeds of that. It's pretty lame that Verizon compares their 1.4 Mbps coverage with AT&T's 3.6 and 7.2 Mbps coverage. I don't live in the US so AT&T can both burn in hell and I would still wouldn't care... but I have to say... US's 3G and 3.5G coverage is below any other first world country in the world (sorry for the redundancy). Good thing that finally Verizon is giving in and going towards LTE instead of some lame non-standard. I still can't understand why they're using CDMA isntead of the internationally used HSPA.
haha, u guys are just getting 7.2 mbps. Who gives a crap about a map, it's worthless if you have 7.2 mbps. TRY 21.6 mbps in CANADA! And ya, there is a map for that.
@ heffeque
Hi what country are you from? Because I guarantee it isn't as large as the U.S. But hey, if you can come up with an easy economical way to bring the entire U.S. (and I'll even cut you a break and round it down to the continental 48) up to 7.2mbps HSPA / LTE wireless overnight, you let me know.
Anybody who actually buys a data plan from AT&T is an idiot. I'm actually an AT&T customer and I have no doubts that if I were getting a datacard, it would be on Verizon. AT&T should add more back end capacity and more physical towers before doing stupid shit like claiming they are upgrading speed.
An even faster way to use up the 5GB plan...
Man, those Verizon ads are really effective.
All I can think about when I see the AT&T logo now is a naked map of the U.S.
Wardrobe malfunction.
Luckily for AT&T, they won't be fined -- it'd be impossible to spot their nipple of 3G service on television.
The areola of EDGE on the other hand...
Interesting how this service should theoretically be faster than their own fastest DSL service at 6mpbs.
why does it have to be so big?
that's what you said.
I believe AT&T already has compliant hardware, it's called the iPhone 3GS.
That was my understanding too...the iPhone 3Gs is ready to go with the faster network, right?
This is RIDICULOUS. How can AT&T expect customers to buy this crap and shell out more when the iPhone is already this exact device (and more) but is arbitrarily prevented from working in this fashion because AT&T's network cannot handle the increased traffic.
AT&T's absurd solution? Sell another device that will increase traffic and so prolong AT&T's inability to handle the traffic that fully-enabled iPhones would generate.
F*CK AT&T and F*CK the FCC for allowing this to stand.
that would make one interesting orgy...
AT&T has had 7.2-capable devices for a few years. My USBConnect 881 that I got a year and some ago is 7.2-capable, though it doesn't support 5.76 Mbit HSPA uploads.
That says that by the time you get on AT&T and want to use their spotty awesome 3G, you'll be capped in the ass to EDGE cause more people are using the freakin' 3G. Congratulations, you succumbed to both your AT&T fanboyism, and a long ass wait in line to get good data speeds.
@word. I don't even know why I'm feeding this troll in the first place....
USBConnect Lightning 7.2Mbps service with super lightning fast ~500ms latency!!!
I have a iPhone 3gs on AT&T with good service but if they don't get better servce to all of it's customers, they will fail. "Select" cities. I want 7.2 speeds too.
Uggh. They should really concentrate on expanding their 3g coverage... We don't have it where I am anyway. That would be why I have Verizon though. lol
7.2? HA
Vodafone RO has 21.6 down and 5.7 up for a good few months now. ATT should have implemented higher speeds a long time ago, the technology is there, but the will isn't. Even in a few cities, the cost wouldn't be that high. Not that they have such a large 3G coverage (I thought the Verizon ads were funny).
Wow, that's fantastic! Where can I get Vodafone RO in Minnesota? Ohhh, really? Shucks.
Exactly how large is the country of Romania? Dumb comparison.
I love how people compare European counties the size of NJ to the 48 states.
@Martin: Yes, you can (to paraphrase somebody famous from the US). Only that be prepared to sell a house or a kidney to cover the roaming charges.
The comment was intended to show the difference between US telcos and European telcos. Not to mention Japan, which is light years ahead. I am not saying ATT should spend billions to increase the speed on all cells, but at least on some major metro areas they could easily get to 21.6, *if* they wanted to, beacuse the technology is there. Vodafone has 45% of Verizon. So, which 3G is faster? ATT or Verizon?
@Cris: Roughly the same as ATT's 3G coverage :). But, that wasn't the point, see above
All of Canada's big carriers are on 21Mbit HSPA
377,873 km2 JAPAN
9,826,675 km2 US
Really?
26 TIMES larger.
Yes, AT&T should be rolling out 21mbps HSPA+ instead of 7.2.
Oh how I love us idiots making fun at Europeans. Coolest thing ever: Ask a one of us why we have crappy networks. The answer is the size of the country. Next step: what about places like NYC, SFO etc? Answer: Too many people in one place!
Let's face it: Europe is many times better than all of what the US can offer in terms of cellphone coverage and speed. The US was really great in cellphone technology some 10 years ago. Europe kicks ass in the meantime.
Worst part? Even the prices beat the crap out of our VZ, ATT and T-Mobile. Point in case? A 3G subscription for the super fast 21MBPS in Sweden (a country with lower population density than the US) is USD 10 per month :(
Well, will this really work? Or is there a map for that?
Good effing luck thinking you'll get any coverage with this POS, seeing as how its got the big blue ball of death logo.
Ooh... 7.2Mbps on AT&T's 3G network. That's like a driving a Lamborghini with someone yanking the parking brake every 45 seconds.
Personally, I would rather have 1.8Mbps if it was consistent walking from the PATH station at the World Trade Center to my office by Water Street. I haven't been able to listen to a streaming radio app once since I got the 3G then 3GS, without it buffering or cutting out completely.
@ipxnsv: I love it when people don't check their facts. Actually is about the same size as Oregon (CIA Factbook)
7.2Mbps in Los Angeles? I'll believe it when I see it. Last time I was there (august) I wanted to read a NYT article on my phone while I ate my lunch. I finished my burrito before the page loaded.
@ipxnsv: you said European. And I said Romania is about the same size as Oregon.
Nevermind, pointless. The comment was intended to show how far back US telcos are, especially ATT...
Even Canada has better telcos than the US...
And when you say Canada, how much of Canada do you mean? Because their population density is not nearly as spread though out their entire country as the U.S.'s is.
http://maps.howstuffworks.com/canada-population-density-map.htm
(i'm guessing that 3G coverage takes a sharp downturn above 56* N)
So when you say "Even Canada has better telcos than the US" you should probably specify which provinces you mean. If they only need to deploy a lightning fast 3G coverage area around the size of Texas, I'm sure the U.S. would have it as well.
http://www.mapsofworld.com/lat_long/canada-lat-long.html
http://www.gis.unbc.ca/courses/geog205/labs/lab2/images/canada_grid.jpg
Just make sure you are downloading off AT&T towers, and not someone else's. Even though I paid for unlimited data when I got my iPhone, I am limited to 24mb of data if I get it from another carrier's provider, even though I had no way of knowing I wasn't on AT&T's towers. I got a nice little text message from them Friday saying I was about to be over my data usage (which is unlimited, you figure that one out), so I called them. They told me that if I continued to "abuse" my data usage from someone else's tower, they were going to cancel my service.
So I asked them, basically, what you're telling me is you're going to cancel my service because your coverage sucks. The CR chick said that AT&T was a big enough company there is no reason why I shouldn't have coverage. I couldn't agree more.
Screw you AT&T. As SOON as my contract is up, I'm cancelling, and having my iPhone jailbroken to work with another network. Your service sucks, your 3G coverage (and evidiently your EDGE too) is a joke (I've been in 3G coverage 3 times since I've had my phone, and all three times involved a drive of an hour and a half), and the fact that I can't tether my phone just so you can try to get me to buy one of your USB things is total cr@p.
AT&T EDGE coverage is only 400 kb slower then Verizons 3G.
i know this might be a silly question but is this the first 7,2 Mbps usb dongle in the US?
Cause i live i Denmark and a company just launch a 16 mbps usb dongle.
So i thought it was a little bit weird cause the US always seems ahead of all the other countries.
You have it backwards that US is behind everyone when it comes to technology. We are just starting to get 7.2 from at&t/t-mobile. Verizon/Sprint are doing 4G because their 3G (EVDO) networks only go to 3.1mbps.
the US is behind 1st and 2nd world countries and pretty much tied with 3rd world countries when it comes to technology. Even the Dominican Republic which is a very poor country in the Caribbean has Wimax running for almost 2yrs now.
The secret about the USBConnect Lightning is its 300 baud Commodore 64 modem
lulz.
Nothing is as entertaining as reading the fanbois wars that erupt between anything AT&T/Verizon/Motorola/iPhone/Google these days.;-)
...and just for good measure - the nationalist fanbois are coming out to play with "my country has faster 3G, 3.5G, 4G, 9000!G, etc. than your country".
lulz.
so when this 7.2Mbps service launches in said cities does that mean the iPhone will use this? or does it not have th hardware to do so?