AT&T's 4G Network on Target for Next Summer

[Michael Essany]

AT&T is on schedule and on pace to roll out its fourth-generation high-speed wireless network by the middle of next year. Should AT&T still, by then, remain the exclusive US carrier of the iPhone, Apple's fifth generation iPhone (likely to be released next summer) may very well debut in unison with AT&T's faster-than-ever network.

AT&T Mobility will launch commercial LTE service by mid-2011, and will cover between 70 million and 75 million POPs by the end of next year, a top executive said.

This week at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2010 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, AT&T Operations CEO John Stankey (the "top executive" referenced) said "the company is actively working with its primary LTE vendor partners--Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent--to get the network ready for launch." At present, AT&T is "conducting LTE trials" in Baltimore and Dallas, two locations where the carrier has been known to perform field tests.

According to Stankey, AT&T may very well cough up as as much as $700 million on its LTE network this year, with plans to "go far beyond that" next year, an obvious jab at the competition. Verizon, after all, is working on its own LTE network to debut later this year and cover 100 million POPs.

Stankey also touched on AT&T's 3G network. AT&T is readying a nationwide HSPA+ upgrade for this year, which AT&T executives have said will allow the carrier to deliver real-world download speeds of 7 Mbps. In the meantime, the carrier continues to upgrade backhaul to cell sites it has upgraded to HSPA 7.2 technology.

Adding that he's never happy with AT&T's service and always striving to improve the quality of the carrier's service, Stankey also noted that positive changes should be expected for later this year on AT&T's 3G network. AT&T is currently readying a nationwide HSPA+ upgrade before the end of 2010, which AT&T executives have said "will allow the carrier to deliver real-world download speeds of 7 Mbps."

Fierce Wireless

[Ivel]

Interesting although I really hope iphone moves to tmobile

[tudtran]

Just in time for the 5th gen iphone

[Captinsmooth]

.... Insert stupid comment here from uninformed poster....

[Poseidon79]

....

"LTE" is 4th generation wireless technology.

[Captinsmooth]

"LTE" is 4th generation wireless technology.

Yeah I realized that about ten seconds after I posted hence the .... edit

[Poseidon79]

I for one have never had any issues with AT&T EXCEPT when I go to Univ of Texas home games where you have 100,000+ people at the stadium plus all the people tailgating PLUS all the people driving around. I have a hard time getting connected to a tower and if I do there's a 45 min delay in text messages lol.

[Captinsmooth]

I for one have never had any issues with AT&T EXCEPT when I go to Univ of Texas home games where you have 100,000+ people at the stadium plus all the people tailgating PLUS all the people driving around. I have a hard time getting connected to a tower and if I do there's a 45 min delay in text messages lol.

I have had AT&T for about 3 years now. I live in NY and hardly ever have issues except for New Years at about midnight and then its locked right up....lol Can't call anyone and if you get your text at all you are lucky.

[LSZ33]

@Poseidon79... "Hook 'Em"!

I too haven't had any issues with AT&T in Texas or Florida. I plan on staying with them, just wish they'd lower prices a bit.

[valkraider]

How about before they start implementing "4G"** - they finish rolling out their "3G"**

So that they have "3G"** coverage on their entire network. "4G"** will be nice but if the instant I go 3cm outside a city limits I drop to Edge or worse - then it's kind of annoying. To me, having "3G"** on the entire network would be much more rewarding than having "4G"** in 10 cities...

**we are actually on either 10G or 2G depending on how you define a "G" in cellular service technology. It is fairly meaningless anymore except for marketing speak...

[Captinsmooth]

How about before they start implementing "4G"** - they finish rolling out their "3G"**

So that they have "3G"** coverage on their entire network. "4G"** will be nice but if the instant I go 3cm outside a city limits I drop to Edge or worse - then it's kind of annoying. To me, having "3G"** on the entire network would be much more rewarding than having "4G"** in 10 cities...

**we are actually on either 10G or 2G depending on how you define a "G" in cellular service technology. It is fairly meaningless anymore except for marketing speak...

Agreed!

[mmurphmsu]

I'll second the Hook'em Horns!!

Back to topic, my service with AT&T is only bad when I am at work. I work in the middle of a decent sized town (100k pop) and have poor reception and data access, but when I get on the highway, I get sometimes get faster speeds than my DSL.

[chrisrotolo]

i can smell it, the iphone 4G, I am sure that Steve Jobs would like to "compete" with Evo, my guess is the next iphone will be 4G ready annyway, so whenever ATT finishes, it will work. Cool, this is good news.

[kadinh]

\m/ hook 'em!!

Figures that they would get everyone hooked on the iPhone 4, only to release a "iPhone 4GS" a year later.

Marketing genius!

[saunupe1911]

I for one have never had any issues with AT&T EXCEPT when I go to Univ of Texas home games where you have 100,000+ people at the stadium plus all the people tailgating PLUS all the people driving around. I have a hard time getting connected to a tower and if I do there's a 45 min delay in text messages lol.

I experienced that at the Texas Relays down there in Austin. Boy that was a crazy weekend

I've never been around so many people in my life. The interstate was shut down.

We need more 3G towers here in Dallas. AT&T has been OK, but I don't understand why they can't take care of their base city.

[jhtapia]

I hope they roll out 3G in my area.

[NooK]

"LTE" is 4th generation wireless technology.

No it is not and I really wish people would stop saying that. LTE is actually 3.9G which incorporates some of the 4G elements but does not fully comply with the 4G standard. It is unfortunate that the Market calls it 4G to better commercialise it.

LTE Advanced is the real 4G and it is not even finalised as a standard yet. It is expected to be fully defined and standardised by next year.

[saunupe1911]

They do take of the residential areas though. Luckily I've got 2 towers in my neighborhood alone. I can get up to 300mbps at certain times. That's DSL speed.

[M4tt Dam0n]

i can smell it, the iphone 4G, I am sure that Steve Jobs would like to "compete" with Evo, my guess is the next iphone will be 4G ready annyway, so whenever ATT finishes, it will work. Cool, this is good news.

Of course the next iPhone will be 4G, it will prob have the same design, fix the atenna and have 64gb. Which is good cuz this will be the first time i dont upgrade. The iPhone 4 is everything I wanted and unless they add something really crazy I doubt I'll upgrade this time because it will only be minor improvements.

I updated to 3G cuz it had 3G, the 3GS cuz it had a video cam and the 3G was soooo slow especially with the GPS. Now the iPhone 4 has more than enough ram and power. It can't be slow with the current apps, has the best screen possible for the next 2 years at least and has an awesome camera already even if they improve it a bit on the iphone 5.

[saunupe1911]

No it is not and I really wish people would stop saying that. LTE is actually 3.9G which incorporates some of the 4G elements but does not fully comply with the 4G standard. It is unfortunate that the Market calls it 4G to better commercialise it.

LTE Advanced is the real 4G and it is not even finalised as a standard yet. It is expected to be fully defined and standardised by next year.

Ok could care less what they call it. Heck, call it AirFart for all I care. What's the speed going to be like? Will there be a big difference between 3.9 and 4G. I'm wanting a network with at least 200mbps speeds, but STABLE. That's the key word. All of these carriers need to provide STABLE speeds. Cellular data speeds fluctuate like Wall Street.