AT&T Details Network Upgrade

AT&T will eventually switch over to Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology as the backbone of its 4G data and voice network like rival Verizon Wireless, bringing the GSM (AT&T) and CDMA (Verizon) carriers closer as they both will rely on the same wireless architecture. However, before AT&T makes the bold move to 4G, it will still continue breathing life into its HSPA 3G technology.

AT&T is already ramping up its networks to 7.2 Mbps of data transfer speeds on its HSPA networks. Part of the move, as an executive for the company has stated publicly in a rare move, is to prepare the carrier's network for a summer iPhone launch that will be capable of the faster data speeds.

Later this year, and early 2010, AT&T will skip the HSPA 14.4 Mbps upgrade and instead jump to a protocol known as HSPA+ before making the switch to LTE. According to Telephony Online, AT&T has had problems with the 14.4 Mbps HSPA network implementation. Moreover, jumping to HSPA+ will give the network a theoretical transfer rate of 21 Mbps.

While these speeds are impressive, they are just theoretical speeds, which are obtained in the vacuum of a test facility. Real time usage will definitely depend on the network, geography and terrain, weather, and amount of users on the network at any given time among other variables. Using WMWiFiRouter and an HTC Fuze, which is a Touch Pro variant, I was able to get internet tethering on my MacBook Pro at a high speed of around 2.1 Mbps, although most times I averaged around 1.1 to 1.3 Mbps. The average download speed is roughly half of AT&T's current 3.6 Mbps theoretical speed at this time.