AT&T to speed up 3G network

Jake Widman
Thursday, 28 May 2009 03:54

Your IT - Mobility

Ready for some acronyms? AT&T announced that it will upgrade its 3G network to HSPA a year or two ahead of rolling out LTE.

Already claiming to provide the fastest 3G network in the U.S., AT&T says it will be even faster starting later this year.

The carrier intends to start upgrading its network to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2, which theoretically could provide download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps.

The upgrade is expected to be completed in 2011, well in advance of the expected 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) rollout in 2011-2012.

To take advantage of the speed boost, the telco plans to introduce HSPA-compatible laptop cards and smartphones, also beginning this year.

Moreover, the company plans to almost double the available 3G spectrum in most of the nearly 350 metropolitan areas where it is currently available, which is expected to improve service indoors, and to deploy more than 2,000 new cell sites.

According to AT&T, HSPA 7.2 and LTE are both part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Program roadmap for new mobile technologies, which should enable qualifying devices to take advantage of 2G, 3G, and 4G services, depending on what's available.