AT&T Announces Major 3G Expansion in 2008
AT&T has officially announced this morning that 2008 will be a very big year for its wireless broadband networks. America’s largest cellular provider has plans to expand its 3G coverage into more than 80 new cities in 2008. The target is to cover more than 350 leading US markets by the end of the year and involves rolling out over 1,500 new cell towers nationwide. An average of over four new cell sites per day is a pretty lofty goal but apparently AT&T is up to the challenge. Beyond expansion, AT&T will also focus on some eagerly anticipated improvements. That’s right, HSUPA, bitches! Current uplink speeds on AT&T’s 3G network average between 500 and 800kbps at best, and HSUPA will do a great deal to improve those speeds. The transition to HSUPA, once completed, will make AT&T the only US provider to fully adopt HSPA standards. President and CEO Ralph de la Vega states, "With these aggressive initiatives, we’re expanding the scope and the speed of our 3G capabilities, connecting people with their world and enabling more customers to do more with their wireless devices, wherever they may be." What’s more, AT&T will be looking towards the future while modernizing and expanding their current networks. De la Vega goes on to say, "We’re also planning for the future by establishing a clear path to a 4G network that will meet the needs of our customers for years to come." No time line was given as far as 4G is concerned, but the current plans of 3G expansion and enhancement will do a great deal to satisfy current customers and attract new ones. There’s nothing worse than having a 3G handset with no 3G coverage to back it up!
Let’s work on getting 3G rolling…what the hell are you talking about 4G for? Nobody cares for 4G yet. Maaaan, sit yo ass down.
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say what? bring on 4g! 3g is great but i want more and faster.
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How about some Wimax ATT.. I love how companies just sell us old and crappy 3G when most other countries are twice as fast. India will have Wimax before us… I wish American’s would understand that our Celluar Industry is crap…
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Why not say “We’re also planning an 8G network”
Like I said, who cares? We won’t see full 4G in the US until the end of ‘09 or later. Everybody wants more and faster. I want a Bugatti and one night with two twin sisters…
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The United States is a large country with huge variations in landscape. RF designs have to be customized for each region and it takes a long time to build out.
Countries in Europe and Japan are much smaller and easier to keep up to date with the latest technology. EDGE GSM technology is 7 years old and still working great here and everywhere. Newer and faster will come, but it will take time.
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Anyone know what the 80 new cities are and or new tower placements?
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for you to say that their plans are lofty is horrible. They fall further and further behind everyday, their plans are pitiful. just skip the 3G and go 4G since your soo far behind.
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To Zach Epstein - UMTS with HSDPA does not have an uplink speed of 500 - 800kbps. HSDPA only improves downlink speeds (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) so on an HSDPA capable network you are still only going at plain old UMTS uplink speeds. I believe that is about 384kbps. Please check it out and correct the post.
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Verizon’s data speeds are GREAT and why is it AT&T is ALWAYS ALWAYS playing Catch up
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What are you talking about HSDPA is faster than EVDO Rev O and the same if not a little faster than Rev A. HSUPA will beat both.
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It doesn’t matter how fast HSDPA is. Hardly anyone has access to it.
I don’t live in a big city, yet we’ve had EVDO for nearly two years, and Rev A for nearly a year. We aren’t even sniffing HSDPA, and neither is most of the country.
By the time AT&T gets HSDPA rolled out in my area, Verizon will probably be talking LTE.
It’s kinda cute when AT&T talks about their 3G network. It’s sorta like how Apple calls Apple TV their hobby. I don’t know how anyone can take it seriously.
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@fetus: BZZZZZ!
Japan and Europe also happen to be more mountainous, sometimes dense and tall concrete buildings blocking signals, and lots of infrastructure underground that needs coverage.
The USA is wide-open flat land most of the places and gentle hills, and they got more field engineers out on the ground. YET, the USA is still a third-world country when it comes to communications deployment.
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Third world country, huh? Exaggerate much?
3G isn’t hard to find in the US, as long as you choose a carrier that gives a crap about their network.
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What good is 3G or 4G if AT&T insists on limiting BlackBerry phones to EDGE? The same handsets are offered on other carriers with high speed data, yet AT&T continues to neuter these phones for us subscribers. They’ve been moving at a snail’s pace with 3G for years and all of a sudden we’re supposed to get excited when they talk about 4G?! Please.
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well said Michael Adams. I second his post.
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No they are not the same handsets, Michael. They are CDMA EV-DO R0, They are not GSM or UMTS is which is what AT&T uses. And guess why not? Because they do not make one yet! In fact Verizon had to get a special one (8830) just so their customers could use it while roaming in Europe on GSM. AT&T and T-Mobile already had that. No one has neutered anything. Get your facts straight, junior. And please try to come up with something more to contribute, Tyrone, than echoing someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about with “I second that”
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well said Jason. I second his post.
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how far ahead will verizon be when they have to switch there network to gsm in a few years
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I’m a current iPhone owner & always been happy with my service until a guy named Steve jobs announced apple (CEO) announced the 3G iphone. This sucker thinks that he can fool people with his 3G iPhone. The 3G iPhone is no different than the current one that I have and please don’t blame AT&T for this matter. Att customer service is nice, apple customer service really sucks. For example, three months before they announced the 3G I asked AT&T and they said yes, at the same time I asked apple,they said there is no such a thing as 3 G iPhone. Apple is really stingy and let me ask you this question who is fault is is AT&T or apple regarding iPhone insurance, photo text, video recording. Oh you guys going to say AT&T, wrong its apple. Matter of fact apple cheated on 6 million customers by selling the first iphone and not doing anything to improve it. Even if they offer the iPhone for free I will not buy it and I’m a current iPhone owner up to this date. I’m just mad because I paid some much money for apple and they don’t wanna improve anything on the current iPhone. Apple made a bs excuse saying the current iPhone wastes the battery, that all bs from jobs lies. Why can’t he agree to put flash on the iPhone, because he wants to cheat on people. Next year he will get flash so more people can buy the iPhone. I just have one more year with AT&T and then I will sell my iPhone and make some money and get a nokia or something nice or at least I don’t like to be cheated.
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Why can’t apple compare their iPhone to nokia and see how Steve job is gonna get crushed by nokias numbers. Why don’t you try nokia N95/96 and you can have a real real internet in your pocket and a real phone in your pocket. It already comes with 3G, 5 maga pixle yea thats right 5 not 2, video recording, photo text forward text messages, video text, it comes with 8 gagabite, GPS. Did I forget it has ms office, and I think flash, and it is a touch screen and alive tv. So you make a judgement, nokia or apple. I have my nokia with AT&T and it works great. The 3G speed is fast and my phone on a GSM tech which more than one billion people in the world uses. How many people uses sprint/verizon? I’m guessing about 100 million. So who has a better tech, AT&T and they been in the business for long long time probably more than 50 years. Verizons and sprint been in the business for about 10 years, big deal.
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Before you get too excited about using your buzzer, fetus is dead nuts right about the fact that the USA is large. More to the point, it’s sparsely populated compared to non-Russian Europe and Japan. It’s easier to pay for enough of the latest and greatest cell towers to cover an entire country when you have 10 times the number of subscribers per tower.
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