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AT&T’s network is about to get a big boost when the carrier commences their 4G LTE rollout this summer. Plans were first announced last fall, but since then details of when and where we would see AT&T’s next-gen network cropping up have remained scant. Today the carrier revealed the first five cities to get blanketed in LTE, and committed to pushing the wireless standard to at least 10 more cities by the end of the year.
It all starts with Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Antonio, which doesn’t exactly create the most wide-reaching coverage area. AT&T plans to have 70 million Americans within their LTE network before next year and will bring 20 new 4G devices to service them. Many of those devices will be HSPA+ only, but at least some will be LTE-ready. Full press statement below.
AT&T’s 4G Evolution
Dallas, Texas, May 25, 2011
By John Donovan, AT&T Chief Technology Officer
AT&T has delivered five mobile broadband speed upgrades in recent years, including our HSPA+ deployment last year. And average nationwide speeds on the AT&T network have increased – more than 40 percent over the past two years alone.
The next network evolution will arrive this summer with the addition of LTE in five markets – Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio. We plan to add another 10 or more markets in the second half of the year, and cover 70 million Americans with LTE by year-end. We also have plans to add 20 4G devices to our robust device portfolio this year, with some of those being LTE capable.
We’re positioning to deliver a great mobile broadband experience in the near term with HSPA+ and a growing LTE footprint.
We’ve invested $75 billion in our wireless and wired networks over the last four years – more capital invested in the U.S. than any company in any industry. And we plan to invest $19 billion in our wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects this year. The investments we’ve made to evolve our mobile broadband network in recent years, plus what we have planned for the future, put our customers in position to benefit fully from a host of coming mobile broadband innovations.
See? They don’t NEED T-Mobile.
Speak the truth brotha. AT&T only wants to eliminate competition!!
Get ready for a huge price increase
Get ready for huge price increase as well.
Texas FTW
HA HA yes sir.
So I thought that AT&T couldn’t roll out LTE without T-Mobile’s towers. hmmmmm
Of course how convenient that they can’t roll out LTE until they acquire (destroy) a non-competitor (big low priced threat). I honestly think that AT&T is scrambling hard because they’re:
1. not an exlusive iPhone dealer anymore
2. last to even speak of 4G networks
3. everyone is rolling out faster networks in a smaller timeframe (sprint is the exception)
well theyr plan seems pretty solid it seems that theyr network will over pass in speed if used with up to its maximum and then the 4g it seems like we will have to see if at&t can keep the promise to be the fastest hopefully so it will
Get ready for a huge price increase and (Verizon) monkey see monkey do, hahaha.
They should prolly finish rolling out their 3G network first. Just a thought. The sad thing is, I’m a vzw customer who can admit, when your ATT phone gets 3G, it’s faster than Verizon. Of coarse, that’s WHEN, they get 3G.
So they’ll have an LTE network. What devices will there be to run on this network??
Wow apple has At&t by the throat. It makes sense now that the iPhone 5 will be LTE, they most likely delayed the launch until both Verizon and At&t had an established LTE 4G network.
P.S. At&t…….nobody likes you.
faggot
Let’s see, when VZW opened their LTE network. It was in 38 cities and several major airports nationwide. AT&T start in four cities mostly in TX. I would say YES, they need T-MOs network to keep up.
Why would they need TMO’s network? TMO’s network isn’t LTE, so it wouldn’t make any difference. Plus, AT&T has nationwide spectrum in the 700mhz band for LTE.
Personally, I think this announcement is more about marketing then anything else. They don’t even have a USB dongle. Basically they don’t want the public to think they’re not investing in their network for next generation services.
I really wish that they would focus on setting up their HSPA+ in more markets before I started hearing about this LTE crap.
No kidding. Work on their ‘advanced backhaul’ to get HSPA+ going would be nice.
They picked Texas because it’s their home state, Atlanta because it’s the home of their wireless division, can’t figure out why they picked Chicago though.
They picked Chicago because of Da Bears!
Oh, yeah. the shit team that’s yet to win a world series?
Chicago Bears- World Series??? Wrong sport buddy, but good try…
CAN’T WAIT WILL BE MAXING OUT MY ATRIX 4G for the Summer!
Nice! Ok now thats what i am talking about. Wow.
http://www.total-anonymity.eu.tc
Um, how about we finish the HSPA+ backhaul upgrade first? Still getting sub-3G speeds on a HSPA+ capable “4G” (LOL) phone.