“Buyers of the iPad will grapple with the question of whether spending the extra cash for a model outfitted for wireless data over AT&T’s overtaxed network will be worth it,” Jenna Wortham reports for The New York Times.
“But it’s not just tablet computers, which some analysts estimate could sell in the low millions this year, that AT&T has to worry about. In its most recent earnings release, the company said it activated an additional 3.1 million iPhones on its network during the fourth quarter,” Wortham reports. “During a call to investors and analysts on Thursday, John Stankey, president of AT&T’s operations division, said the company was gearing up for the introduction of new smartphones and the iPad on its network.”
MacDailyNews Take: While we wait to use the 7.2 HSPA capability on our iPhone 3GS units, where’s that iPhone tethering you promised us so long ago, AT&T? And, if it ever arrives, will be able to tether our iPads to our iPhones (and we do we highly doubt that will be the case)?
“The company said that this year it plans to pour an additional $2 billion into its wireless network and the wired data infrastructure that supports it, bringing its total expenditure into the range of $18 billion to $19 billion,” Wortham reports. “As part of that spending, the company said it would be adding 2,000 new cell sites and upgrading existing cell sites with fiber-optic connectivity to help increase capacity, among other things. The company also pointed to its recent efforts to roll out its 7.2 HSPA update to existing 3G cell sites, which it says will double the speed of data transfers.”
“In some of the cities where AT&T customers complain heavily about spotty service and dropped calls, like San Francisco and New York, Mr. Stankey said the company was ‘closing the gap,’” Wortham reports. “In the next three months, the company plans to increase the amount of 3G radio capacity by more than one-third in the more high-traffic areas of Manhattan, adding additional radio network controllers on existing cell sites. Mr. Stankey said zoning problems in San Francisco had hindered the company’s ability to improve its network there, but he said the company was working to improve performance.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 1. The AT&T plans are month-to-month, so you can try it to see how their networks performs in your area (believe it or not, AT&T’s 3G is fast and reliable in many places across the US). 2. All iPad 3G models are unlocked and use new GSM micro SIMs.
Flora Graham reports for CNET UK, “The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which sets the standards for SIM cards, tells us that except for the size of the plastic around the chip, micro SIM cards are identical to the SIM cards we normally find in phones. That means in theory, nothing is stopping us from trimming down a standard SIM card and popping it in the iPad. We haven’t tested this yet, so we can’t guarantee it will work — but as soon as we get our hands on the 3G iPad for a full review, we’ll be giving it a try to confirm it.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Sara R." for the heads up.]
5 Day Most Commented