This network enhancement is one part of AT&T’s ongoing efforts to drive innovation by investing to deliver the benefits of smartphones and mobile broadband for customers. More smartphone customers have chosen AT&T over any U.S. competitor, resulting in wireless traffic on the AT&T network that has quadrupled over the past year. This growth includes a volume of smartphone data traffic over the AT&T network that is unmatched in the wireless industry.
The high-quality 850 MHz spectrum generally results in better in-building coverage. While specific benefits of the additional spectrum will vary by location, AT&T 3G customers should see improved quality and coverage throughout dozens of greater Bay Area communities, including San Francisco, Brisbane, Daly City, Colma, South San Francisco, Pacifica, Sausalito, Tiburon, Mill Valley, Corte Madera, San Rafael, San Anselmo, Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Alameda, Piedmont, Hayward, San Leandro, San Mateo, Burlingame, Millbrae, Hillsborough, Palo Alto, San Carlos, Belmont, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Richmond, Albany, El Sobrante, El Cerritos, Pinole, Crockett, Hercules and more.
In addition to providing additional 850 spectrum for 3G, AT&T has increased capacity to hundreds of cell sites across the bay area, expanding the critical connections that deliver traffic from a cell site into the global IP backbone network, helping meet the unprecedented demand for mobile connectivity. With more and more people upgrading to smartphones and integrated devices with full QWERTY keyboards, since 2008 AT&T’s network in the San Francisco area has experienced a 3G data traffic increase of 2000 percent.
This deployment is one part of AT&T’s ongoing initiatives to enhance the speed and performance of its network. Recently, AT&T announced plans to further upgrade its 3G network nationwide with HSPA 7.2 technology to deliver considerably faster mobile broadband speeds. The upgrades are planned to begin in the fourth quarter, with completion expected in 2011. In the San Francisco Bay Area, AT&T plans to roll out HSPA 7.2 in 2010.
Additionally, AT&T is continually optimizing the network and adding cell sites across the country to maximize performance for customers. In the Bay Area in 2009, AT&T has added nearly 40 new cell sites, expanding coverage and creating new footprints of wireless connectivity. AT&T is planning to add approximately 1,900 cell sites nationwide by the end of this year, and we’re adding new backhaul connections across the country to support the increasing volumes of mobile data traffic.
AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network is based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of technologies that includes GSM and UMTS, the most open and widely used wireless network platforms in the world. AT&T offers 3G data roaming in more than 100 countries, as well as voice calling in more than 215 countries.
Across the U.S., AT&T’s 3G network is available in more than 350 major metropolitan areas. For more information about AT&T’s 3G coverage in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, or anywhere in the United States, consumers can go here. The online tool shows the quality of coverage based on a street address, intersection, ZIP code or even a landmark.
Source: AT&T
Worthless PR crap-release. When are PR departments going to forever stop this bullshit kinds of communications with faked up nonsense quotes and snot smooth English.
That was one expensive cell-tower!
Can they afford to put up another one in the area, or will they put in the next one in LA?
Would you like some cheese with that?
How much has the map changed for AT&T;vs Verizon with this upgrade?
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Anyone in the Bay Area who can substantiate the fact that coverage has gotten better? I seem to recall reading just in the last couple of months some of you bemoaning the fact that their coverage sucked pimples in your area.
props to all the San Franciscans who recognize the fact that your teeny tiny city was briliantly founded on a huge friggin hill.
Hundreds of years later, its a …pain in the ass… to go uphill, downhill and get cell phone signals.
Sorry, didn’t mean to use that expression about the gayest city in the world. I’ll stop now.
actually- you’d be surprised. there’s an extremely large flat part of the city called the mission.. and you get about one bar of 3G if you are lucky. It’s a small city 7×7 miles.. with cell towers on top of hills.. and yet- even on a huge swath of flat land- AT&T;can’t get it right.
It has nothing to do with hills, buildings (one of the smallest financial districts you’ll find in a major US city) or water.
It’s pure AT&T;fail. you know.. like usual.
@mike
If it’s a pain in the ass, then you’re not doing it right.
Scott that was great!!!! People should not hate….peace mike that’s what works I guess mom and dad didn’t teach you that as a child.
I’m New Jersey it seems my dropped calls as slowed. I’d live to see the iP on Verizon
people who think SF is purely gay always secretly want to suck dick.
I’ll admit that last summer about when the 3Gs came out the 3G coverage in the greater Orange County/Long Beach/Los Angeles area improved dramatically. I’m no longer complaining about ATT’s coverage.
Perhaps you didn’t catch the pun from Scott?
I kid you not, I was on my iPhone as I began to read this article and my call dropped. I am in Berkeley.
Fix that dead spot west bound on the upper deck of the Bay Bridge just past Treasure Island.
There is another bad patch between Vermont and Cesar Chavez on 101.
AT&T;…Can you hear me now? $65 million is not enough, but I appreciate the thought.
In the past 2 months I get full bars in palo alto even on the train going to work and back to redwook city. During the summer my drop calls ect. I’m getting much better 3g lately
or still a planned roll out?
If it’s already cut over.. talk about much ado about nada.
Forbes had a article stating Qualcomm was working on a CDMA chip for Apple so the iPhone can go to verizon. I hope not.
Hi fellas big ole queer queen from NYC our service can stand to get better work in a office tower my office has a huge frigging window and I can see up park ave yet some days my phone says edge others it says 3g what’s up with that? Verizon still sux just as bad tho they always dropped my calls
This sounds great if you happen to live in one of the 350 metropolitan areas. For the rest of us we can expect nothing more from AT&T;than their “partners” may provide (minimal voice and no data).
A trip from Arizona to Wisconsin through New Mexico, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois and back the Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, route with our G3s iPhones proved frustrating. We only had voice service in the major cities and even then mostly edge or no data throughout most of the trip. Verizon’s map has actually given AT&T;more credit than it deserves.
I am one of many in middle America who will be glad to switch to Verizon once they can serve iPhone users.
Yes, it amazingly better. I drive and boat all around the Bay area. There are some spots where it was dead (or nearly dead) and now it’s like being on WiFi. The switch to 850Mhz has been amazing as there are areas where I’m now able to connect deep in buildings. With connectivity like this, tethering is friggin’ awesome…I just hope AT&T;doesn’t charge (much) for it when they officially release it.
Whoop-dee-do.
$65 million?!!? I think most of that came from my last bill.
@HanzTorr;
“$65 million?!!?” I was thinking something more like this;
That’s about 3 weeks revenue from iPhone sales alone!
Tethering??? A non-existent fairy tale, is it not?
Even in Poland (Eastern Europe) every single village has 3G coverage with data transfers up to 21Mbps. How can it be that SF Bay Area has problems with 3G signal ?
why? Who care if it’s on verizon too? The more on verizon means the less on ATandT (more bandwidth). I have a problem why some don’t want it to be added to another carrier. Then again, it’s like the posts right after a new mac model is released and someone is saying how they are stuck with the worthless piece of crap since there is a new one.