John Donovan, AT&T Chief Technology Officer, reports today:
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.
Source: AT&T
Wow. Very happy to see Houston in the list. Of course, I would be even happier if I could just get rid of the dropped calls in my home.
And the disastrous NY/NJ metropolitan area? Calls to NYC are dropped so frequently that it may take several calls just to finish a conversation. Calls here within NJ are usually reliably solid with few, if any drops.
I agree, the SF Bay area market is so saturated, I don’t remember the last time a call didn’t. Drop!
Looks like service is migrating along the same path as the general population of these states. Both NY and NJ just lost seats in the House of Representatives.
Oh – and that’s why I switched to Verizon.
the big problem in SF/NYC etc, permits…
regulation has put huge restrictions on things anyone can do.
they need a permit, to get a permit, to look at a site for a new/upgraded tower. then they need approval by the local neighborhood board, just to consider the site.
and then it goes downhill from there.
they have been talking about a windfarm off the coast of Mass for like 15+ years… it just got approved a few months ago. think you will se them building anytime soon? (give it another 5 years before it’s out of the FIRST round of court battles..)
Some areas have a lot less restrictive laws to deal with, others are really not worth the hassle to deal with.
around here, the city has banned all street signs put up after 1980 or something. they passed the law 5-6 years ago and everyone that had a sign up, has to prove there was a sign in that exact location back in the eighties. if not…tear it down.
Notice the prevalence of cities in the southern half of the United States. It’s as if AT&T is telling the rest of metropolitan America to &@%# off.
Keep in mind that AT&T was formerly SBC, or Southwestern Bell, based in Dallas. Of COURSE they’re looking mostly at their “own” territory for this (meaning mostly the old BellSouth Mobile areas).
Originally Southwestern Bell Telephone in St Louis. Then Ed Whitacre moved it to Tejas.
I wonder what the state unemployment rate is of those states versus other big markets… maybe ATT wants to implement this first in areas where people have jobs and money to spend on their product?…
AT&T is using these 5 as a testing ground. Because it better get SF & NY right this time or face a backlash o biblical proportions…or at least defections to Verison now that that’s iPhinally an option!
NY, yes. SF? Why? SF is a flyspeck compared to Houston, Dallas and San Antonio- All of which are not only more populous than SF, but are growing at twice its rate.
The only people in America who think SF is that important are the ones who live there and say that it is. There are at least 10 cities bigger and they’re ALL growing faster!.
You just jealous, because San Francisco IS the best… 🙂 (and I live there)
Is Apple waiting for LTE? Is that why the iPhone 5 may be delayed? It’s an LTE capable phone and without the network it’s premature?
LTE is a nascent technology that is in the early stages of rollout and in many cases remain in trial phase. For Apple to jump on the LTE bandwagon without full scale reliable testing for the iPhone 5 would not be a smart move.
My view is that Apple will withhold LTE until the technology has found its legs. One upmanship with the dorks over in Android would not be best served by rushing an immature technology out the door. Besides if you value battery life LTE is like a vampire that’ll suck you dry by mid-morning.
Unless Apple significantly scales up battery capacity by adding weight to the iPhone I don’t see it happening.
Yes, even the HSPA+ is a serious drain on the battery. I have a 4G phone, it isn’t faster than my 3G iPad, and the battery life blows. I would be happy to go back th 3G for better battery life.
My 4G phone is about worthless.
Like children AT&T need to be taught to finish what they start. They have extremely limited 3G coverage now and appear to be abandoning 3G to roll out their slow as molasses 4G in a handful of areas.
AT&T is smart by using these markets first: Trying to debug systems in NY or SF would be a nightmare and a public relations disaster. They won’t scream so much in these other markets as they do in NY, plus Jon Stewart won’t have more fodder for his show.
Yeah, but 3 of the 5 are in Texas. I’ve got nothing against Texas, but puh-leez.
Those three Texas cities or the 4th, 7th and 9th largest cities in the nation. Plus with AT&T’s headquarters in Dallas and previously San Antonio there is a lot of political palms to be greased there. And Houston is a very large market that will trial well before they go to LA and NYC. As for SFO? I’d be looking at Phoenix before I even worry about San Francisco, Phoenix being 5th largest city and SFO only being 12th.
if Apple can *slightly* increase iPhone 5’s thickness and cram a 2500 mAh battery into it, then maybe LTE with reasonable batt life is doable
but Apple is never about leading edge anyway (notice how they waited till iPhone4 for HSUPA, and probably 4S before HSPA+ arrives).
MGD is woefully ignorant of Apple’s past..
Apple has been the leader in leading edge by implementing new technology first in many instances i.e. they had the first personal computer, color monitor, floppy disk drive, mouse, speech technology, animation technology, plug and play, laserwriter, foreign language support, color matching of screen scanner and printer, sound support, sound input, virtual reality, 3.5″ disk drive, virtual programming/hypercard, CD Rom, built in networking, built in wifi and Thunderbolt…
When the technology is ready, Apple will deliver and do it right the first time around.
A little homer choosing going on. 3 Texas markets?
Verizon already has 10x as many with about 60 more by the end of the year.
I would like to see 3G in NW Ohio first. Going to have to switch to Verizon, which seems to have better 3G coverage, soon. Tired of waiting.