Ahead of LTE, AT&T tests 7.2 Mbps speeds in Chicago
Wireless provider sets sights on HSPA+
December 18 2008 - 2:13 pm ET | Allie Winter | RCR Wireless News
AT&T Mobility is in no hurry to transition to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. In response to accelerated next-generation rollout schedules by Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility spokesman Mark Siegel said the carrier has plenty of room for upgrades before making the switch to LTE.
“We have some real advantages with our (GSM-based) technology path,” Siegel said. “We still have plenty of room left to increase speeds” before moving to LTE.
Siegel said the carrier plans to first upgrade its current HSPA network to HSPA+, before moving to LTE. (Siegel would not offer a specific date for an LTE rollout by AT&T Mobility, noting only that it will begin some type of rollout within the new two years.) Further, Siegel declined to give any details related to the HSPA+ upgrade, including when it would happen and any possible benefits the upgrade would provide.
Interestingly, though, Siegel did say AT&T Mobility is testing 7.2 megabit per second download speeds in Chicago, adding that those speeds could soon increase to 14.4 Mbps or higher. Siegel declined to explain the technologies powering those speeds.
According to the GSM Association, the trade group representing the GSM family of technologies, HSDPA can support download speeds of 7.2 Mbps, while HSPA+ can support speeds of up to 42 Mbps in the downlink and 11 Mbps in the uplink. The trade group said peak rates for LTE, which is not a finalized standard, sit at 100 Mbps in the downlink and 50 Mbps in the uplink.
Typically, such speeds are recorded only in testing, and vary wildly in commercial use.
Nonetheless, Siegel took aim at AT&T Mobility rivals seemingly desperate to score the network-upgrade high ground. He said Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless are upgrading quickly because they have no room left to increase speeds on their 3G networks. Both carriers currently rely on CDMA-based networks updated to the EV-DO Revision A standard.
According to the CDMA Development Group, the Rev. A standard provides a peak data rate of 3.1 Mbps on the downlink and 1.8 Mbps on the uplink using a 1.25 megahertz channel. Neither carrier has announced any plans for further updates to their respective networks to the Rev. B standard that according to the CDG allows the aggregation of network channels that in a 20 megahertz channel could provide downlink speeds of 46.5 Mbps and uplink speeds of 27 Mbps.
“Just because they’re moving fast doesn’t mean they’re in the lead,” Siegel said.
Sprint’s position
Naturally, Sprint Nextel disagrees. The carrier has time and again touted its time-to-market advantage with mobile WiMAX, and this week released its first CDMA/WiMAX dual-mode modem, sold under the “Sprint 4G” moniker. The device is available in Baltimore, and Sprint Nextel’s WiMAX partner Clearwire Corp. is set to launch its mobile WiMAX offering in Portland, Ore., next month.
Stephanie Vinge, spokeswoman for Sprint Nextel, said the carrier made the choice to upgrade because data demand is growing beyond the capacity of 3G.
“4G technology existed already in the form of WiMAX and presented a significant advantage for Sprint,” Vinge said. “And an ecosystem (of other companies including Intel Corp., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.) was already growing around WiMAX.”
Sprint Nextel says its mobile WiMAX play supports speeds of 2 to 4 Mbps.
As for Verizon Wireless, the carrier is pushing ahead on the next-gen front. Last year Verizon Wireless promised to offer LTE service by 2010, but Dick Lynch, Verizon Wireless CTO, recently announced the carrier would have LTE up and running in certain markets by end of 2009.
“We expect that LTE will actually be in service somewhere here in the U.S. probably this time next year,” said Lynch, according to PC World.
Verizon Wireless did not return calls for comment.
December 21, 2008 03:09 am
Danny is obviously clueless about LTE. "It was designed to be backward compatible with 3G" is a half truth that he clearly doesn't get. In fact it is being designed to be compatible with the 3GPP technology train. NOT the Verizon path. VZW will require special hooks and kludges to jump between technology paths. Do your homework.
December 19, 2008 05:59 am
LTE is IP based (OFDMA) and will require hardware changes for both VZW and AT&T. Those of you under the impression that HSPA operators will just have to sit back and flip a switch to turn on LTE are totally drunk off AT&T's koolaid.VZW has more incentive to push LTE much faster due to their decision to not progress with REV B or C. Given each company's respecitve history in technology deployments, I give VZW a one up over AT&T in deploying and perfecting the new network.For those of you unfamiliar with LTE, it has been designed to be backwards compatiable with current 3G networks. The concept is for you to be able to transition between both networks using a dual mode handset without dropping a voice or data call. Mr Siegal's rhetoric is simply a way to cover up for his extremely slow venture into LTE. AT&T once again shows the public how slow they are to respond to technology advances and use misleading commercials to confuse the public about their networks capabilities.... Least dropped calls.... Fastest 3G network.... Best Coverage (based on global coverage) etc.....Please don't erase this comment....
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
Snoop is up on this. For everyone VZW's coverage with EVDO and probably LTE when available will dwarf AT&T's for some time. Instead of putting a good horse to pasture AT&T will ride it til it drops and keep beating a dead horse until they are forced to move to LTE and by then they will be behind. Probably by 3-5 years behind.
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
you guys are retarded, verizon and sprint have a whole bunch of areas where they do not have EV-DO its pretty much comparible, admit or deny fact of the matter is that there are alot of areas where it does not make financial sense to deploy a 3G network, it is just not cost effective people that live in the really rural areas of the country for the most part are not going to use their phones like people in the bigger cities do so there is no need to deploy 3g/4g services, and verizon can say they will bring LTE to market at the end of 2009 but only time will tell, who knows what t ype of delays and whatnot there will be, and ATT's LTE will obviously be much faster because its a natural evolution of GSM technology verizon is going to be running dual networks which will only cause more problems and sprint already runs 3 so we wont even speak about them
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
Mr. Siegel is confused. HSDPA is CDMA based not GSM based. Furthermore, GSM has not evoloution to high speed data like CDMA, that's why they are headed to UMTS ASAP! GSM is a dead end for data and that is a well know fact. Maybe that is why AT&T has tried and deployed just about every tecnology out there now finally realizing that they will eventurally abandon it too for WCDMA or LTE.
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
Mike Dano - Good point - I did not know that ATT was in fact testing HSPA in Chicago. Are you saying that ATT is getting 7.2 mbps in Chicago as well? This just happens to be the theoretical max download for HSPA Cat 8. My apologies if I come off as blunt. I highly value RCR and read it daily. I still stand by this article being nothing more than a bully pulpit for ATT's Siegal to defend ATT's "slow roll" philosophy. RCR should at least make ATT pay for their advertising.
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
Wow, critical bunch on this comment page. First off, At&t and the other providers for that matter could care less what the nerd peanut gallery has to say about the latest and greatest.I mean what hardware right now can really support these theoretical speeds anyway? Exactly, just like you are in the minority of actually caring about this info, the consumer HW is just not there yet. I mean how long has Windows Mobile been out? Only now the HW has been cheap enough to mass produce to the soccer moms.Get a life. The higher speeds will be out sooner rather than later. You just keep chasing that rabbit down the hole.
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
To "Tom": Did you know that AT&T was testing 7.2 Mbps in Chicago? That was news to us, and we thought it was very interesting and timely based on the recent moves by Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless. --Mike Dano, online editor for RCR Wireless News.
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
Nice job Allie. Zippo real information here. You compare ATT theoretical HSPA plans (no time frame, no results, no nothing...), and give ATT a bully pulpit. At least get some information from ATT next time. You've given us nada, zippo, zero here.
December 18, 2008 02:33 pm
WiMax is toast. No coverage. No major carrier support worldwide. Dried up capital markets. HSPA+ speeds will exeed WiMax. Start writing the obit.