AT&T Says 7.2Mbps Wireless Coming This Year 141
CWmike writes "AT&T will upgrade to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 wireless networking technology later this year, offering faster (up to 7.2 Mbit/sec.) network speeds to new compatible laptop cards and smartphones due to be released at the same time, the company said today. Current HSPA download speeds can theoretically reach 3.6 MBit/sec, according to AT&T executives who commented on the planned upgrade in April. AT&T did not comment on which laptop cards and smartphones will be compatible with HSPA 7.2 other than to say it will introduce 'multiple' devices later this year. Could this be one of the big iPhone announcements to come from WWDC?"
Re:Wireless (Score:5, Informative)
Not only that, but there aren't enough circuits, so even though your phone will show 5 bars... as soon as you try to make a call, send a text, or transfer any data, it will immediately drop to 0 or 1 bars, and then say no service.
Yes, this happens on the north side in Chicago all the time.
Who cares if their towers are supporting some new transport/band between the tower and your phone... if they don't have enough circuits, or they don't have enough bandwidth going to each tower in the first place, it is pretty much worthless -- and that has been my experience for the past year in Chicago with my iPhone.
Re:$$$ per 'tube' (Score:4, Informative)
AT&T has not historically done content filtering of any sort for wireless customers.
I have never had any restriction on the ability to use IM, SSH, or other protocols when using my AT&T phone.
I haven't tried VOIP because the latency of the cellular data connection is simply too high for VOIP.
HSDPA capable phones available now (Score:4, Informative)
Some phones already have the HSDPA 7.2Mbps capability. AT&T has just neutered their firmware through various settings. Luckily, for some phones, you can just revert these settings, and in some places, receive 7.2Mbps today.
For example, the HTC Fuze/Touch Pro can do 7.2Mbps after some registry tweaks.
Misquote (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Wireless (Score:1, Informative)
7.2 Mbps is the per cell maximum throughput. There won't be any phones that can sustain that. Not just because the coverage requirements to be granted the highest data rates will be so rare, but because of fifo limitations in the phones.
What this sort of upgrade does is to allow the operator to carry twice as much traffic with the same physical resources (i.e. towers, antennas, licensed spectrum). With usage based billing, it is in the best interest of the carrier to make sure that both you and your neighbour are able to transmit as much as possible, so don't worry about it being shared.
And I guarantee you AT&T will be running fibre to each base station (eventually at least). With a minimal 3 base station with 3 cells (3 sectors, single frequency), the site needs 7.2 Mbps times 3 of back haul plus overhead, so even a T3 is tight.
Notice: The Latecy Will Actually Be Decent (Score:4, Informative)
I'd like to preemptively note that I've heard HSDPA has very good latency [wikipedia.org] for wireless... at least on paper.
This is merely anecdotal, I also hear others talking about 60-80ms latency, which is *great* compared to other common cellular data technologies such as Edge and 3G. It might not be perfect for gaming, but it should be suitable for multimedia providing the cellular network has the balls to handle it.
Obligatory European Reply: (Score:4, Informative)
What, don't you people have this already?
I just moved, and since my slowpoke ISP is slow, I won't have ADSL in my new place until one or two weeks from now. To cover the meantime I ordered mobile broadband which is a USB 3G dongle that you can connect to your computer. It can do HSPA, and EDGE and "3G". I'm pretty close to a tower, but I got 2mbps down and 0.2 up, and a latency of about 300ms, so I think I'll keep borrowing my neighbour's wifi instead and just return this instead. The mobile provider also had a campaign right now, so the monthly cost is 0. There is a 5GB cap though (if you hit it, they throttle you to 60kbps), and the regular price is $30 a month.
There, feel free to be envious, rant about how AT&T are screwing the US consumers, curse us Europeans, and possibly, just possibly start the whole broadband country ranking debate again. :-)
Re:$$$ per 'tube' (Score:1, Informative)
Didn't I see where T-Mobile's G1 _unlimited_ data plan bills you extra for Chat and IM and I would guess they block the standard VOIP port(s) too.
I own a G1 and also have T-Mobile's 'unlimited' data plan for it. Operating in or outside the 3G coverage area I do not incur extra fees for Chat/IM as it operates over the standard TCP/IP stack on the device. Unfortunately text messages are not transmitted over the TCP/IP stack as they were with the Sidekick, so you are required to elect a certain amount of texts per month at their normal costly fees.
Additionally all other ports are open from my usage on the device. In fact the device even has it's own public IP address, although I'm not sure it accepts in-bound connections from internet addresses.
Re:Wireless (Score:2, Informative)
From: This Article [pcworld.com]
The upgrade to the faster network is just one part of AT&T's plans to boost its overall network... In addition, AT&T plans on increasing its radio-frequency capacity by a factor of almost double, which it says will help with both overall coverage and in-building reception; adding more bandwidth to cell sites, to help accommodate more traffic and prepare for both HSPA 7.2 and LTE; rolling out over 2,000 more cell sites nationwide; and introducing femtocell technology for improved in-building coverage.
As you can see, they do in fact plan on adding bandwidth to existing towers as well as adding additional towers. If this is correct, you should start seeing improvements, not only in speed but in reception as well.
Sweden just got their first 4G base station. (Score:2, Informative)
The next generation mobile technology (LTE) provides speeds up to 150 Mb/s.
LTE is coming - and it will smoke HSPA (And AT& (Score:4, Informative)
AT&T loses.
AT&T is smoked if Apple allows Verizon or any other LTE carrier to get their hands on the iPhone ahead of AT&T's network rebuild 3 years down the road. AT&T is doing this because Verizon is supposedly getting ready to get iPhones as part of their changeover from CDMA to GSM in 2010 (and thus gain LTE capability) - plus Verizon is *already* testing LTE in a couple of markets.
AT&T's foot dragging with coverage problems, their denial that they need better endpoint bandwidth, etc - its now coming back to bite them in the ass.
AT&T is about a year and a half behind Version in LTE testing for deployment (they are projecting 2011-2012 for LTE at AT&T). So they are stuck with 7.2Mbit HSPA.
Verizon will skip HSPA and go straight to the higher speed LTE in 2010, long before AT&T can get there. And that upgrade comes at about the same time Apple's exclusivity with AT&T dies, what a coincidence. hmmmm.
WHats LTE mean for data rates? Here: 60mbits at less than 100 mW demonstrated December by LG at NTT DOCOMO [engadget.com].
Ericsson already has an operational LTE net in Stockholm [engadget.com] that runs 50Mb/s supposedly.
And look at this: 170mbits -- in a moving car! [engadgetmobile.com]
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