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?"
Wireless (Score:1, Offtopic)
Re:Wireless (Score:5, Insightful)
Haha. This is AT&T. You'll be limited to 3GB a month. 7.2 is burst not sustained. And if your neighbor thinks like you do, you'll both be using the same tower. Somehow I doubt AT&T is going to run fiber to each tower to support a large number of users.
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.
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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.
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You'll be limited to 3GB a month.
No, it'll be "unlimited", but the 7.2 is the whole tower. Fun times ahead.
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And, in case you were curious, that comes in at just under an hour [google.com] of access.
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-You used 3 gigs. Its unlimited for phones, 5gb for laptop connect devices.
-7.2 mbps is a theoretical maximum. With the current theoretical limit of 3.6, you can realistically expect 700kbps-1.7mbps, so my guess is that it will only be roughly 1.5-2 times that.
-It is against the terms of service (that you, believe it or not, agreed to) to use 3g for streaming media, large file downloads, etc (high bandwidth stuff basically)
-Your wireless laptop may not be the
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No, not going to happen. We moved out to the boonies, where cable and DSL were not an option, but the ATT coverage map said we had the best 3G signal available.
Bought the 3G card, tried it at work. Got 5 bars, worked great. I could download 1.5Mb/sec all day long. Move to the house... 5 bars, still says 3G. IF I could get speedtest.net to give me the page, I would usually show about 100k. It would drop constantly. I had to return during the buyers remorse period.
Went to alltel and quickly got a new a
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One did it right and built WiMax towers, mast and got good signals. It worked as stated.
The other rushed a cheap indoor solution.
When the indoor solution failed they could blame emerging US tech.
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I also live in the boonies; up until 3 years ago i was relying on ISDN, then a WISP startup came along and I'm getting, on average, 300k for $40 a month (considering that the tower is 7 miles away, I don't consider that too terrible..
I would gladly pay more for decent internet, but every time I've checked with the 2 cell providers for the area, Verizon and AT&T, it looks ridiculously expensive (like in the $150+ range) with bizarre limits; can you give me some idea of what you are paying? maybe I can t
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I'm using alltel, I'm paying $60 a month. I specifically picked them because they had a real UNLIMITED plan. Or they hid their cap better, but it wasn't 5GB anyway.
It's funny, even out in the boonies, every now and then my laptop will pick up a stray signal for just a second. I've walked around the yard trying to pinpoint a neighbor with no luck. Freak anomaly? Wifi on a truck/plane going by? Who knows.
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So, 700k at best, $60 a month, and a Cap does exist, but you are not sure what it is, which means you probably haven't hit it.
I guess I'll stick with my HomeGrown Wisp; 300k is average, and I'm absolutely certain there is no cap.
They Didn't Mention You'll Still Drop Calls (Score:1)
Can you hear me now?....Nope.
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Theoretically... (Score:5, Insightful)
Current HSPA download speeds can theoretically reach 3.6 MBit/sec,
There is no difference between theory and practice in theory, but there is in practice.
Misquote (Score:2, Informative)
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http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/y/yogi_berra.html [brainyquote.com]. His quotes often have a signature mental disconnect in them... and it makes many of them quite funny. Some examples of quotes attributed to Yogi are:
A nickel ain't worth a dime anymore.
Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours.
Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical.
Congratulations. I knew the record would stand until it was broken.
Even Napo
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Man, you butchered that saying.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
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That's your theory.
Great. (Score:2)
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back in the 1990's akamai had this great idea to position data all over the internet for better performance. in 2009 we have people whining that AT&T won't let them stream data from their DVR.
the right way to do this is something like VZ's Get it Now. store the data on the telco network for better performance.
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VZ Wireless, where they cripple the phones so you use their services (....and pay).
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$$$ per 'tube' (Score:5, Insightful)
sure, they'll let you use port 80, 8080, and maybe even 443 but what cost is the freedom to use the bandwidth for what _you_ want to use it for? Didn't I see where T-Mobile's G1 _unlimited_ data plan bills you extra for Chat and IM and I would guess they block the standard VOIP port(s) too.
The Internet may be thought of by some as a "bunch of tubes" but these companies are carving it up so they control what you do on the "tube". Speed isn't the only thing that's important here.
LoB
Re:$$$ 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.
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a T-mobile customer said that they only charge extra for Texting and don't do anything to restrict ports on the TCP/IP stack. Sounds like AT&T are currently doing the same. Great and let's make sure they continue this way.
LoB
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that's good to know because it sure sounded like it was more than just texting that they were splitting out and charging extra for. Thanks for clearing that up.
LoB
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The GPs experience does not reflect mine. I have unlimited data and 400 texts per month. During the first month, I sent a very large number of gchat and AIM instant messages, believing (sensibly, I think) that they would not be counted against my allotment of text messages. They are, after all, instant messages, and I was paying for internet access. I was wrong. I sent and received a total of around 700 IMs, which is about $60 worth of texts after deducting the 400 that come with my plan. Not a pleasa
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Yes, I forgot, thanks for the correction. The gtalk messages weren't billed as text messages. That actually made the whole thing seem a great deal more arbitrary and infuriating. Anyway, I started using a 3rd party client (meebo) that uses only data.
Hey Jerks at AT&T... (Score:1)
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Gigabits per siemens?
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-1 Wrong.
They ran fibre to our local tower. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:They ran fibre to our local tower. (Score:4, Insightful)
In practice, such pure physical channels usually only appear out in the open countryside--and besides, if you are referring to AT&T's EDGE or non-HSPA 3G, then it isn't MIMO... just crappy AT&T.
But it's nice to know, isn't it?
heh! (Score:2)
string cheese (Score:2)
As above posters mentioned, AT&T's service always comes with so many strings that it's hardly worth paying for. Plus their high speed coverage generally only extends to large urban areas.
Anyone have any comments on Verizon's data service offerings? I'd potentially like to do a tethered modem or a MiFi type device. I'm tired of the iPhone and it's inability to anything truly useful without jailbreaking it.
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Plus their high speed coverage generally only extends to large urban areas.
Oddly enough, this is where most people live.
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Yes, that's exactly why it is so, the most people for the least cels. However, if you don't live in a big city (I don't) or are 'on the road' or like to travel around the rural areas and small towns of this great nation and have pretty consistent coverage, it's a poor option.
Japan is 100% 3G even in outlying areas, though I am sure NTT DoCoMo probably has a lot of Government subsidy and assistance to pull that off and is something of a monopoly. Still, the relative cost of cel service with unlimited data
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up to 7.2 Mbit/sec... (Score:2)
A new buzzword milestone: this new technology doubles the theoretical data rate that nobody actually sees!
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.
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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.
*It's probably important to note that this does not include the iPhone: For those of you who own an iPhone, read this and get the warm fuzzies in your pants... :-) It simply doesn't have the hardware for it.
Yeah, okay (Score:3, Insightful)
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What do you mean you can't get 6 Mbps DSL? Did they test your line? You may be beyond the distance and they should downgrade your speed accordingly. I have 6 Mbps DSL and pretty consistently get 5 Mbps or so which I believe is just about maximum real life speed for a "6 Mbps" DSL connection with AT&T when you factor in protocol overhead.
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One word... (Score:3, Insightful)
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I ran into this in remotetown, virginia.... was out doing work on a remote building, and thought - oh, I have 3g service. Full bars, appeared that I would have an awesome VPN session.
But, they must have the other end of that 3g tower attached to a 56k modem. Doing something that I'd typically do on my phone in Columbus, Ohio - Google Maps - was a lesson in futility. VPN session would connect, but applications across it were horrible.
And I highly doubt it was because the cell network was anywhere near sat
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What a joke! (Score:2)
Tethering? (Score:2)
Of course, you still won't be allowed to use your iPhone as a modem (yes, I know it's possible, just not approved by AT&T).
overage city, faster (Score:2)
great, even more ways to get to overage city even faster.
now, if they are getting rid of the cap and make it truly unlimited...then fine.
just means you'll hit ATT's 5GB limit even sooner (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if we assume that their speed claims are true, the benefit of this new product will be severely limited if ATT Wireless retains their currently policy of charging $0.25/MB once users hit their monthly limit of 5GB. I finally gave up on ATT because it was such a pain to monitor my usage and stop normal broadband activity (e.g., youtube, etc.) near the end of every month when I got close to the limit.
Re:just means you'll hit ATT's 5GB limit even soon (Score:2)
5GB a month is not enough? And you hit that mark watching youtube?
My god man... why do you insist on subjecting yourself to the crapfest that is youtube?
And even if they actually had something worthwhile, why can't you cozy up somewhere that offers wifi?
3G access is slow as molasses on a cold day. I'm surprised you were able to even hit 5GB in a month on that joke of a network.
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My local WISP uses WiFi (I think) with big fat directional antennae and Mikrotik routerboards on PoE in a metal box on the mast. The antenna grill alone is fifty bucks if you get it cheap, fun times. I get about the same speeds as you, sometimes at peak I've seen it as low as 400kbps but in general it makes me very happy... for fifty bucks a month. Anyone with the misfortune to be in Lake County, California should visit http://www.airlinkweb.com/ [airlinkweb.com] if they can't get cable. Mediacom is a bunch of bastards, but
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Even if we assume that their speed claims are true, the benefit of this new product will be severely limited if ATT Wireless retains their currently policy of charging $0.25/MB once users hit their monthly limit of 5GB.
I've been looking at AT&T plans online because they buy every fucking cellphone company I get service from anyway (and they own every tower worth a fuck in my county, too... since buying Edge Wireless) and they advertise "Unlimited Data" with the "PDA Personal" option. The version of PDA Personal "with tethering" is advertised as 5GB. I searched the plan terms [att.com] for "unlimited" and none of the limitations seemed to apply to data.
So, just to clarify, is the "Unlimited" plan limited to 5GB? Or do these comp
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.
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I play Xbox Live games all the time over my Verizon 3G broadband service. EVE Online works just fine, too. I typically get under 100ms latency riding the EVDO signal. It helps to use a 3rd party 3G router, like the ones from Cradlepoint. Then your PC is using the network stack, not a PPP/dialup stack, and the reduced overhead improves latency.
1xRTT is dog slow, usually over 300ms.
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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. :-)
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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. :-)
And in the Very next post down [slashdot.org], less than a minute later...
In Australia they're getting 21Mbps from HSPA+: http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/australias-telstra-launches-hspa/2009-02-22 [fiercebroa...reless.com]
And they claim they'll double it by the end of the year (with multicarrier HSPA+?)
<keanu>Whoa.</keanu>
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And in the Very next post down [slashdot.org], less than a minute later...
I should start a psychic hotline.
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How about Australia? Well, Telstra Bigpond [bigpond.com] has 21Mbps HSPA+ with probably very good coverage (can't find a link), Vodafone Australia has 3.6Mbps HSDPA with (soon to be) good coverage [pdslive.com.au] and Optus has a 3G/UMTS network with spotty coverage [optus.com.au].
The United States has over fifteen times the population of Australia, yet the U.S. has long been behind when it comes to mobile phone technology. Is it the telco monopolies? Is there low demand? It's weird.
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We've got all that in the USA. I started my service so long ago it was unlimited, and my plan is grandfathered, so I don't have any caps and no throttling. I get 2.5mbit/sec up and 670kbit/sec down and under 100ms latency while moored at Isthmus Cove on Catalina Island, 27 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. It's better than the free Wifi at Harbor Reef Restaurant ashore at Two Harbors.
What about HSPA+ (Score:5, Interesting)
And they claim they'll double it by the end of the year (with multicarrier HSPA+?)
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HSPA is a dead-ed technology. LTE is deploying already and will go 60Mbit initially and then up to 150Mbit. Mobile. With latencies 15ms (typically 10ms). And it has already been shown 60mb with NTT DoCOMO, 170mBit mobile at TMobile, and went commerically operational in Stockholm this week.
I put all this in a post further down the page with links, but got pulled into a meeting, then posted late. So consider this: *there.
Yes. (Score:2)
Could this be one of the big iPhone announcements to come from WWDC?
Yes, it could be.
It's also possible that Apple won't mention anything about this. Next question?
bah (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we please ban the use of "up to" in advertising? The same goes for "as much as" and all their ilk.
How it isn't simply declared false advertising is beyond me.
It's like those super soakers that were advertised as shooting "up to 30 feet!". Yeah, right. Only if you whip your arm about before firing to impart some momentum to the water, then fire downwind at a 37 degree angle in a category 4 hurricane. Otherwise it was more like 10 feet.
How about if the mean average performance of the product isn't at least 80% of the advertised "up to" figure, you don't get to use that figure. Or require that all "up to" claims be accompanied with a bell curve that show people that most of them will be getting significantly less 100% of the time?
SO THRILLED - not (Score:2)
Assuming this actually improves SOME people's internet (yeah, I know, big assumption) it means a bit less than diddly squat to many Americans. I can't GET reliable cell service. If I walk out in the yard, and hold the phone at an awkward angle, pointing the antenna *just so* the tower in Texarkana finally makes a connection.
I'd rather see AT&T do something USEFUL. Expand the existing infrastructure, so that rural America can enjoy simple MB speed connections on the internet. And, reduce the rates, s
Maybe good for laptops, but useless for handhelds (Score:2)
I still get the feeling that my "leading edge" AT&T Blackberry Bold, with its "fast" Intel XScale 624 MHz processor may be the bottleneck on wireless connections. I'm not sure if it's the high latency of the mobile network, distance-to-tower-related performance degradation, varying network conditions or simple lack of processor horsepower, but I find that it's typically not able to come anywhere close to the theoretical bandwidth limits imposed by the 3.6Mbps 3G network.
I suspect resources would be bett
Re:Maybe good for laptops, but useless for handhel (Score:2)
"fast" Intel XScale 624 MHz processor
The quotes are appropriate. XScale gets notoriously poor performance per clock - it's the Pentium 4 of the ARM world. You'd be very lucky to get the same performance from it as from a 400MHz core from another vendor.
Sweden just got their first 4G base station. (Score:2, Informative)
The next generation mobile technology (LTE) provides speeds up to 150 Mb/s.
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It's not ready to be used commercially yet though, just part of tests.
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Actually it is up commercially. See here:
Ericsson and TeliaSonera reveals world's first commercial LTE site in Stockholm [engadget.com]
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It says:
"Rather, this site will become part of a commercial network scheduled to go live in 2010"
Which means it's still under test.
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No, its providing live service now to paying customers. Hint: my wife works for Ericsson.
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LTE handsets and PC cards aren't even out yet.
Can you provide the slightest bit of evidence to your claim? Your previous link contradicts what you're saying, you know.
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It was actually earlier than that, just not available "commercially" :-)
Maybe.... (Score:2)
AT&T should focus on getting their 3G network working better. More coverage, more reliability, and more speed.
Frankly, Verizon's slower EvDO seemed to perform faster and have less issues.
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Priorities (Score:2)
Could this be one of the big iPhone announcements to come from WWDC?
I hope they're also planning on discontinuing the "call dropping" feature that my iPhone seems to have near-complete support for.
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]
DO WANT!
Re:LTE is coming - and it will smoke HSPA (And AT& (Score:2)
Before you ask: 150Mbits is the top end down, 50Mbits is the highest up. Even with a saturated tower, you should exceed 10Mbit. These are nice numbers, although I'm sure you'll see lower caps in place commercially.
Latencies are 15ms, typically around 10ms.
So yes, this is a REAL "broadband" connection that really mobile.
Re:LTE is coming - and it will smoke HSPA (And AT& (Score:2)
LTE dongles will not be commercially available in volume until 2010. Chipsets for LTE phones won't be available in volume until 2011 at best. Verizon will also be late, so the net of it is you won't see widespread coverage and widespread device availability until the 2011-2012 timeframe anyway. Verizon will be selling EV-DO phones, dongles and netbooks for several years to come, there is no "changeover from CDMA to GSM in 2010" in any way and their CDMA network is not going anywhe
Re:LTE is coming - and it will smoke HSPA (And AT& (Score:2)
Overhyping? No. I've used the gear. I've seen the tests personally in Sweden and the US (My wife works for Ericsson Plano - R&D related work there). Chipsets are going into fab now - they were publicly demonstrated 6 months ago in Tokyo. Handset makers have already set die and fab orders for late this year. And LTE is already deployed to 2 US cities with Verizon, rolling out to 2 others before year end.
Yes its a huge forklift upgrade from CDMA to GSM/LTE for Verizon - but it is already well under
Re:LTE is coming - and it will smoke HSPA (And AT& (Score:2)
"Yes its a huge forklift upgrade from CDMA to GSM/LTE for Verizon - but it is already well under way."
Just wrong. VzW is going to continue to run EV-DO and will run an overlay LTE network for data. Voice will stay on CDMA for the forseeable future. VzW is not upgrading anything to GSM.
Re:iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:iPhone? (Score:4, Funny)
At least his sig is appropriate.
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Oops..I just skimmed it. I often don't read the very last line of most things...I usually assume the meat of the story is in the first part.
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AT&T: Your World Delivered... to the NSA.