AT&T to launch HSUPA in weeks

[clock3687]

AT&T To Boost 3G Upload Speeds In Weeks

The upgrade will let customers send photos or video from their phones to the Internet up to six times faster than before, a top mobile executive said Monday.

NEW YORK - AT&T Inc plans to announce in coming weeks that it has upgraded its mobile network to let customers send photos or video from their phones to the Internet up to six times faster than before, a top mobile executive said Monday.

Richard Burns, president of AT&T (T)'s wireless network services, also said in an interview that the company expects to carry out most of its planned 2007 high-speed wireless upgrades in October and November.

AT&T is boosting its network upload speeds to help meet growing bandwidth demand as customers increasingly send or upload media files directly from their phones to personal blogs and sites such as MySpace.com and YouTube.com.

"The ability to upload is becoming more important," Burns told Reuters.

While the vast majority of mobile Web surfers only wanted to download or retrieve information from the Web a few years ago, the entry of social networks and blogging into mainstream has made upload speeds more important.

"Everybody in the street is becoming a reporter so the desire to be able to upload is growing," he said. "That's become a much bigger part of consumer demand than it was just a few years ago."

Burns said the upgrade to AT&T's high-speed network would increase upload speeds to a range of 500 to 800 kilobits per second (kbps), from its current speed of about 120 kbps.

He did not say how much this upgrade would cost AT&T, which has spent $16 billion on its wireless network in the last three years, including merger-related network integration.

HIGH-SPEED UPGRADE

AT&T and rivals have been developing mobile data services such as Web surfing in an effort to keep growing amid declines in both phone-call prices and the number of people who do not already own cell phones.

But AT&T's upgrade so far is behind that of smaller rivals Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone (VOD) Group Plc, and Sprint Nextel (S) Corp.

After Alcatel (ALU)-Lucent, a key AT&T supplier, blamed North American wireless customers for a current-quarter revenue warning, some analysts said the warning could mean a slowdown for third-generation (3G) high-speed network upgrades at AT&T.

But Burns said AT&T had not changed its plans.

"There is more 3G capability turning up in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter, there always was," he said, adding that the bulk of upgrades would take place in October and November.

AT&T expects high-speed networks to cover 200 markets with 170 million people by year-end, according to Burns, who said the company would soon announce upgrade targets for 2008.
AT&T plans to keep expanding its 3G service next year but will not support 3G across its entire network by the end of 2008. Including its slower data network, AT&T's network covers markets with 280 million customers, he said.
"We roll 3G out based on what the data demand in the market will be," Burns said.

AT&T is the exclusive U.S. service provider for Apple Inc's iPhone. While reviewers applauded iPhone when it was launched in late June, they criticized AT&T because the phone only runs on its older, slower data network.

Burns said company surveys found that iPhone customers were happy with the network, which is based on a technology known as EDGE: "We're surveying them in large numbers week in and week out. They're telling us their EDGE experience is great."

By: Sinead Carew

AT&T To Boost 3G Upload Speeds In Weeks -- Cell Phone -- InformationWeek

[Fire14]

Originally Posted by clock3687

Richard Burns, president of AT&T (T)'s wireless network services, also said in an interview that the company expects to carry out most of its planned 2007 high-speed wireless upgrades in October and November.

He did not say how much this upgrade would cost AT&T, which has spent $16 billion on its wireless network in the last three years, including merger-related network integration.

But AT&T's upgrade so far is behind that of smaller rivals Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone (VOD) Group Plc, and Sprint Nextel (S) Corp.

After Alcatel (ALU)-Lucent, a key AT&T supplier, blamed North American wireless customers for a current-quarter revenue warning, some analysts said the warning could mean a slowdown for third-generation (3G) high-speed network upgrades at AT&T.

"There is more 3G capability turning up in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter, there always was," he said, adding that the bulk of upgrades would take place in October and November.

AT&T expects high-speed networks to cover 200 markets with 170 million people by year-end, according to Burns, who said the company would soon announce upgrade targets for 2008.
AT&T plans to keep expanding its 3G service next year but will not support 3G across its entire network by the end of 2008. Including its slower data network, AT&T's network covers markets with 280 million customers, he said.

Burns said company surveys found that iPhone customers were happy with the network, which is based on a technology known as EDGE: "We're surveying them in large numbers week in and week out. They're telling us their EDGE experience is great."

This article with the quotes above do kind of verify that AT&T hasn't been doing anything up till now on their networks, and now they are going to try & make it all up in 2 months Geez.

I also think the Apple users don't know they can have faster data & what it's like so they think Edge is ok.

I guess this means I may get full 3G in my town & area by November.

[Gamer03]

AT&T still doesn't have 3G in my area. Every other major carrier except AT&T and T-Mobie has hi-speed data in my area.

[walkguru]

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Nokia6126/2.0 (04.28) Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Link/6.3.0.0.0)

Same here no 3 g.

[bobolito]

The article says that AT&T will not have 3G across its entire network by the end of 2008. So that means many people will still be riding on EDGE in 2009!

But at least around my area I've seen new panels here and there so I guess those are the 3G antennas being installed. Hopefully it will be here by Christmas.

[Shizam76]

Originally Posted by bobolito

The article says that AT&T will not have 3G across its entire network by the end of 2008. So that means many people will still be riding on EDGE in 2009!

But at least around my area I've seen new panels here and there so I guess those are the 3G antennas being installed. Hopefully it will be here by Christmas.

Yeah...I like how they are saying that they are BOOSTING their 3G speeds. How about just getting 3G here first? I am just southwest of Joliet, where the "blue" 3G shade on the coverage map ends. I may not have 3G here either past 2008! Very disappointing, with this being the Chicago market and all....it's not like this is the middle of nowhere.

[josephd]

And still no 3G west of Boston.

[R11290]

No 3G here in Shreveport, LA either. Many of my friends/family have 3G capable phones but still have to settle with EDGE speeds.

I think it'd be great for them if they upgraded here ever.

[Andy]

Although we have 3g here, AT&T has the smallest 3g footprint out of the national carriers here. Both Verizon and Sprint have larger 3g footprints by far.

[clock3687]

Originally Posted by josephd

And still no 3G west of Boston.

Joe, I remember seeing press release earlier about AT&T turning on 3G in Springfield and Worcester later on this year.

[josephd]

Originally Posted by clock3687

Joe, I remember seeing press release earlier about AT&T turning on 3G in Springfield and Worcester later on this year.

I never saw that but that is good to know, thanks clock.

[bobolito]

Originally Posted by Shizam76

Yeah...I like how they are saying that they are BOOSTING their 3G speeds. How about just getting 3G here first?....

If they do that first, then they'll have more areas to upgrade and it will take longer to do the upgrade. LOL!

I wonder if those areas that have fallen behind will go from EDGE to HSUPA in one shot.

[Shizam76]

Originally Posted by bobolito

I wonder if those areas that have fallen behind will go from EDGE to HSUPA in one shot.

I hope so! Why make double work and double back to do another upgrade.

I wonder how battery life in these devices will be?

[bobolito]

To handle more bandwidth you need a faster processor, so they'll use more battery. But let's not forget that the devices that will really find that kind of speed useful will be PDAs and Data Cards. A regular phone will probably just settle with HSDPA 1.8 to make it more battery efficient. Even if the network has HSUPA running it will still be backwards compatible with all previous iterations of WCDMA (UMTS, HSDPA 1.8, and HSDPA 3.6)

[Mobile Mike]

OK, so AT&T now upgrading to HSUPA, to go along with their HSPDA, W-CDMA, UMTS, EDGE, GSM, GPRS, TDMA, HDTV, ABC, CBS, NBC, LOL, AFAIK, LMAO, and whatever else they use...

Geez, I can't keep up with all their upgrades.

[Shizam76]

Originally Posted by Mobile Mike

OK, so AT&T now upgrading to HSUPA, to go along with their HSPDA, W-CDMA, UMTS, EDGE, GSM, GPRS, TDMA, HDTV, ABC, CBS, NBC, LOL, AFAIK, LMAO, and whatever else they use...

Geez, I can't keep up with all their upgrades.

Mike...don't forget the new WPOTS technology. Stands for Wireless Plain Old Telephone Service. No more inside wiring. Just buy a compatible WPOTS cordless phone...or old style corded phone.....and set somewhere in your house. It will connect wirelessly to the wiring and switches outside your house! That's right...no more hardwires...and no more use of the term "landline"

[Mobile Mike]

Originally Posted by Shizam76

Mike...don't forget the new WPOTS technology. Stands for Wireless Plain Old Telephone Service. No more inside wiring. Just buy a compatible WPOTS cordless phone...or old style corded phone.....and set somewhere in your house. It will connect wirelessly to the wiring and switches outside your house! That's right...no more hardwires...and no more use of the term "landline"

OH NO, not another technology!!! I feel faint...

[RadioRaiders]

Originally Posted by Mobile Mike

OK, so AT&T now upgrading to HSUPA, to go along with their HSPDA, W-CDMA, UMTS, EDGE, GSM, GPRS, TDMA, HDTV, ABC, CBS, NBC, LOL, AFAIK, LMAO, and whatever else they use...

Geez, I can't keep up with all their upgrades.

Yea, alot of the telecom acronyms get confusing . The military is just as bad. When I was in the Air Force there was a new pilot who reported a defective switch to the repair crew. He said the dial wasn't functioning in the "O-F-F" mode. The tech had to explain to him that OFF wasn't an acronym, that it actually meant "off"

Originally Posted by clock3687

Burns said the upgrade to AT&T's high-speed network would increase upload speeds to a range of 500 to 800 kilobits per second (kbps), from its current speed of about 120 kbps.

HSUPA is also necessary to acheive higher bit rates in the down-link, since the up-link needs to be a minimum 10% of the down-link in order to send acknowledgements back to the network. For example, if AT&T has only 128kbps currently for up-link, then the max down-link you can get would be 1.28Mbps. Without HSUPA, the most you can get from a standard UMTS up-link is 384kbps, so then that would limit the max down-link speed you can get with HSDPA to 3.84Mbps.

When they impliment HSUPA together with HSDPA, then you can just call it HSPA, so that makes things a little easier