AT&T Set to Launch LTE This Summer

Looks like AT&T will be "keeping up with the Jones's...er...Verizon" and launch their LTE network this summer. Altho, it looks like they may have marketing problems since they already branded their 3G network as 4G, ha-ha. Looks like their marketing guys kind of dug a hole for themselves there, ha-ha ...as a technical guy, I have to point out that HSPA+ is 3.75G and LTE is 3.9G. There are no LTE Advanced networks live right now, and that's what would be technically speaking "real 4G" according to the ITU (the standards group who decides this).

AT&T's new 4G network will launch soon in 5 cities - May. 25, 2011

 

Since AT&T's HSPA+ can deliver speeds comparible to VZW's LTE, they don't really need to build their LTE network as fast as VZW does. VZW needs to build out LTE quick, because their (*ahem*) "3G" EVDO is really only 2G and limited to 3Mbps. Which they somehow get away with calling a "3G" network (again, marketing guys selling/branding a 2G network as 3G)

LTE Advanced is official 4G, or basically a network using OFDM and delivering +100Mbps. This will be in the next 3GPP release, that's coming out this month, so basically nobody has a "real" 4G network at the moment.

Have a look at how many of AT&T's phones have "4G*" next to it. That would lead you to believe they have a 4G network to support it, right?
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/index.jsp
But if you look at the asterisk, it says:

So when they sell LTE phones as "4G", how is the average consumer going to know? Are they going to put a new asterisk next to it and say "**Ok, not this is actually a real 4G device, and not the 3.75G devices we were selling you before labeled as 4G"

 

Thanks for the explanation Bob. I'm not in the US and not exposed to the marketing, except what I see in news articles and maybe a random banner ad on a website. I've just seen AT&T and T-Mob USA selling HSPA as "4G" which is just as bad as VZW saying EVDO is "3G". Kind of interesting that they will be "tagging on" LTE to the 4G acronym, never saw that one before. But since 3.75G was wrongly being sold as "4G", I guess they do need some way to differentiate.

...and when their current 3.9G "LTE" network gets upgraded to the actual ITU approved 4G of "LTE Advanced", then what? :headscrat

Technology -- Technical Label -- Marketing Label
HSPA+ ------------- 3.75G --------------- 4G
LTE ----------------- 3.9G ----------------- 4G LTE
LTE Advanced ----- 4G ------------------ 4G LTE (This time we really mean it)
.
...I wish marketing would just listen to the engineering department for once. Then everything would be sold correctly and with less confusion. The problem is marketing wants to sell now and doesn't think ahead really. Like the used car salesmen who just wants the car with the leaky engine off the lot, so he wipes the oil off and says it's in perfect order, not really caring/considering whats going to happen tomorrow whent he customer finds a pool of oil in his driveway. Engineering department is more like the mechanic who tells you streight-up what condition the car is in

 

Is this the press announcement you are referring to?
Newsroom • Press Release
There they say that LTE Advanced and mobile WiMAX/802.16m (referred to as "WirelessMAN Advanced) will be "true 4G".
Here 3GPP says LTE Advanced will be starting with their R10:
3GPP - LTE-Advanced
Here's their roadmap, R10 is finalized in March 2011 and commercial 3 months later. That means before June 2011 nobody is running "true 4G" in a live network.
3GPP - Releases

AT&T is behind on LTE because it's not as critical to them, since their 3.75G HSPA+ networks can be milked a while longer. As an example, Verizon is limiting LET customers in most places to 12Mbps right now due to backhaul issues.

https://www.lte.vzw.com/AboutLTE/VerizonWirelessLTENetwork/tabid/6003/Default.aspx

There's people on T-Mobiles HSPA+ (3.75G) network are getting data rates of 21Mbps.
4G Mobile Broadband Provider | T-Mobile

 

That's a pretty strange press release, because they define 4G: "IMT-Advanced (ie: LTE Advanced) is considered as “4G”. The next sentence is strange: "although it is recognized that this term, while undefined, may also be applied to the forerunners of these technologies". How can 4G be "undefined", when they just defined it a few words before as "IMT-Advanced"? To me, it says that they recognize some operators are mis-using the 4G label by applying it to 3G networks.

As for backhaul, that's pretty much a major limiting factor in almost all networks right now. The air-interface of HSPA+ is reaching 21Mbps and will go up to 100Mbps in the next few years. LTE currently is reaching up to around 100Mbps on the air interface. The problem is most sites have PDH (E1/T1) backhaul that isn't matching those speeds. Alot of carriers are rushing to deploy fiber connections to their sites, but that takes a while. Sure, there's people getting 80Mbps on VZW's network right now in some places, and that's great, but it's not a speed you'll reach contiguously throughout the network, so they can't market those speeds, because the majority of subscribers won't be reaching that.

 

Yea, I'm pretty sure it was pressure from some US operators that made the ITU cave in and let HSPA be tagged "4G". Same with them allowing EVDO to be tagged "3G", IIRC, 3G was originally required to support simultaneous voice+data, something that EVDO doesn't support ....well, ok, in the last year there are now CDMA/EVDO phones with dual radios, but anyway, nobody cares now.

And now that I think about it, I don't see any other country in the world, besides US operators, labeling HSPA as "4G". Of course LTE is branded as 4G everywhere, even tho it's not LTE Adavanced yet, but it will be in the coming years, so that's not too big of a marketing lie.

 

"Generational leaps in user experiences" can still happen within a standard. For example, EDGE pumped up the data rates on 2G GSM, so EDGE was (unofficially) called 2.5G. Same with HSPA, it's still happening within the 3G UMTS system, but significantly bumped up data speeds, and was (again unofficially) called 3.5G. As it pumped it up even further with MIMO it was called 3.75G. From an end-user perspective, it makes sense. But still the "base" technology was respected. If you call HSPA+ "4G", you're disrespecting the 3G UMTS base standard and insinuating it's an all new system, which it isn't. That's the same reason I don't agree with calling EVDO 3G, because it's a "bolt-on" to the 2G CDMA system. LTE is an all-new system and can/should be called 4G.

Globally speaking, Canada is basically the US, but with better hockey and beer...and a twist of socialism