AT&T likely skipping 14.4Mbps, moving straight to HSPA+

by Chris Ziegler posted Apr 20th 2009 at 12:21PM

While it puts the finishing touches on its nascent 7.2Mbps upgrades and starts certifying devices to use it, AT&T has revealed a juicy tidbit: that's probably the end of the line for old-guard HSPA on the country's largest GSM network. Before LTE, though, AT&T plans on upgrading to HSPA+ which should bring 21Mbps speeds out of the gate; straight-up HSPA is theoretically capable of moving to 14.4Mbps, but AT&T says that it's had technical difficulties in maxing it out and HSPA+ equipment is now ready for implementation anyhow. Simultaneously, the company says it's adding additional carriers at cells on a case-by-case basis to help with white-hot demand and is upgrading its backhaul network to handle the blazing speeds promised by the newer standards. We'll see.

[Via Phone Scoop]

Filed under: ATT, HSDPA, HSUPA

Tags: 14.4mbps, att, hspa evoliton, hspa evolved, hspa plus, HspaEvoliton, HspaEvolved, HspaPlus

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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Cheese Rations @ Apr 20th 2009 12:31PM

Video streaming/uploading on an iPhone 3g+ (next generation), maybe?

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xxavengedxsevenfold13xx @ Apr 20th 2009 6:15PM

Was thinking the exact same thing....
This looks not only like video streaming, but possibly HD Streaming... (iPhone HD?)

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Chris @ Apr 21st 2009 12:06PM

Hulu is due out soon, that should solve your needs for video. HD doesnt make sense (iphone screen isnt HD) lol

I hope I hope I hope, AT&T uses some realistic numbers when talking about actual speed ranges. Im hoping for 1mbps.

(This article does not mean youll actually be able to DL at 21mbps!)

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Scott @ Apr 20th 2009 1:21PM

I say "BRING IT ON!" I'm already getting fast 3G speeds here in Az. But 7.2Mbps will be nice ;) And HSPA+ sure will hit the spot while the others are trying to bring LTE.

Highest Ranked

Anon @ Apr 20th 2009 2:15PM

Carriers should be focusing more on coverage and improving real world speeds rather than upgrading to higher theoretical limits. Considering many home cable and DSL connections max out at 5 Mbps, do we really need to go that much faster now? What good is a 7.2 Mbps service when real world speeds only see me get 300 kbps or no coverage at all? Get back to me when real world speeds reach 5 Mbps over HSPA.

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zephxiii @ Apr 21st 2009 9:08AM

since 7.2mbit is shared by all users on teh channel..that pretty much does increase real world speeds.........I mean honestly, how do you come up with the idea that boosting theoretical max speeds would have zero effect on average speeds?

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reuthermonkey1 @ Apr 21st 2009 9:45AM

@zephxiii - because the HSPA upgrades don't mean crap when they've got a T1 backhaul still. 7.2mbps HSPA hardware is nothing more than expensive marketing hype when 1.5mbps is as fast as you can get on the T1 that ATT seems to have little desire in upgrading.

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