AT&T Announces Summer LTE Rollout Plans
AT&T’s network is about to get a big boost when the carrier commences their 4G LTE rollout this summer. Plans were first announced last fall, but since then details of when and where we would see AT&T’s next-gen network cropping up have remained scant. Today the carrier revealed the first five cities to get blanketed in LTE, and committed to pushing the wireless standard to at least 10 more cities by the end of the year.
It all starts with Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, and San Antonio, which doesn’t exactly create the most wide-reaching coverage area. AT&T plans to have 70 million Americans within their LTE network before next year and will bring 20 new 4G devices to service them. Many of those devices will be HSPA+ only, but at least some will be LTE-ready. Full press statement below.
AT&T’s 4G Evolution
Dallas, Texas, May 25, 2011
By John Donovan, AT&T Chief Technology Officer
AT&T has delivered five mobile broadband speed upgrades in recent years, including our HSPA+ deployment last year. And average nationwide speeds on the AT&T network have increased – more than 40 percent over the past two years alone.
The next network evolution will arrive this summer with the addition of LTE in five markets – Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio. We plan to add another 10 or more markets in the second half of the year, and cover 70 million Americans with LTE by year-end. We also have plans to add 20 4G devices to our robust device portfolio this year, with some of those being LTE capable.
We’re positioning to deliver a great mobile broadband experience in the near term with HSPA+ and a growing LTE footprint.
We’ve invested $75 billion in our wireless and wired networks over the last four years – more capital invested in the U.S. than any company in any industry. And we plan to invest $19 billion in our wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects this year. The investments we’ve made to evolve our mobile broadband network in recent years, plus what we have planned for the future, put our customers in position to benefit fully from a host of coming mobile broadband innovations.