AT&T today announced that, in the next month, the company will deploy High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) technology in the six remaining markets across AT&T's entire 3G wireless broadband network. When done, AT&T will have completed its deployment of HSUPA technology, which complements existing HSDPA technology, making AT&T the only U.S. carrier to have fully deployed HSPA technology in its 3G network. Today the turbo-3G AT&T network is available in more than 275 markets, but another 75 markets will get such coverage by the end of the year.
With the new addition of HSUPA technology, AT&T 3G users are promised upload speeds between 500 and 800 Kbps, complementing the maximum 1.4 Mbps download speeds. However, while a couple of HSUPA data cards have already been added to AT&T's portfolio, the HSUPA multimedia smartphones are still missing.
The grin on Steve Jobs' face during his upcoming keynote on June 9th, if he pulls AT&T's and America's first HSUPA multimedia smartphone out of his pocket, will probably make all of us think how simple that must have been to come up with. However, even giants like Nokia had their initial struggle with implementing HSPA technology, so has Apple moved from EDGE to HSPA in less than a year, it's quite an accomplishment.
Too good to be true some may say, and we honestly have no proof of what exactly the Apple 3G iPhone will and will not offer. The only thing we do know, is that the Apple 3G iPhone will likely be announced on the 9th and released by AT&T on the 18th or 19th of June 2008, perhaps to coincide with a real "AT&T HSPA party". Because, AT&T has yet to make a big mainstream deal out of its latest network upgrade.
The carrier simply admits that equally as important as the network is the device through with a customer experiences it; thus more 3G-enabled smartphones will be released in the summer and fall of 2008. So, what AT&T is really saying without actually saying it, is that they are waiting for Apple, HTC and perhaps Sony Ericsson to start shipping their HSUPA smartphones, and then first, the real action begins. We agree with AT&T; the carrier would get some serious action on its network by being host to the Apple 3G iPhone, HTC Diamond and Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 when the holiday season arrives.
Between 2005 and 2008, AT&T will have invested more than $20 billion in network improvements and upgrades - an average of $5 billion a year. AT&T recently turned down its older TDMA network, and that will allow the company to reuse valuable 850 MHz spectrum to expand and enhance 3G markets. AT&T plans to adopt LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology to reach even higher speeds in the long term. But before we start wishing for a LTE iPhone, let's get this 3G iPhone launch over with.
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