AT&T is making good on its promise to bring its high-speed, long-term evolution data network online this summer. After months of testing, the 4G system is open for business as of Sunday.
The first five cities that may use the network are Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas.
The network will at first be open only for computer users: AT&T sells an LTE tablet, HTC's 10.1-inch Jetstream, two data sticks for laptops, and a mobile hotspot, the Elevate 4G. Smartphones equipped for the new network may emerge during the holiday season or at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
70 Million By 2012
The LTE date was first announced by AT&T Chief Financial Officer John Stephens at a Merrill Lynch conference earlier in the week.
AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said the carrier expected to add LTE to an additional 10 markets by year's end for a footprint that would include 70 million people. He declined to say when smartphones for the network would be available, saying it was "to be determined."
Boy Genius Report last week featured photos of an unannounced phone, the HTC Holiday, which it said could be AT&T's first LTE smartphone. The Android 2.3.4 handset has a 4.5-inch screen and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor.
The announcement comes as rival Verizon Wireless announced Wednesday that its LTE network, launched in December, would open in 26 new markets, and expand in three cities that already had LTE, just as its LTE-equipped Droid Bionic hit the shelves.
Siegel said that while LTE speeds will vary, on average AT&T users should see five to 12 megabits per second for downloads and two to five Mbps for uploads, the same promise made by Verizon for its LTE network, which debuted at the end of last year.
In addition to a handful of laptops, hotspots and modems, Verizon now has four LTE smartphones for sale: HTC's Thunderbolt, Samsung's Droid Charge, Motorola's Droid Bionic and LG's Revolution.
Siegel said AT&T's qualitative edge was that it had a high-speed data network backing up its LTE system.
"One of the big advantages is that when you, for example, go out of an [LTE] area you will fall back to HSPA+, which is also 4G technology, and is much faster than Verizon's 3G EVDO, which is what their customers fall back to," said the spokesman. "The experience of our users will be more seamless."
Wireless analyst Ramon Llamas said AT&T would do well to follow Verizon's example of slowly rolling out LTE devices rather than rush to play catch-up.
Easy Does It
"They would be better served to take their time and not make mistakes," Llamas said. "It's easier to do that one device at a time. Just because Verizon clearly has a sizable lead and experience -- over the next couple of quarters that could disappear."
With the next iPhone in the wings for both AT&T and Verizon, Llamas said it's unlikely Apple will make the device LTE-ready because of the overseas implications.
"Beyond the U.S., where in the world is someone else deploying LTE?" he asked.
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