AT&T's 2008 plans include 80 new cities with 3G, HSUPA network
By Paul Miller 
posted Feb 6th 2008 11:26AM
posted Feb 6th 2008 11:26AM
Kind of makes those New Years resolutions of yours seem a bit silly now, but AT&T has some high hopes for 2008. While it mulls its own 700MHz options and leaves the C block to the likes of Verizon, the company plans to build out its 3G network into 80 more cities, which boosts the number to 350 "leading" markets in the US, a rollout AT&T has been sluggish to compete with Verizon and Sprint on. AT&T also pledges to complete its HSUPA network by the middle of the year for speedier uploads. AT&T's not giving many specifics on its future network plans, just that existing infrastructure improvements pave the way for HSPA+ and LTE in the "years to come." Let's hope those years come fast, these HD downloads we keep hearing about are liable to set a few cell towers on fire by year's end.
Yes, but what 80 cities. Are we talking suburban markets of current 3G areas or 80 NEW metro areas. We are still waiting in our market for AT&T 3G and Sprint and Verizon has had it here for years. Madison, WI that is.
Wow the first comment is another person in Madison WI other than me who is pissed off that AT&T still haven't rolled out UMTS in the area. Come on AT&T let's go!!!
Come on Charleston, West Virginia!!!
Not in Madison, but I totally agree. I'm in Central CA, right between Fresno and Bakersfield. Two towns that currently have 3G. Verizon has us covered. AT&T does not. This will likely weigh heavy when it comes time to make a decision for my new phone and contract. Anyone know where to find a list of the 80 new cities?
Tell me about it. I'm currently living in the 60th largest metro area in the US (Omaha-Council Bluffs) and so far there hasn't been any talk that I'm aware of concerning the rollout of 3G here. We have a lot of high profile companies operating here (Berkshire Hathaway, Union Pacific, Google, Northern Natural Gas, Paypal, and on and on and on) and yet we're treated like a backwater town.
I'm next door to you in DSM (des moines) for school and I WISH we had 3G here. We had it where I did my undergrad (Milwaukee) and back home in VA (Norfolk/Newport News) but nothing here in DSM.
Now if only my damned iPhone was capable of using said 3G........
I am still surprised how far behind AT&T is in 3G coverage. A few months ago I was passing through Winslow Arizona in the middle of nowhere on 1-40 in northern part of the state (population is roughly 9,000 people) and my enV showed full EV-DO bars!!
Kudos to VZW for actually hooking up sub 10k population towns with EV-DO, I thought that was awesome.
I used to live all around northern Arizona in towns like Dewey, Prescott Valley, Prescott, Cottonwood, Sedona, etc etc etc... all covered by VZW EV-DO. It's pretty great if you ask me. But I have T-Mobile now. 3G is basically a myth for me now.
I live across street from Disneyland and Convention Center inAnaheim, CA and no 3G here. What gives?
Here in Oregon the capital Salem has had 3g coverage for less then a year with ATT. Verizon though has hadd for a few years.
ATT, get on the ball and atleast try and keep up. It's embarrassing.
It had 3G there when I was there a few days ago, but I get you. I'm only a few miles away from my local at&t store that has 3G, but I don't get it. At least it's up to 4 bars GSM instead of the 1-2 for the last few years.
really you dont have 3G in Anahiem?? I live like 5 miles away and have full 3G bars.
Its quite embarrassing actually. I live in Wichita, KS, yeah, Kansas, but its the largest city in the state. 50th biggest city in the country, around 600,000 people live here, yet AT&T has yet to give us a 3G network. Verizon has one here, and Sprint has one here, since they kinda are down the street in relative terms, Overland Park, KS. Lol
AT&T has a very small number of users here, I guess that could be the reason, but had it not been for the iPhone, I would have left to another carrier long ago. I mean, 3G is already on its way out as an old technology, and AT&T is just now getting on to it. Sad.
well the current reason for the lack of 3G in so many errors is due to the AT&T wireless and Cingular wireless merger and still changing over the differing bands of GSM the limited and failed project of UMTS from AT&T wireless over to one standard. Ironic this is still going on after the name has almost changed back. That puts the company about 3 years behind, basically starting from nowhere. But the build out is going to were the majority of users are at the time, so not all major areas in general have it.
Not really. The merger of the old ATTWS and Cingular was completed long ago. You're also wrong that they had to change bands. The only band GSM uses in the US are the 850 and 1900 bands, which both companies used. It was a matter of getting all the towers and account systems merged into one. ATTWS didn't really push hard with the UMTS because before they were bought by Cingular, NTT DoCoMo was the majority shareholder, and ATTWS became to go down the hole revenue wise so NTT dumped the UMTS project, and wrote them off, eventually to be bought by Cingular. The real reason they are slow on the rollout is, like Fadi Alsaid said, the incompatibility with the TDMA air interface used with GSM, and the WCDMA air interface used with UMTS and HSPA.
See what a little research does? :P
the reason why att is behinde sprint and verizon on 3G deployment is the technology it self. for verizon ad sprint its just an upgrade to an existing technology, but for att it is a whole new technology that they have to bulid. its more expensive and more time consuming. on the bright side, when its time to go 4G or LTE, att will do just an upgrade to HSPA and verizon have to bulid out the LTE network. makeing att faster in deployment. on the other hand sprint will deploy WIMAX...wait...maybe not..wait maybe they will....who knows what sprint will rol out for 4G. i am staying with att 3G network for now because the idea of having voice and data seperated is just what i need. sorry for spelling errors.
June 15th 2008, we just got confrimation West Virginia will have 3G , If you have any questions email me
ts5684.att@gmail.com
Any chance the stretch of area north of Jamboree on the 261 in Irvine can get better 3G coverage? It's ridiculous that it doesn't when it's only a couple miles from the at&t store. It's even more ridiculous that I can get 3G in the remote mountainous areas in Hokkaido, Japan than in third-world USA.
I was very pleased to find that the entire I-95 corridor from West Palm Beach to Ft. Pierce in Florida was blanketed with 3G. Never went below 4 bars.
Just because there is a store doesn't mean it will have the best coverage. When i worked in my Verizon store, 5 miles down was an Cingular store and they had half coverage at best, obviously no 3g. So they had alot of sales on phones like free black jacks after rebate for new lines and then stall the customer pass the 30 return mark if they wanted to return them.
I love retail :)
Full bars for Edge. ZERO bars for 3G at Harbor/Katella, Harbor/Orangewood, and West/. The Hotels probably have something to do with it.
Helio still has the biggest 3G network around utilizing Sprints all digital network. Their handsets are also designed for 3G service so you can take full advantage of the 3g capabilities. What good is 3G if you don't have the 3G services?
www.heliopromo.com
For what it's worth, today, 3/22 I had a few hours of 3G coverage on the west side of Madison, WI. Hopefully this means that it will be rolled out soon...
Me, too. I live on the west side of Madison, WI...and currently have 3G coverage. I noticed the change only today, though. Hopefully this means good things to come for us.
east side of madison... and it works great. they finally have it rolled out and it's here to stay.
The great thing about hanging out to At&t is soley because once their 3G does come out 4G will only be a software upgrade essentially. nokia's line of flexi radios are LTE capable with only a upgrade and with At&t being a big fan of nokia equipment it will be nice. so not only is at&t's 3g going to kick the crap out of verizon and sprint but they will be first in line for 4G also