AT&T plans to double 3G capacity this year

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AT&T plans to double 3G capacity this year

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 21 April, 2009

READ MORE: AT&T

The past year has not been kind to the reputation of AT&T's network, with persistent problems affecting high profile handsets like the iPhone and BlackBerry Bold, and with the attention firmly on Verizon's LTE plans. But the operator plans to double its 3G capacity in the near term by following many of its European counterparts in implementing the 7.2Mbps upgrade to HSPA.

AT&T will also implement 21Mbps HSPA+, and the MIMO-enhanced HSPA+ - which can achieve 28Mbps download peak speeds and even more - before moving eventually to LTE. Many European majors also plan to go through at least two more HSPA iterations before rolling out a whole new network on a wide scale, and some are already trialling HSPA+ at 28.8Mbps. AT&T is not expected to have LTE in place on any scale until 2011.

Currently, AT&T has 7.2Mbps HSDPA running in just two test markets but will roll it out across its whole 3G system this year and start HSPA+ testing later in 2009, Scott McElroy, VP of technology realization, told Telephony Online. The main challenge for the new network speed is to certify all the devices, though most of the laptop cards available on the AT&T network already support 7.2Mbps. McElroy says the operator is likely to skip the 14.4Mbps HSDPA stage and go straight to HSPA+. At the MIMO stage, changes to the tower and core are required to support new antennas and flat IP structures, while the current update is software-only in the baseband.

AT&T is adding second or even third HSPA carriers in some cell sites on a market-by-market basis, and is in the early stages of an 850MHz overlay, for better rural coverage and in-building penetration, two key weaknesses of its current implementation. The upgraded network should provide more reliable support for high end users and help enable AT&T's strategy of moving towards a host of new devices, going beyond the handset.

McElroy said AT&T is now in the process of selecting vendors for LTE and plans to have its first test markets live in 2010 and go commercial in 2011, focusing initially on data services in laptops and MIDs. He seems to see handsets and VoIP voice services as a longer term option.