After waiting the last 9 months for something to happen with 4G LTE networks and reading plenty of news from AT&T about the network, the company announced that it will be “flipping the switch” for 4G LTE this Sunday. This will be happy news for those that have been sitting around with their 4G LTE supported phones just waiting for that beautiful signal to turn on. Initial reports were that AT&T would get the network going within a couple of months from the end of this year. According to those reports, it appears that AT&T will be ahead of schedule with Sunday’s launch.
The network will be available in 5 major markets that include Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, according to information provided by Fierce Wireless. Those five markets should be able to get the 4G LTE to an estimated 70 million smartphone users. AT&T has reported that they plan to have the network on and running in 15 major markets by the end of this year. AT&T is a bit new to the LTE networks, but has been marketing its way into the 4G territory recently. The company’s HSPA+ network reports faster speeds than 3G and some said that was AT&T’s way of getting into the 4G business. The International Telecommunication Union has been trying to decide what is 4G and what is not 4G, so until then the HSPA+ network is considered faster than 3G, but not true 4G LTE.
Other companies like Verizon have already launched their 4G networks and if AT&T wants to convert their HSPA+ to 4G, they might have some long roads ahead of them. Verizon came out of the gates running with their 4G LTE launch and since last December has grown the network to over half of the available markets throughout the United States. One of the only ways that AT&T can gain in the amount of available spectrum is with the merger to T-Mobile, which hasn’t been approved by the FCC or DOJ. Last month AT&T released two smartphones and wireless cards that support the 4G LTE network. The wireless cards would be available for $50 a month and that includes 5GB of data.
At this point the four major carriers are marketing their data services as 4G. The competition for nationwide 4G LTE is increasing as consumers itch for faster data speeds to their smartphones.
