AT&T 4G

[Tom S.]

Don't forget that if AT&T gets to purchase T-Mobile that will really help their network expansion.

 

[bgapfire]

HSPA+ is AT&Ts transition to 4G. AT&T got some organization to claim its real 4G, but it's semantics. LTE is true 4G. It is the future. Funny how the reps said the SGSII was not 4G, over here they will claim up and down it is. HSPA+21 is more like 3.5G. SGSII is not LTE because of the lack of radios but will work in Houston with HSPA+. Almost all of the nation has it now. It's a great fallback from LTE once it comes to more areas.
I would not hold my breath expecting an LTE Samsung Galaxy S II here in the US. The Samsung Galaxy S III will probably have it. AT&T's LTE is at its infancy. It will take a couple more years before we see LTE all over the nation. Verizon has a great start but areas they don't have LTE the switchover is slow.

AT&T did not get any organization to claim their HSPA+ is 4G. Please provide people with accurate information. Tmobile was calling their HSPA+ 4g long before AT&T. If anything, AT&T jumped on the marketing ploy to prevent from falling too far behind the 4g marketing of HSPA+. As with any carrier or phone, your region will dictate your speeds, call quality, and drops.

 

[unkandroid]

I guess I'm still confused about why they aren't selling G2 in Houston and the other LTE cities. Lots of people would buy them, many lost sales for sure. They still work in those cities right?

LTE is here, but 99.99% of the phones that are out, or being sold at the moment, aren't LTE anyway.

Makes no sense to me. Unless an LTE variant is coming, but that's pretty much ruled out. Or they just don't want to sell too many G2's for some other reason. (low profit, Apple, who knows)

Guess I'll order one on-line.

 

[derande]

Guess I'll order one on-line.

my wife thinks i'm crazy but i've always ordered my new devices online. she can't believe that i would order something without physically getting to handle it first but i've done all my homework and know what i want. plus, i don't have to deal with lines and salespeople

 

[aggie]

AT&T is now calling 4G LTE, especially in Texas as you can see the new billboards everywhere touting 4G LTE. Previously they were calling HSPA+ 4G. Those were the Atrix, Inspire, Infuse and SGSII and other phones which can get pretty good speeds if you are in an enhanced backhaul area. I average about 6-7 down and 1 up in DFW on my Atrix and SGSII.

AT&T has very limited rollout for LTE right now. Three of the five markets are in Texas. DFW, Houston and San Antonio. They have no phones available but the HTC Holiday is rumored to be coming. I have a buddy that work for AT&T and he has it for his laptop computer and the speeds are screaming! 22-25 mbps down or as fast as home internet.

Not sure how they will price it for phone. I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be NO unlimited data plans for LTE, even for grandfathered unlimited plans, so I will stick with faux 4G or HSPA+. I think they will make you agree to give up unlimited data to get LTE since it is a different network.

i wouldn't be surprised if they followed verizon's lead, at least initally. I've had unlimited data with verizon for a year and when i upgraded to an LTE device they allowed me to keep unlimited data and they are still doing that for customers that previously had unlimited. There would probably be more incentive for AT&T to grandfather users that already subscribe to unlimited 3g or "faux g" plans as AT&T's HSPA+ network is already a very good option for data and there wouldn't be a whole lot of incentive for people to upgrade to an LTE device other than those of us who are on these forums that want the latest and greatest. The average consumer likely doesn't even know what the heck LTE is and would probably opt not to upgrade and lose unlimited data just to upgrade to LTE which the main benefit would be a nice speed bump over an already fairly speedy hspa+ network. Being with Verizon I saw an upgrade to LTE as a necessity. 3g speeds of 700 kbps to 1.5 mbps on the downlink are so 2007 and the inability to have simultaneous voice and data was frustrating. LTE adds alot more for verizon as their 3g network was junk even though it had good coverage and it didn't allow simultaneous voice/data.

With that being said, unless the Nexus Prime just blows me away or if it gets delayed forever like Verizon does with most of their phones, I could be going back to AT&T for a GS2 as HSPA+ is perfectly fine with me and I don't see myself going over the 4gb that the data pro plan offers. LTE technology is still in its infancy and as much as I love the blazing speeds the 1st gen LTE radios have issues holding a data connection even in strong coverage areas and have issues with LTE to 3g handoffs. There are many times I'm stuck with no data signal at all and have to toggle airplane mode on/off to get the device to communicate with the network again and that's in the heart of DFW. Most importantly, battery optimization is horrible and probably won't be where it needs to be for another year at least. Battery life with android can already be poor enough, if you are a heavy user your battery can go in a couple hours.

 

[iskor12]

HSPA+ is AT&Ts transition to 4G. AT&T got some organization to claim its real 4G, but it's semantics. LTE is true 4G. It is the future. Funny how the reps said the SGSII was not 4G, over here they will claim up and down it is. HSPA+21 is more like 3.5G. SGSII is not LTE because of the lack of radios but will work in Houston with HSPA+. Almost all of the nation has it now. It's a great fallback from LTE once it comes to more areas.

I would not hold my breath expecting an LTE Samsung Galaxy S II here in the US. The Samsung Galaxy S III will probably have it. AT&T's LTE is at its infancy. It will take a couple more years before we see LTE all over the nation. Verizon has a great start but areas they don't have LTE the switchover is slow.

Not entirely true. If you call and ask AT&T if Hspa+ was 4g they will say no. From the very beginning their plans where to upgrade their 3g to Hspa+ before adding LTE for the simple fact that they want to have a fast network for you to fall back on if you lose signal.

From AT&T's site...
AT&T's 4G LTE network is now live in five markets: Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
AT&T is planning to invest in the $20-billion range this year in its wireless and wireline networks.
AT&T plans to launch 4G LTE in 15 or more markets by the end of the year, and plans to reach approximately 70 million Americans with its 4G LTE network by the end of the year.