AT&T HSPA+ Network Upgrade 80% Complete USB Modem Shockwave

Eighty percent of AT&T's mobile network has been upgraded to HSPA+, which will offer two or two-and-a-half times the performance of HSPA 7.2, AT&T's current top-end cellular technology, Donovan said Tuesday. The carrier recently introduced USB modems that can use HSPA+ as well as LTE. It is also upgrading the backhaul from its cell sites to Ethernet on fiber links. Part of what is driving data growth is the growing popularity of "integrated devices," which AT&T defines as handsets with QWERTY keyboards and voice capability, typically smartphones. Today, 57 percent of AT&T's postpaid subscribers have integrated devices, up from 23.3 percent in 2008. AT&T is working on making it easier for small software houses to deal with a large carrier, avoiding delays that come from being referred back and forth among different groups, Donovan said. The aim is to help get applications onto AT&T's network in one-third the time, or quickly turn down those it's not interested in, he said. "We're trying to de-clutter our organization," he said. AT&T has invested "tens of millions of dollars" in the effort, he said. The AT&T Shockwave, an HSPA+ USB modem, is capable of running on the network, but AT&T doesn’t offer any HSPA+ capable handsets yet. AT&T has come under much criticism over the past few years for not keeping up with the demand for data capacity from the popular iPhone and other mobile devices. The carrier continues to upgrade its network to meet that demand, deploying HSPA+ this year and planning a LTE (Long-Term Evolution) rollout next year.

The carrier has established innovation centers in Palo Alto, California, Plano, Texas, and near Tel Aviv, Israel to work more closely with software creators, he said. The carrier wants to talk to 400 developers per year; it has met with 150 so far this year and expects to talk with 100 more this quarter. Also, T-Mobile plans to cover 100 markets and 200 million POPs with HSPA+ by year-end. AT&T, for its part, expects to cover 250 million POPs with HSPA+ by year-end. Further, AT&T plans to launch LTE service by the middle of next year and cover 70-75 million POPs with LTE by the end of 2011.

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