AT&T Says 7.2Mbps Wireless Coming This Year

CWmike writes "AT&T will upgrade to High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 wireless networking technology later this year, offering faster (up to 7.2 Mbit/sec.) network speeds to new compatible laptop cards and smartphones due to be released at the same time, the company said today. Current HSPA download speeds can theoretically reach 3.6 MBit/sec, according to AT&T executives who commented on the planned upgrade in April. AT&T did not comment on which laptop cards and smartphones will be compatible with HSPA 7.2 other than to say it will introduce 'multiple' devices later this year. Could this be one of the big iPhone announcements to come from WWDC?"

Comments

Re:Wireless

[0100010001010011]

Haha. This is AT&T. You'll be limited to 3GB a month. 7.2 is burst not sustained. And if your neighbor thinks like you do, you'll both be using the same tower. Somehow I doubt AT&T is going to run fiber to each tower to support a large number of users.

Theoretically...

[againjj]

Current HSPA download speeds can theoretically reach 3.6 MBit/sec,

There is no difference between theory and practice in theory, but there is in practice.

$$$ per 'tube'

[Locutus]

sure, they'll let you use port 80, 8080, and maybe even 443 but what cost is the freedom to use the bandwidth for what _you_ want to use it for? Didn't I see where T-Mobile's G1 _unlimited_ data plan bills you extra for Chat and IM and I would guess they block the standard VOIP port(s) too.

 

The Internet may be thought of by some as a "bunch of tubes" but these companies are carving it up so they control what you do on the "tube". Speed isn't the only thing that's important here.

 

LoB

They ran fibre to our local tower.

[yourassOA]

"New high speed internet" they said, "faster than anything you seen before". Now I could be wrong but for some reason cell service went to shit. Coincidence? I live 2 miles away from the tower with direct line of sight. And the problem isn't just signal strength but weird noises, echoes and interference.

Re:They ran fibre to our local tower.

[IorDMUX]

Oddly enough, "direct line of sight" actually decreases the data rate of MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) systems like HSPA. As MIMO uses the multiple physical wireless channels created by obstructions and reflections between a set of antennas at both transmitter and receiver to increase the bandwidth, a perfectly clear path hurts your data rate. Unless there are obstacles to bounce the signal around a bit, you only get one physical channel, as the path between any pair of antennas is essentially the same.

In practice, such pure physical channels usually only appear out in the open countryside--and besides, if you are referring to AT&T's EDGE or non-HSPA 3G, then it isn't MIMO... just crappy AT&T.

But it's nice to know, isn't it?

Yeah, okay

[elrous0]

I have AT&T for my DSL and I can't even get their 6 Mbps DSL connection with a WIRE. And they want me to believe they're going to give me 7 Mbps on my cellphone?

Re:Wireless

[Anonymous Coward]

And, in case you were curious, that comes in at just under an hour of access.

One word...

[ComboWombo]

Backhaul You can have 7.2Mbps to the base station, but from all accounts, the backhaul from said base stations SUCKS, so you won't get anywhere near that. Thats the sneaky trick. They offer UP TO 7.2Mpbs, but really its dependant on backhaul, and how said backhaul has been configured. Expect throughput of about 500kbps

Re:Great.

[Anonymous Coward]

VZ Wireless, where they cripple the phones so you use their services (....and pay).

Re:string cheese

[nizo]

Plus their high speed coverage generally only extends to large urban areas.

Oddly enough, this is where most people live.

just means you'll hit ATT's 5GB limit even sooner

[deisher]

Even if we assume that their speed claims are true, the benefit of this new product will be severely limited if ATT Wireless retains their currently policy of charging $0.25/MB once users hit their monthly limit of 5GB. I finally gave up on ATT because it was such a pain to monitor my usage and stop normal broadband activity (e.g., youtube, etc.) near the end of every month when I got close to the limit.

Re:string cheese

[iamhigh]

I don't want to make excuses for telcos, but do you mean the Japan that is half the size of Texas?

bah

[Thaelon]

Can we please ban the use of "up to" in advertising? The same goes for "as much as" and all their ilk.

How it isn't simply declared false advertising is beyond me.

It's like those super soakers that were advertised as shooting "up to 30 feet!". Yeah, right. Only if you whip your arm about before firing to impart some momentum to the water, then fire downwind at a 37 degree angle in a category 4 hurricane. Otherwise it was more like 10 feet.

How about if the mean average performance of the product isn't at least 80% of the advertised "up to" figure, you don't get to use that figure. Or require that all "up to" claims be accompanied with a bell curve that show people that most of them will be getting significantly less 100% of the time?