Since the release of Apple"s iPhone, AT&T has seen a lot of negative criticism. From dodgy service to dropped calls and even completely unavailable reception, there are certainly improvements to be made. Earlier, the company announced completion of their 3G service, boosting the overall speed of the wireless.
The upgrade today, one of a two-part deal, is a software one, helping AT&T roll out High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA for short) 7.2 Mbit technology across all of its 3G cell sites... though there"s a catch. Without an upgrade of the back-end part of their service, this improvement won"t make a huge difference. The update has already started in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami, according to AppleInsider, though it won"t be fully complete until 2011. Fear not, though, as the company stated, "We anticipate that the majority of our mobile data traffic will be carried over the expanded fiber-based, HSPA 7.2-capable backhaul by the end of this year, with deployment continuing to expand in 2011."
It"s great to see carriers continuing to improve their service, as with each upgrade to one, the other feels the pressure to do the same, leaving the consumers the victors in the end. T-Mobile announced a nationwide 3G update to 7.2Mbps today also, which is perhaps the reason why AT&T suddenly announced this news.