AT&T Proceeds To Accelerate Development Of 4G Networks

By becoming an exclusive partner with Apple Inc. for the iPhone, AT&T has seen tremendous financial benefits.  However Apple is currently discussing the possibilities of bringing the iPhone on Verizon Wireless sometime in 2011.  In the meantime, AT&T has decided to ramp up the LTE deployment.

LTE stands for Long Term Evolution and is also known as the 4G network.  Yesterday AT&T sent out a press release mentioning that they are building faster 3G networks as well.  AT&T stated that they will be boosting 3G speeds to HSPA 7.2 and will have more network upgrades by the end of 2011.

Starting in 2010, AT&T will be testing LTE networks and will begin deploying in the 2011.  This will give download speeds of about 7.2Mbps.  AT&T plans to launch laptop cards that are HSPA 7.2-compatible later this year.

The dollar amount that AT&T plans to spend on expanding their network speeds will be between $17 and $18 billion in 2009 alone.

[via GigaOM]

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