As the wireless world awaits the coming of 4G from Verizon and AT&T with feverish anticipation, Sprint remains the only wireless carrier that currently has 4G in the US (WiMAX). The technology that AT&T and Verizon have chosen for their 4G networks is LTE (Long Term Evoloution) which will compete with WiMAX for 4G marketshare. Verizon has announced plans to begin launching their LTE network by the end of the year, but AT&T has not yet announced official plans for when their 4G service will become available.
AT&T is still working on building out their 3G network, which still isn't available in nearly as many places as Sprint's or Verizon's 3G, but they are also looking to the future and trying to determine how they will build out their 4G network as well. AT&T is hoping that they will be able to utilize their existing infrastructure that is currently in use on their 3G network to build out their 4G network, which would make the switch much quicker. According to Gordon Mansfield, director of AT&T’s radio access domain, "AT&T won’t be able to merely flip a switch in 2011 and have an instant LTE network—there is still extensive network deployment necessary to build the LTE network. The biggest thing is that the equipment we buy today is upgradable in some way to LTE. If I put LTE in at a different band I obviously need new radios, but the bottom line is on our base station equipment there are a lot of things that are completely re-usable.”
The advantage that Mansfield is describing with the ability to reuse multiple components of their infrastructure will make AT&T's transition from 3G to 4G more smooth and more affordable - and hopefully quicker. The launch of AT&T's 4G network still remains in the relatively distant future, but we are happy to see that they are working internally to plan for the upgrade. Stay tuned on 4ginfo for more information on AT&T's LTE plans and all things 4G!
