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AT&T hedging its bet for iPhones?
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Last week AT&T announced that it was making network improvements to six cities across the United States in an effort that would double the company’s wireless speeds. And with speculation rife about possible Verizon or Sprint iPhones in 2010, AT&T looks to be hedging their bets with $18 billion in improvements.
Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Charlotte, N.C. are among the 25 cities nationwide that are scheduled for wireless network upgrades by the end of 2010. Although the aforementioned six are due for upgrades by the end of this year, the company said.
A technology called High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 will provide considerable speed boost to what is already the “nation’s fastest 3G mobile broadband network,” the company said in a press release. Additionally, the initiative outlines a plan to outfit 90 percent of AT&T’s existing 3G network with HSPA 7.2 technology by the end of 2011.
“With HSPA 7.2, we’re making the nation’s fastest 3G network even faster, and we’ll be able to deploy this technology before LTE networks, devices and equipment grow to scale,” John Stankey, president and CEO, AT&T Operations, said in a statement.
And for those of you Verizon, Sprint, or T-Mobile paying New Yorkers, don’t expect to get your hands on an iPhone without an AT&T contract anytime soon, says one analyst. iSuppli Corp. recently issued a report finding that the HSPD technology is the main reason Apple will stick with AT&T.
"Speculation is rife that Apple will end its exclusive U.S. iPhone service deal with AT&T when the current contract expires in June 2010, and begin to offer phones that work with the Verizon network," said Francis Dieco, an iSupply analyst, in a statement. "However, iSuppli doesn't believe this will be the case. The main reason Apple is likely to stick with AT&T beyond 2010 is the relatively wide usage and growth expected for the HSPA air standard used by the carrier for 3G data."
Differing opinions came from other industry observers, interviewed by Matt Hamblen of Computerworld. Many analysts believe it would be beneficial for Apple to open the iPhone to other major carriers, just to sell more iPhones. And others offered that Apple may work with Verizon on different iPhone models when the current AT&T contract expires in 2010.
In the mean time, most industry observers will just have to wait and see. Perhaps those of you non-iPhone, non-AT&T customers would do well to hang on to that six-month old clunker for another six months, just in case.
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