AT&T tests 7.2Mbps HSPA in Chicago ahead of LTE

AT&T it seems is in no rush to start their transition to Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, as the company have started to test 7.2Mbps HSPA in Chicago. You would have thought that AT&T would want to start work on LTE considering Sprint Nextel Corp. and Verizon Wireless have accelerated their next-generation rollout schedules.

Mark Siegel, AT&T spokesman said that the carrier first plans to upgrade their current HSPA network to HSPA+, even before they consider moving over to LTE. As yet AT&T has not confirmed a date as to when they will rollout LTE; however we should expect to see a rollout within the next two years.

Siegel has confirmed that AT&T are testing 7.2Mbps download speeds in Chicago, and could increase those speeds to 14.7Mbps or higher. It is thought that HSPA+ can support speeds of up to 42Mbps, but LTE can support speeds of up to 100Mbps.

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