AT&T: Trials of upgraded 3G network in two markets

If you are a user of AT&T’s 3G wireless network, then you will be pleased to hear that it could be twice as fast soon. The network carrier is running trials of an upgraded 3G network in two markets, and AT&T plan to upgrade 3G across its nationwide network once the trials have finished.

Cnet News reports that once the company has finished the upgrades to its HSPA network, it will then provide downloads speeds of up to 3.6Mbps, its current technology only allows for up to 1.7 Mbps. As you already know the real data speeds are often much lower, most subscribers of the service report that they only reach speeds of 700 Kbps.

Just last year, Ralph de la Vega, AT&T’s mobility chief said that they will be able to offer download speeds of 20Mbps over its wireless network sometime in 2009, well we are a quarter of the way through and we still have no sign of those kind of speeds.

With all this talk about upgrading 3G speeds, we have almost forgot about AT&T’s commitment to its planned 4G wireless network, which uses Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology. AT&T hopes to have this new service out sometime in 2010.