Unbeknownst to most customers, AT&T Inc. has fired up a new wireless data network in five cities in the last few months, offering roughly double the speeds of its older network for a handful of devices.
On Sunday, the phone company will start marketing the network in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. It won’t be selling a new data plan – use of the new “4G LTE” network will be a perk thrown in with existing plans, AT&T Inc. network architecture and planning executive Kris Rinne said Friday.
Rinne said the network will provide downloads speeds of 5 megabits to 12 megabits per second. That’s enough to download a DVD-quality two-hour movie in 15 minutes. It’s in line with the speeds on Verizon’s LTE network, which launched late last year with separate data plans. AT&T’s older “4G” network provides top download speeds around 6 megabits per second.
Upload speeds on the LTE network are also significantly higher than on regular “4G,” clocking in at 2 megabits to 5 megabits per second, Rinne said. That’s fast enough to send one minute of high-definition video from a tablet to Facebook in three minutes.
The LTE-capable devices AT&T sells are a tablet – the HTC Jetstream – two USB data sticks and a “mobile Wi-Fi hotspot.” They’re sold with the standard AT&T non-phone data plan, which provides 5 gigabytes of data for $50 per month, except for the tablet, which comes with a $35 plan with 3 gigabytes of data.
At top LTE download speeds, it takes about an hour to exhaust the monthly allotment of 5 gigabytes. Like Verizon, AT&T charges $10 per gigabyte used above that.
Rinne said the company will have an LTE-capable phone by the end of the year.
Analysts don’t expect the next iPhone to be LTE-capable at its launch, which they think could be within a month. Apple Inc. and AT&T haven’t said when the phone will launch or if it will be LTE-capable.
AT&T plans to light up the LTE network in ten more cities by the end of the year, but hasn’t said which ones.
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