5th Sept 07 AT&T are planning an upgrade to their network which will make uploading images and files from cellphones faster. At the moment, cell phones using their HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) network can only send information at around 130 kilobits per second. But they are now rolling out an upgrade to their network that will enable HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access), which will increase upload speeds to 5-800 kilobits per second.
Although this upgrade won't affect web browsing speed, it will be a big boost for those who send large amounts of data, such as photos and videos from cell phones or laptops with cellular modems, providing up to a 6 times increase in the speed at which data can be sent to the Internet. This would make a huge difference for users such as video bloggers or journalists who rely on cellular connections to send files remotely. The upgrade was revealed in an interview that AT&T's president Richard Burns did with Reuters, where he claimed that the upgrade will be rolled out in October and November of this year. "Everybody in the street is becoming a reporter so the desire to be able to upload is growing," Burns told Reuters. "That's become a much bigger part of consumer demand than it was just a few years ago."
However, you shouldn't start planning what to do with the extra bandwidth quite yet: to get the speed increase you will need a HSUPA compatible device, and they aren't available at the moment. AT&T says that the first HSUPA devices we will see will be data cards for laptops that will be coming in the next few weeks, but they wouldn't give any dates on the availability of HSUPA handsets. It also isn't clear if existing HSDPA devices can be updated to the higher upload speeds.
Burns also revealed that AT&T expects that their 3G networks will cover 200 markets and 170 million people by the end of 2007, but that they won't have 3G coverage of their entire network by the end of 2008; many users will have to reply on slower data connection such as EDGE that run on their existing network.
WirelessInfo
Although this upgrade won't affect web browsing speed, it will be a big boost for those who send large amounts of data, such as photos and videos from cell phones or laptops with cellular modems, providing up to a 6 times increase in the speed at which data can be sent to the Internet. This would make a huge difference for users such as video bloggers or journalists who rely on cellular connections to send files remotely. The upgrade was revealed in an interview that AT&T's president Richard Burns did with Reuters, where he claimed that the upgrade will be rolled out in October and November of this year. "Everybody in the street is becoming a reporter so the desire to be able to upload is growing," Burns told Reuters. "That's become a much bigger part of consumer demand than it was just a few years ago."
However, you shouldn't start planning what to do with the extra bandwidth quite yet: to get the speed increase you will need a HSUPA compatible device, and they aren't available at the moment. AT&T says that the first HSUPA devices we will see will be data cards for laptops that will be coming in the next few weeks, but they wouldn't give any dates on the availability of HSUPA handsets. It also isn't clear if existing HSDPA devices can be updated to the higher upload speeds.
Burns also revealed that AT&T expects that their 3G networks will cover 200 markets and 170 million people by the end of 2007, but that they won't have 3G coverage of their entire network by the end of 2008; many users will have to reply on slower data connection such as EDGE that run on their existing network.
WirelessInfo
