Good news for AT&T iPhone owners envious of Verizon’s next-generation LTE network: Apple’s original U.S. carrier Wednesday announced the faster transmission technique will become available this summer, setting the stage for iPhones and iPad’s based on the 150Mbps technology in 2012.
Still, the five-city rollout is more modest than Verizon, according to early reports.
The Long-Term Evolution network will first appear in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio, AT&T business-solutions head John Stankey told investors. The carrier expects to unveil 10 more markets for its 4G product by the end of the year.
By comparison, Verizon Wireless expects to have LTE in 76 markets by mid-June.
The news comes as AT&T fights a negative image among iPhone users for congested networks and capping speeds for the iPhone 3G. Introducing LTE would go far in erasing some of that bad taste for iPhone owners. We reported earlier this month that AT&T’s LTE version tested at 28.87Mbps for downloads – higher than Verizon’s 5-12Mbps. LTE is capable of 150Mbps.
A LTE iPhone likely won’t appear until 2012. However, there’s the outside chance Apple may announce an LTE version in September. What do you think? Will LTE help AT&T survive in a post-Verizon world? Let us know in the comments.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
43 responses to “AT&T iPhone Owners Will Get LTE Access This Summer”
Well I guess it’s unlikely for apple to release a LTE version. First because of the whole rearrangement that the ongoing version would suffer, second because LTE expasion will get at least 6 monts – 1 year to occur nationwide and worldwide it’d get even more time. (remeber that the rumons points the 5th version to be a worldwide phone).
Wow. What a misleading headline.
Um, if yer a “BLOGGER” you should be able to construct a headline that reflects the story.
Long story short, you’re an IDIOT, change your title. Go to school.
3G worldwide phone, not 4G.
Cult of Mac constantly lies in headlines for link bait. You either need better editors, more knowledge or some ethics….I would bet none of the above will hapen.
Ed must’ve been using and holding his att iphone too close to his head: current iphone does not operate on lte. Wrong on so many levels. Unless of course he’s writing in 2012 in which case it’ll only be on verizon as att will still have squat.
My own experience with AT&T has been reasonably decent. Yes, I get dropped calls and slow speeds but overall on a scale of 1 to 10 I would say the service rates a good 7.95. I think LTE will help in the long run.
With this new announcement and AT&T LTE-ready cities going online this summer with more to be added by year’s end, the upcoming iPhone has to be 4G compatible. If rumors are true and the new iPhone is announced in September or October and ships for holiday season 2011 as so many people seem to think, then why not? The timeline set’s up perfectly. Especially when you consider Verizon has 4G fully rolled out in over 70 cities nationwide by June. Just because Apple didn’t release a 3G iPhone before that network was fully fledged shouldn’t mean we assume they’ll do the same again for 4G now (how I hate when that argument trumps all speculation). There’s too much market share at stake for both Verizon and AT&T to force consumers to choose between a soon-to-be outdated new 3G iPhone, or a real 4G-enabled competitor phone. Simply put, the mobile market is drastically different now than it was when 3G was introduced.
Cmon now… this headline is such blatant link bait.
Way to be a total douche and fodder the hits. I thought you were above that Ed. Guess not.
ATT is getting LTE, in some areas, this summer. But the iphone is NOT, based on current comments by Apple about not releasing an LTE phone before the networks are stable and diverse.
So basically while your story is current, you straight up lied with that headline. Way to abuse the truth and the trust.
Sorry but no. The upcoming iphone doesn’t HAVE TO BE anything. It doesn’t have to be a world phone, it doesn’t have to have NFC. It doesn’t have to support LTE. It doesn’t even have to come out in 2011.
Apple has every right to do what they want regardless of what you think they should do. And they won’t.
And the beauty of it is that folks will still buy a 3g iphone 5 or wait until whenever for an LTE iphone. Even if it doesn’t happen for 5 years. Because it’s Apple
They used to be a lot better. But over the last year they have degraded into this mess. It’s sad really
Very Misleading article, this is rookie journalism if you ask me
“If rumors are true and the new iPhone is announced in September or October and ships for holiday season 2011 as so many people seem to think, then why not?”
Because LTE uses more power than 3G and Apple is already extremely sensitive to anything that might decrease battery life, especially when LTE deployment is in its infancy (on AT&T). And frankly, AT&T should be deploying 3G (or skipping straight to LTE) in areas still stuck on EDGE, which is most of the US geography, especially since nobody on 3G is getting even a fraction of the maximum 3G speed anyway due to anemic backhauls.
maybe you guys should look at how macrumors.com wrote the article and the headline they gave.
AT&T Prepares to Launch LTE 4G Network in 5 Cities This Summer
Extremely misleading headline. I am really starting to question the “journalism” on Cult of Mac.
As for SH&T’s LTE network, I just wish they’d get decent speeds for me in Dallas TX on their 3G network. I rarely get more the 1.5 Mbps down and usually around 700 kbps up. In some cities I’ve traveled to, I have had 300 kbps down and less than that for up. It’s ridiculous to pay $30 a month for access that slow.
Wake up AT&T. Your customers now have a choice and I for one, will jump to Verizon when my contract is over if you don’t get it right soon.
Nice headline. Completely untrue and not possible, but whatever. I knew it couldn’t be fact but wanted to see what the story was actually about. Maybe make your title reflect your article next time?
Journalism, lol. Nice one. You put quotes around the word though, so it was being used loosely I guess.
For a moment there I thought I was reading Fox News
> AT&T iPhone Owners Will Get LTE Access This Summer> A LTE iPhone likely won’t appear until 2012.cultOfMac just gets worse and worse.
I say apple better get their head of their a** and put LTE in this iphone are they going to lose alot of people. I been wanting to get iphone forever, but if they dont put it in this year im going with HTC Thunderbolt
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