AT&T Details 4G Plans and Sexy 4G Smartphones

[JMcEntegart]

AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega scored gave of the coveted keynote speeches for CES 2011’s press day and used the time to detail the company’s plans for its upcoming 4G LTE network.

AT&T Details 4G Plans and Sexy 4G Smartphones : Read more

 

[fstrthnu]

1 GB of RAM! Course, this is still AT&T, but 1 GB! I'd love to see the benchmarks for that (though we don't even know the screen size)...

 

[thejerk]

I'm going to guess it has 1GB of NAND and 16GB of RAM.

 

[scook9]

Would this be the same LTE that verizon is deploying? Meaning that phones should be able to get 4G on either network? (I know voice is still different technologies though)

 

[agnickolov]

That subtitle makes no sense whatsoever: "... scored gave of the coveted keynote speeches ..."

 

[Guest]

Not only does the subtitle make no sense, but the rest of the article is riddled with elementary grammatical errors.

 

[matm347]

I don't care if it had 1TB of RAM, it would still be under at&t's network which is already choked with the 3G speeds. Not to mention the over charging for the same, or lesser, levels of service. For instance, when I was with them, I paid 20 extra/month for unlimited internet...INCLUDING tethering to my laptop, what's their charge now?? $40-50 on top of your regular bill?? That's BS, the FCC needs to see this and do something about it.

 

[elcentral]

but realy do you need 4g? 3g is 6-8mbs i culd use that for my pc. and 4g is up to 80mbs wot possible use culd it haw is it better cower for 4g do the signal in it self travel further? got myself the Nokia n8 and the cower in Sweden for 3g is huge so i dont realy know how it is for the rest of you.

 

[spam123]

The SPAM on Tom's is ridiculous now. Get some decent CAPTCHA and account verification controls on your login page. Then start banning accounts.

This is 2011 now, Why are your running a tech site like 2001?

 

[pandemonium_ctp]

[citation][nom]elcentral[/nom]but realy do you need 4g? 3g is 6-8mbs i culd use that for my pc. and 4g is up to 80mbs wot possible use culd it haw is it better cower for 4g do the signal in it self travel further? got myself the Nokia n8 and the cower in Sweden for 3g is huge so i dont realy know how it is for the rest of you.[/citation]

Definitely no real consumer use for speeds that are beyond 3.5G (Edge). I test my AT&T provided phone on occassion and get up to 1.7Mbps down, but the latency can reach up to 200ms. That's ultimately the reason behind updating to 4G; decreasing latency. This is inherently important for GPS signaling since 4G will be all IP based, as well as sustaining high-speed data transfer while in transit.

Signal penetration is actually lower the higher the operating frequency, so technically speaking, coverage wouldn't improve with a higher frequency rate (which 4G adopts up to 2690Mhz), it would decrease. This doesn't matter much since 4G would only be available in areas that are heavily covered (much the same as 3G is now). Also, higher frequencies require more amplitude to sustain their connectivity so also more power will be used (both tower and device reception).

Personally I don't find practical use for 4G. 3.5G is plenty fast for my needs (and probably 99% of everyone else out there). The floor coverage of Edge is what's necessary more than increasing the ceiling coverage of higher data speeds. I will note that the update to the networks will assist in their ability to cope with more users facilitating more data use simultaneously, but I digress.

 

[johnny_2bags]

I live in a metro area of over 100,000 and we don't even have 3g yet with AT&T, let alone 4g. I can't wait until my contract is up, so I can switch to Verizon. So jealous of all the Droids my friends have on 3g, and they don't get dropped calls either. I would never recommend AT&T to anyone, for any reason.

 

[scurvywombat]

+1 @ pandemonium_ctp

 

[Guest]

define 4G cause LTE is not

 

[southernshark]

Those of us who live in the middle of absolute nowhere will be getting 3G in 2050 or so and 4G... never.

 

[eddieroolz]

Hopefully they will be able to improve their rating by the customers with the 4G network.

 

[matt_b]

[citation][nom]matm347[/nom]I don't care if it had 1TB of RAM, it would still be under at&t's network which is already choked with the 3G speeds. Not to mention the over charging for the same, or lesser, levels of service. For instance, when I was with them, I paid 20 extra/month for unlimited internet...INCLUDING tethering to my laptop, what's their charge now?? $40-50 on top of your regular bill?? That's BS, the FCC needs to see this and do something about it.[/citation]
I'm currently shopping around for my next provider. After a lot or research and looking for answers, I've got news for you, almost all are ripping you off. One network may have higher rates, another will have a hellacious cancellation fee. One graciously tacks on a new "data or text block" should you run over data or text limits instead of charging by the mb or text, another will simply have their rates jacked up per extra mb or text used. One has a nice low everything plan, too bad the coverage is severely limited in comparison to another that has excellent coverage but poor speeds or inflated prices to have the equivalent. Even how about all these "app" stores that charge insane prices for practically nothing? The new thing that pisses me off is that almost all of the providers are now calling a phone "message capable" or "internet capable" and then saying you HAVE to add such and such text or data plans to go along with you minutes - even if you don't want or need texting and/or data usage. To go along with this scheme, the selection of those phones that aren't in this bracket is maybe 5% of their total offering - and they truly are junk in comparison to what is offered. I'm severely displeased with wireless providers these days on all the hidden B.S. - these contracts are ones you surely need to read carefully before picking ANY one of them. What ever happened to picking a provider and you knew EXACTLY what to expect or what you were going to be charged? Hopefully things change, until now I'm undecided which carrier to even go with, after all it's only a two year commitment........