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AT&T 4G LTE: rolling out a faster network

AT&T is rapidly moving forward with its new LTE network as it attempts to catch up with rival Verizon. The carrier has pegged the end of 2013 as its target date for completing the rollout, and we've got all the updates on the latest markets to go live for you right here.

  • Adi Robertson

    Nov 16, 2012

    Adi Robertson

    AT&T LTE now live in over 100 markets ahead of schedule

    AT&T iPad LTE stock 1020
    AT&T iPad LTE stock 1020

    With a series of launches today and yesterday, AT&T's LTE now covers 150 million people in over 100 markets — something that was originally projected for the end of 2012. LTE was rolled out today in Portland, Pensacola, and several other markets; yesterday, it was turned on in Minneapolis-Saint Paul as well. Seattle, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and others were launched in September, shortly before the iPhone 5's release. Today, AT&T said it was in 103 markets, compared to 53 in August and a mere 26 at the beginning of 2012, when it covered 76 million Americans.

    Since the network first launched last August, AT&T has made clear its intention to catch Verizon, which recently said it would cover 260 million people by the end of the year. AT&T doesn't plan to reach that point until late 2013, and its rollout won't be completed until the end of 2014, a year after Verizon is finished. Overall, though, both these two companies and second-tier carriers like Sprint have made it clear that LTE for almost everyone is definitely on its way.

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  • Bryan Bishop

    Sep 19, 2012

    Bryan Bishop

    AT&T LTE goes live in Seattle, Portland, Detroit, and more ahead of iPhone 5 launch (updated)

    LTE Phone (w/marked)
    LTE Phone (w/marked)

    We knew that AT&T was planning to turn on its LTE service in a number of new regions before the end of the year, and it appears one city has been given the green light: Seattle. A trusted source tells us that the service has in fact gone live in the city, with a reader also reporting that they've recently seen the service sporadically spring to life on their own LTE device. In several tests, the reader saw download speeds range between 17.1Mbps and 22Mbps.

    The move happens just days before the release of the iPhone 5, a phone that will no doubt prove to be one of AT&T's most popular LTE devices. With the carrier racing to catch up with Verizon's own LTE rollout — and true 4G being one of the main selling points of Apple's latest phone — LTE availability will no doubt be a deciding factor for many consumers deciding which carrier they'd like to sign up with for the next two years.

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  • Adi Robertson

    Sep 6, 2012

    Adi Robertson

    AT&T expands LTE to Syracuse, Anchorage, and more, announces almost 50 planned launches

    AT&T LTE Map
    AT&T LTE Map

    AT&T's LTE expansion continues with a fairly major batch of announcements today: the company has turned on 4G LTE in seven new US markets, with more sites planned by the end of 2012. Syracuse, Bakersfield, and Anchorage are among the cities with LTE now available — it's the first time AT&T has expanded into Alaska. Coverage in the New York / New Jersey and Washington, DC areas has also been expanded. Almost four dozen other markets are promised by "the end of the year," including forays into Seattle, Portland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Hawaii. This will almost double AT&T's LTE availability, bringing it from a current 60 markets to over 100.

    While AT&T promises the "largest 4G network" with HSPA+, its LTE still lags behind Verizon, which has said it covers 75 percent of the US population. This fall, however, will see the launch of the latest iPhone, putting pressure on AT&T to keep up with Verizon. It's also possible we'll see more new flagship phones on LTE. The company's full rollout runs through 2013, but this could explain why we're seeing both an expansion now and a promise to have coverage in several major markets over the coming months.

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  • Evan Rodgers

    Aug 16, 2012

    Evan Rodgers

    AT&T expands LTE coverage in Texas and Arkansas

    AT&T LTE MAP
    AT&T LTE MAP

    Verizon announced yesterday that it's serving 75 percent of the US population with LTE, but AT&T is diligently expanding as well: the company just announced that it's bringing LTE to Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, Arkansas, as well as Waco, Texas. That brings AT&T's total markets served to 53 compared to Verizon's 370 — and even though Verizon had a headstart in its 4G rollout, it's important for AT&T that the gap doesn't widen. While AT&T's latest expansion into Texas and Northwest Arkansas is sure to please customers in those areas, the company still has a long way to go before it completes its LTE rollout scheduled for the end of 2013.

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  • Kimber Streams

    Jul 26, 2012

    Kimber Streams

    AT&T rolls out LTE in new Florida markets, expands coverage in Boston, DC

    AT&T announced new LTE markets in Florida and Massachusetts today, and expanded several of its already operational coverage areas. The carrier's high-speed wireless network is now available in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, Florida, as well as Worcester, Massachusetts.

    AT&T also expanded coverage in Boston and Washington, DC, which have both had LTE coverage since last November. Boston's coverage area has been expanded to include MetroWest, North Shore, and South Shore, and the DC market now includes Montgomery and Prince George's Counties and some areas in northern Virginia. The Maryland coverage area was also expanded to cover the Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties. AT&T's focus is shifting to increasingly smaller markets as the company diligently inches toward its goal of completing its LTE network by the end of next year.

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  • Chris Welch

    May 31, 2012

    Chris Welch

    AT&T's LTE network now up and running in Cleveland, OH

    Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stock 1020
    Rock and Roll Hall of Fame stock 1020

    AT&T today announced that its 4G LTE network is now live in Cleveland, Ohio, making good on a rollout schedule it laid out back in March. The added market further extends AT&T's LTE coverage map in the Buckeye State after it flipped the switch for residents of Akron and Canton last month. No, the carrier hasn't quite kept pace with Verizon's rapid 4G deployments, but that hasn't left us any less impressed by data speeds we've experienced on AT&T's LTE airwaves. Of course, we're still in the "honeymoon period" where network congestion has yet to rear its ugly head. If you're looking to put AT&T's real 4G network through the paces, there's no shortage of recent LTE-enabled devices that will do the job: we've put together a handy comparison for you right here.

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  • Jamie Keene

    Mar 12, 2012

    Jamie Keene

    AT&T LTE rollout continues: Cleveland, St. Louis, New Orleans, and nine others this summer

    LTE Phone (w/marked)
    LTE Phone (w/marked)

    AT&T's LTE rollout is pushing on, and we've heard this morning that another 12 markets will be covered by "early summer." While more of the large cities you'd expect are included on that list, the new network's also filtering down to some smaller markets too, ready for the wave of new devices we saw at MWC (as well as the new iPad launched at last week's event).

    The markets receiving the upgrade are:

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  • Chris Ziegler

    Jan 5, 2012

    Chris Ziegler

    AT&T to complete LTE network by end of 2013

    HTC Vivid
    HTC Vivid

    As an aside in its announcement of 11 new LTE markets, AT&T mentioned something else interesting: it now expects to have its LTE rollout "largely complete by the end of 2013," a sentiment echoed by company exec John Stankey at a conference today. That's the most specific guidance AT&T has given for when it'll be done with its LTE deployment, which also happens to be the same year that it plans on kicking off an even faster LTE-Advanced network in some markets.

    The 2013 timeline matches up with both Verizon's and Sprint's plans for LTE completion — though Sprint's starting with a marked disadvantage, obviously, since it doesn't yet have a single LTE market turned on. Still a big question mark, though, is T-Mobile USA — for the moment, it's neither being purchased nor partnered with for a proper 4G deployment, though the aggressive strategies by the other three nationals are undoubtedly going to put some serious pressure on T-Mobile throughout 2012 to figure out a way to bring LTE into the fold.

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  • Bryan Bishop

    Jan 5, 2012

    Bryan Bishop

    AT&T's LTE network goes live in 11 new markets, including NYC and Los Angeles

    LG Nitro HD LTE
    LG Nitro HD LTE

    AT&T has had its fair share of setbacks lately, but the mobile carrier is pushing forward, announcing today that its new LTE network has gone live in 11 additional markets. Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco are among the new areas. The carrier also lists New York City as one of its new additions, though the network there had already gone live last month when we reviewed the LG Nitro HD.

    The new regions join cities like Chicago, Las Vegas, and Boston, bringing the total number of AT&T LTE markets to 26, covering 76 million Americans. While a big step forward, it's still quite short of the 200 million Americans now covered by Verizon's LTE network, and with only a handful of LTE devices in its arsenal, AT&T has some catching up to do on all fronts. Perhaps some Windows Phone surprises next week at CES will do the trick?

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  • Sean Hollister

    Dec 9, 2011

    Sean Hollister

    AT&T's LTE network appears to be working in San Francisco

    LG Nitro HD LTE
    LG Nitro HD LTE

    They're not quite getting the incredible speeds we're seeing in New York City on our LG Nitro HD (see picture above) but Engadget is reporting that the carrier's LTE network is live in downtown San Francisco right now. We're not sure whether it's a soft launch or just a preliminary test — we reached out to AT&T minutes ago — but you can help us figure out how widespread the network is by contributing your own reports. Feel free to post your speeds in this forum post, or in the comments below!

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  • Chris Ziegler

    Sep 15, 2011

    Chris Ziegler

    AT&T 4G LTE launching in first five markets on Sunday

    Though it's been soft-launched for a couple weeks now, AT&T has said at a financial conference today that it'll be officially offering LTE service in its first five launch markets (San Antonio, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston) starting this coming Sunday, September 18th. There aren't any LTE-compatible handsets in AT&T's lineup just yet, but customers can walk into stores right now and pick up an HTC tablet, a couple USB dongles, and a mobile hotspot -- the Elevate 4G -- that'll work on the new high-speed network.

    Source: FierceWireless

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  • Chris Ziegler

    Aug 30, 2011

    Chris Ziegler

    AT&T's 4G LTE network appears in Chicago (video)

    Hang tight, Verizon: Chicago is one of five launch markets for AT&T's new LTE network, with a total of fifteen or so expected by the end of 2011. The carrier has been selling its new Momentum 4G and Elevate 4G data devices for a little over a week now, promising HSPA+ speeds initially with LTE compatibility once the network lights up -- and for those of us in Chicago, pockets of AT&T LTE are just now starting to appear.

    I grabbed an Elevate 4G this evening to try it out; the representative told me that the store's demo unit had been switching between HSPA and LTE intermittently throughout the day, so it's still hit or miss. In my neighborhood, I found that I was able to just barely hang onto a connection -- the hotspot shows one bar of signal strength -- which was good enough to average between 6 and 7Mbps downlink and 1 to 2Mbps on the uplink. Clearly, that's no better than a decent HSPA+ connection, but I'm certain I was on LTE -- I had the Elevate set to LTE-only mode, and the display clearly showed a "4G LTE" indicator.

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