AT&T (T) has announced a major advancement in its nationwide 3G mobile broadband network. The US telecom ace has decided to upgrade its HSPA 7.2 standard based 3G network to HSPA+ (High-Speed Packet Access Plus), which will double the existing network throughput. With this announcement, Ma Bell seems to have tweaked its previous plan of a direct upgrade from 3G to 4G.
 
The HSPA+ upgrade will catapult network speeds to offer a maximum downstream speed of 14.4 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to 7.2 Mbps enabled by the HSPA 7.2 network. AT&T plans to cover 250 million people with the advancement by fourth-quarter 2010, thereby expanding the reach of its high-speed network footprint.  
 
Deutsche Telekom’s (DT) US subsidiary T-Mobile USA is the only other major national carrier which has taken the HSPA+ path. T-Mobile USA became the first operator in the US to commercially deploy the HSPA+ network in Philadelphia. The network boosted throughput by three-fold to offer peak downlink speeds of 21 Mbps.
 
At the CTIA wireless conference in Las Vegas in March 2010, T-Mobile USA revealed its plans to expand its HSPA+ standard based 3G network footprint through 2010. The operator plans to cover more than 100 metropolitan areas with HSPA+ by the end of 2010 addressing roughly 205 million Americans.
 
AT&T’s extensive nationwide 3G network has already covered around 370 US cities. The carrier is expanding fiber-optic backhaul connection to 3G cell sites (“fiber-to-the-cell”) to ensure its customers take full advantage of its high-speed network. AT&T’s 3G network is faster than its archrival Verizon (VZ) which operates a EVDO Rev A standard-based 3G network, offering peak download speed of 3.1 Mbps.
 
To further increase network throughput, AT&T is preparing for field trials of 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network in 2010. Verizon and T-Mobile USA also have embraced LTE and plans to launch their networks in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Sprint Nextel (S), the other Tier-1 rival, is aggressively expanding its 4G WiMax deployments.
 
The HSPA+ network upgrade will open the door to AT&T for a smooth transition to LTE, which the carrier targets deploying in 2011. Moreover, besides offering a competitive network throughput, the HSPA+ network will provide the much-needed support for a wide range of wireless devices.
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