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StoneColdSober

macrumors 6502
Jul 19, 2008
416
0
If it wasn't for the iPhone AT&T still would not have rolled out as much as they did.

I'm not quite sure how you come to that conclusion. There are many other phones out there that use 3G. There are numerous advantages to AT&T to convert to 3G as it allows for more efficient use of AT&T's resources.

It isn't like a company just makes a decision of this kind one day and then rolls out the change nationwide the next day. The upgrade to 3G for both T-Mobile and AT&T and to EVDO for Verizon and Sprint were in the works for years before they ever began a roll out. They were in the works long before Apple had even discussed the iPhone with any company.

Have the sped things up some, maybe. But I would venture to guess that it has not sped up substantially, if anything, it has possibly slowed it down as AT&T is and has been working on beefing up areas that already had 3G coverage.
 

mcdj

macrumors G3
Jul 10, 2007
8,970
4,225
NYC
Move over lead bullets, DARPA preparing laser rifles - 2056 release date?
 

Cynicalone

macrumors 68040
Jul 9, 2008
3,212
0
Okie land
I would be surprised if Sprint survived to 2011 w/o someone buying them. They'll be the next to fall imo. Maybe a Sprint-Verizon merger since they use the same technology.
 

cobaltchroma

macrumors regular
Aug 22, 2008
109
0
10-70 megabits?
isnt 3G capped at around 1 megabit?
oh god.
that would be like instant web pages!
 

11800506

macrumors 65816
Oct 31, 2007
1,060
1
Washington D.C. Area
Yeah... by the time Sprint actually gets Wimax launched AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile will also have their LTE networks launched as well. LTE has become the worldwide 4G standard by now meaning that there will be a wider variety of phones, so even if Sprint does launch their network earlier it barely means anything because there won't be very many phones able to use it.
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
LTE has become the worldwide 4G standard by now meaning that there will be a wider variety of phones...

But my understanding is that it's not quite so simple. Like there's that T-Mo comment that was referenced earlier with the exec from T-Mobile questioning plans of other carriers to launch LTE on 700 MHz spectrum because of compatibility with devices abroad. Hopefully, however, interoperability testing is suggestive of seriousness about compatibility. I guess what's not clear though is whether a small enough set of bands will be available globally so that there could actually be a multi-band LTE phone that will work on every network, or that many phones will be such multi-band LTE phones.

For instance, T-Mobile USA and AT&T operate technologically intercompatible 3G networks on different frequencies (well, the T-Mo one is still in its infancy, but the point still stands). A phone that had all the frequencies could use either network, but few phones like this exist.
 

benzslrpee

macrumors 6502
Jan 1, 2007
406
26
isn't the XOHM service already released? i know it's live in a couple of cities up in New England already.
 

WildCowboy

Administrator/Editor
Staff member
Jan 20, 2005
18,490
2,991
They've been doing limited testing in Chicago, DC, and Baltimore since late last year. But it's supposed to actually launch sometime this month in Baltimore, with Chicago and Washington following by the end of the year. Only promising speeds of 2-4 Mbps at first though.
 
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