Examining AT&T’s HSPA+ Rollout Motivations

Author: Philip Solis, Research Director, Mobile Devices

Published: 20 May 2010

Once upon a time, AT&T intended to roll out HSPA+ across its network. Since the company was going to roll out LTE eventually, ABI Research’s opinion was that for AT&T to put more CAPEX behind the 3G network didn’t really make much sense. In September 2009, AT&T decided it would not roll out HSPA+, but would focus instead on LTE, with initial commercial launches in 2011. Then, in March, AT&T began dropping hints that it would actually deploy HSPA+ in certain locations – most likely those with the most severe capacity problems. And now? Now, it is going full steam ahead with HSPA+. But why? And why only 14.4 Mbps?

The full text of this Insight is available to subscribers of the Mobile Operator Strategies Research Service and the Mobile Networks Research Service and the Enterprise Mobility Research Service and the 4G Research Service.

Contact a representative about service purchasing options.