According to Ma Bell, AT&T covers 97 percent of all Americans. Of course, that’s including those “one bar of EDGE” places that are uncovered so far as reality’s concerned, but regardless of all that — there’s no denying that AT&T’s LTE launch is on the subdued side. With Verizon rolling out five times more LTE markets this month than AT&T is even launching with, the country’s largest GSM carrier definitely has some catching up to do. Regardless of the standings, the company appears to have (quietly) gone live with five LTE markets as of today, with Chicago, Atlanta, San Antonio, Dallas / Fort Worth and Houston getting first dibs. The source link below takes you to the new coverage map, as well as to a promise from the carrier to expand “4G LTE” (not to be confused with the other 4G, more accurately known as HSPA+) to 15 major metropolitan areas by the year’s end. Notice how rural areas aren’t mentioned, despite plenty of grandstanding near D.C.? Don’t worry, guys — it’s just Rethinking Possible.
[Thanks, Marcus]
AT&T flips 4G LTE live, nearly 97 percent of America wonders where the party is originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Sep 2011 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We knew the White House was on board with the FCC’s desire to free up an additional 500MHz worth of spectrum over the next decade from private and federal holders, as announced last year, and now Obama has announced the plan to do it. The plan is to incentivize the current spectrum squatters with a share of the revenue gained from auctioning off the spectrum — mostly for mobile broadband use — which only seems fair, and for now it seems those auctions will be voluntary. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg: the plan also includes a billion investment in constructing 4G networks in rural areas (with a goal to reach at least 98 percent of Americans with the service), a billion fund for 4G R&D to help the rollout, and .7 billion for a wireless public safety network. The beauty of this plan is that all these proposed costs are offset by the spectrum auction, which is estimated to raise .8 billion, of which .6 billion will be dedicated to deficit reduction. Oh, and the best news? The government has already found 115MHz worth of Federal spectrum that it can free up by using its other spectrum more efficiently, and has another 95MHz worth in its sights. Hit up the source link to see President Obama’s speech on the subject, which has just begun, or check it out embedded after the break.
Getting fast and inexpensive broadband to all Americans is an essential goal for the next decade; most people agree. But how do we do it given the high cost of deploying broadband to rural areas? And how do we drive better broadband in a market where’s there’s not very much competition to drive both better access technologies as well as lower prices? At the end of last year, GigaOM provided a platform for Craig Settles, an author and broadband consultant, to debate with Blair Levin, the author of the National Broadband Plan, on the topic. Those columns are listed at the end of this post.