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AT&T to deploy LTE using Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson equipment, peg 2011 as commercial launch date

Categories: AT&T, Infrastructure
By: , IntoMobile
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 7:52 AM

AT&T published what is probably the longest press release I’ve ever read, so I did my best to summarize it for our lovely readers:

“We’re already using Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson for our current 3G network, the one everyone loves to hate, and rather than trying to find new partners, we’ll continue using them for deploying our new LTE network. It should go live in 2011.

Earlier this year we told you that we plan on spending $18 billion and $19 billion during 2010, Luke Wilson isn’t that cheap for your information. Only $2 billion of that large chunk of change will be spent on our wireless network and backhaul. Speaking about backhaul, let me remind you that we’re in the process of switching to fiber optic backhaul since it’s crazy fast, and we suspect it’s what Verizon is doing to make their network awesome.

We’re also going to launch 2,000 cell towers in 2010, roughly double what we did in 2009. Thank you for bearing with us while we try and fix what the iPhone did to our network. Adiós.”

That’s it really, nothing Earth shattering, just a status update. It feels like AT&T is a misbehaving child and these frequent reports about how they’re performing in school are meant for us, the parents. We can beat the child, starve the child, take away the child’s internet, but he’s still a son of a bitch who can’t stop fidgeting behind his desk.

Hope this is just a phase and he grows up.

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Pendragon

    Verizon already has a good 3G network setup and has stared trials on it’s LTE systems, I think Verizon will remain the better network which is why I support them with my Straight Talk prepaid which runs on Verizon’s network nationwide and gives me unlimited everything for $45 per month. So I have cheaper cell internet access on the better network. AT&T is just following Verizon’s lead because they don’t actually know what they are doing.