AT&T is really looking to beef up its network and is getting ready for LTE. Of course, before that happens, it still has a bit of work to do in terms of deploying HSPA+ and getting its promised 250 million pops covered before the year’s end. There are plenty of areas that still don’t see those speeds where AT&T 3G is present. Still, documentation is popping up which shows evidence of upcoming LTE-compatible SIM cards. Perhaps this news couldn’t come any sooner since Verizon is launching LTE in West Virginia soon, followed by a rather aggressive roll-out in 2011.
BGR reports:
AT&T tells employees to verify the SIM card is correct by checking the SKU on the card even though the new LTE cards are visibly different, just to be safe we’re assuming.
And of course, as shown in the image above, these LTE SIM cards will be for use for all phones except the iPhone 4, since the Apple smartphone uses microSIM cards.
Now the only thing left, besides actually lighting up the network and pumping out LTE handsets, is to decide whether or not to continue calling this technology 4G. While we’re at it, let’s throw WiMax into the mix as well. After all, the ITU has just decided that true 4G technology, or at least the tech that’s worthy of the moniker, will be either WiMax 2 or LTE Advanced.
Next year should be a pretty exciting time in the world of mobile broadband. We’ll be seeing more WiMax devices from Sprint and Clearwire – that is if the latter decides to continue on its current path without switching to LTE, which it has been testing with some pretty impressive results. We’ll also start to see more areas with T-Mobile’s HSPA+ coverage and AT&T should start kicking up its own 4G efforts as well.
[Via: BGR]