While AT&T customers are (not so) patiently waiting for the iPhone 5 to arrive on their doorsteps, AT&T itself is keeping busy flipping switches. AT&T’s LTE network has been turned on in a handful of locales over the past few days, with Seattle, Detroit, Portland, Honolulu, Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Birmingham, and Memphis all confirmed live by AT&T. Additionally, customers in Philadelphia and Cincinnati are reporting AT&T LTE coverage, and we expect many other locales to go live in the next few weeks as AT&T aggressively pushes LTE by the end of the year.
Update: Cincinnati has been confirmed, as well as Wilmingham, NC.
The iPhone 5 is the first iPhone to support the next-generation LTE networks, which offer speeds 5-10x faster than 3G, and 2-4x faster than HSPA+, on average. In our early tests of AT&T’s network, we found the speeds to be on par with, and in some cases surpassing that of Verizon Wireless, though that’s likely due to the lack of congestion on AT&T’s LTE network compared to a mature Verizon one. Customers can expect real world speeds ranging from 5-15 mbps down and 3-7 mbps up, which should make for quick downloads and stutter-free streaming.
[via AT&T]