AT&T Doubles 4G LTE Coverage in 2012

News
By Zak Islam
published

More than 150 million subscribers covered by carrier's LTE network.

U.S. carrier AT&T has doubled its 4G LTE coverage when compared to a year ago.
The company's 4G LTE network now covers more than 150 million consumers within the United States, representing a 50 percent increase from what it was at the end of 2011.

AT&T stressed that due to its rollout being ahead of schedule, the carrier is hoping reach quarter of a billion consumers by the end of 2013 and 300 million by the end of 2014. Currently, AT&T's LTE network is available in 103 markets. This week, it added several new markets including Louisville, Ky.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; Tacoma, Wash.; York, Penn.; Daytona Beach, Fla.; Pensacola, Fla.; Annapolis, Md.; Denver, Colo.; Provo, Utah and the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

Verizon, however, now covers 440 markets throughout the region and reaches 250 million consumers. That said, Verizon did launch its LTE deployment long before AT&T initiated its own rollout. AT&T had previously announced plans to invest $14 billion over the next three years in order to upgrade its wireless networks.

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Zak Islam
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • largg
    HI all. My phone is dying so I am checking out whats out there.

    Last week I went to the ATT store on West side of Indianapolis (near 38th and Lafayette).
    Fired up a speed test on one of their demo LG Optimus G and saw 36Mbs down and 12Mbs up.

    Went to the Verizon store about 1/2 a block away and performed the same test on a Droid Max and saw 22Mbs down and about 10 Mbs up.

    Next went to the T-mobile store that is next door to Verizon and performed the same test and saw 10 Mbs down and 8 Mbs up.

    According to what I overheard from the salesman at the Sprint store on the east side of Indianapolis on east Washington street by German Church RD Sprint only has one LTE tower in Indianapolis and its nearby that store. I tested the speed on a display LG Mach and saw about 10.5 Mbs down and 8Mbs up.

    If ATT's service general is truly similiar to what I saw they are really ahead of the competition! 10 Mbs down is nothing to sneeze at but 36Mbs? That was faster than what I got on my old Comcast cable modem. ATT's investment is really paying off.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    Largg, if you're not an AT&T employee then your experience is quite telling, but I don't know if that kind of performance is available in all of AT&T's markets or LTE markets. I can say that I do have Sprint and live just outside the capital of the free world and that we don't have LTE despite what Sprint might say. However, I think I appreciate the all-you-can-eat 3G that I'm getting just as much as I would limited 4G. Okay...maybe I'm fooling myself.
    Reply
  • ikefu
    I really don't care what AT&Ts performance is, they don't have service outside of the big cities. Their speed is zero if you have no coverage. We just got LTE in Laramie WY (only 30k people) with Verizon. Verizon seems to care about more than just large cities with their coverage so I'll stick with them.

    Plus AT&T has terrible customer service.
    Reply
  • I was driving through Orlando, FL and did a speedtest on AT&T's LTE and got 53.51 Mbps Down / 17.19 Mbps Up. Needless to say big improvement from 4G.
    Reply
  • zsw11I was driving through Orlando, FL and did a speedtest on AT&T's LTE and got 53.51 Mbps Down / 17.19 Mbps Up. Needless to say big improvement from 4G.
    Correction that is actually 4g(and even then not technically by standards definition). HSPA+ is NOT 4G, no matter how badly AT&T lies in their commercials!!!!!!
    Reply
  • Also, you wouldn't notice the difference in 36Mbps vs 10Mbps. Unless you sit on the speedtest.net app and run them until your battery dies. The only thing I care about is a consistent speed and quality of that data. Otherwise a periodic peak of 36 is nice and all but doesnt matter if the data is unusable once you leave a big city.
    Reply
  • rflynn88
    I live in southern NJ and have been pretty impressed with AT&T's 4G LTE coverage in my area (iPhone 5, it probably would be a Galaxy 4 if it had LTE). Cherry Hill, Deptford, Moorestown, Marlton, Berlin, all have LTE coverage. I recently went to the Microsoft Store in Newark Delaware with a friend to get a Surface RT, sure enough LTE coverage down there as well.

    As far as speed goes; I pulled 55 Mbps down in Cherry Hill, but I generally see LTE speeds between 10-30 Mbps. I could have switched to verizon, but forcing single customers into a share plan for over $100/month was a big red flag from big red.

    AT&T customer service has been decent enough as well. I missed a bill payment once and didn't realize so they stopped my service. Customer service waived the re-activation fee without hassle and had me re-connected quickly. Other than that I've never really had to call them.

    I'm not a huge fan of AT&T, but in NJ they seem to be the best choice at the moment from a price/performance standpoint for a single customer. Also, I'm still grandfathered on the Unlimited/5GB $30 data plan.
    Reply
  • rflynn88
    ^Correction: Nexus 4
    Reply
  • RabidFace
    To everyone that says AT&T has no coverage or horrible customer service, I beg to differ. I recently just went on a contract after being on their Go Phone for about a year and I won't be switching.

    I exchanged 2 Galaxy S3s within my 14 days for various reasons without hassle, and I mean WITHOUT hassle. Explained a bit of my problem with both, and each time I received a new handset, not refurbished. Also, the day after I got my contract, I realized that the salesman didn't give me the right messaging feature so called customer service. She called out the mistake before I could even get it out. End of the story is, my first bill went from $150 to $113.

    All carriers has good and bad spots for coverage. And I actually am a fan of Verizon. But after all this that I have dealt with in the past 2 weeks being on contract with them, I am a loyal AT&T customer.

    LTE is also not bad here in the Portland metro area.
    Reply
  • Ironslice
    I don't even want LTE where I am: Tallahassee, FL. When my phone is on LTE the battery drains like 4 times as fast...
    Reply