AT&T Rolls Out LTE Connections In Five U.S. Cities

AT&T launched its latest mobile broadband speed upgrade in five select cities around the country. The upgrade known as 4G LTE debuted September 19 in Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston, Atlanta, and Chicago, with rollouts in 10 more cities by the end of 2011, reaching a potential 70 million points of presence, or POPs.

The debut is the beginning of a move to offer consumers higher connectivity speeds, reportedly approaching those of Wi-Fi. According to one computer magazine, the technology is a speed breakthrough. PC Magazine wrote:

"We did eight rounds of testing and found that AT&T's Houston network is even faster than Verizon's... The AT&T network averaged out with about 24Mbps downloads and peaked at 42.85Mbps, the fastest cellular connection we've ever seen."

According to AT&T Chief Technology Officer, John Donovan, LTE is just part of a massive investment on the part of the Dallas-based company.

"We've invested $75 billion in our wireless and wired networks over the last four years - more capital invested in the U.S. than any company in any industry. And we plan to invest $19 billion in our wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects this year."

This LTE build-out reinforces that AT&T is the best merger partner for faltering T-Mobile. A merger would mean that AT&T could further increase its investment in technology, and add good, well-paying, union jobs.

AT&T launches LTE in 5 cities (FierceBroadbandWireless)

AT&T vs. Verizon: LTE, Head-to-Head (PC Magazine)

AT&T’s 4G Evolution (AT&T Innovation Space)