Many people in the U.S. are currently enjoying AT&T’s HSPA network. After the upgrade this year to enable HSUPA alongside the HSDPA network, true mobile broadband is now available in the U.S. Unfortunately, the network is of the 1.8mbps and 3.2mbps variety in most places, making it a very slow network compared to the similar HSPA networks in Europe. Networks there are often 7.6mbps, and we are finally looking to catch up.

According to AT&T, they will be rolling out release 7 HSPA next year, in 2009. The new release will enable speeds up to 20mbps. AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has also said that AT&T’s engineers are working on 7.6mbps HSPA in their labs, which should hold us over until release 7 HSPA, and subsequently LTE, are rolled out across AT&T’s network.
AT&T emphasizes that the upgrade from their current HSPA network to 7.6mbps HSPA and release 7 HSPA is mostly just a software upgrade. This will allow them to quickly roll out their network upgrades, and create minimum hassle. LTE should be ready to begin deployment in 2010, according to AT&T. It will be backwards compatible with their HSPA and GSM network.

[Via IntoMobile]