Just when you thought the iPhone rumor fire had reached its max, somebody comes along and adds more fuel to the blaze.
AT&T announced an upgrade to its 3G network Wednesday. The telco is claiming up to 50 percent increases in upload speeds and increases in download speeds of up to twenty percent. Mobile downloads in particular are now a blazing 1.7 megabits per second (Mbps) according to AT&T's numbers:
AT&T says its announcement is targeting the laptop-connect crowd -- those who want to use a mobile phone connection to access the internet on a laptop with a 3G expansion card in it. However, the timely message comes days before Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, where Apple CEO Steve Jobs is rumored to debut the next generation iPhone with 3G capability. One can only assume this hypothetical 3G mobile device would take advantage of the new speed upgrades, giving the iPhone the capability to run more feature-heavy and download-intensive webapps even when the user wanders away from a wi-fi connection. We will have to wait until the developers conference begins on Monday to find out for sure.
To put AT&T's speed increases in perspective, the upgrade brings mobile data connection speeds in line with the lower range of DSL or Cable broadband speeds. For example, cable connections usually offer between 1 Mbps and 6 Mbps for downloads and 128 Kbps and 768 Kbps for uploads.
The upgrades are results of recent network enhancements, including the deployment of High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) technology. AT&T hopes as HSPA technology evolves, peak speeds could reach 20 Mbps. AT&T plans on further upgrades as the next generation of the protocol, HSPA+, develops -- as early as 2009.
