AT&T Says Its 3.5G Network Is Almost Complete, But Gives Subscribers Free Access To Wi-Fi

AT&T (NYSE: T) announced today that after it upgrades six more markets to HSUPA technology in the next month, it will be done upgrading its 3G network to the higher-speed technology. To be clear, what this announcement is not saying is that the No. 1 carrier in the U.S. has blanketed the entire U.S. with the high-speed network. So, if you currently had access to 3G, you’ll now have access to 3.5G, but if you didn’t have access before, you are still likely out of luck. HSUPA is nice because it increases a customer’s uplink speed, making it easier to send videos and large files. AT&T said uplink speeds will range between 500 and 800 Kbps, which is faster than most cable and DSL networks. AT&T said it has a 3G network in more than 275 markets today, and aims to cover nearly 350 by the end of the year. However, AT&T sounds like it doesn’t really want customers to use it (data users are a big drain on resources). Yesterday, in a separate announcement, it said that customers who use a laptop wireless card will now have free access to the company’s more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, including 7,000 Starbucks locations. AT&T will make it nice and easy for you to switch over — a message will pop-up alerting that a Wi-Fi is available, and customers can just click to connect. The option is nice to have in case the cellular network is not available, but if it is, and it’s as speedy as AT&T promises, I’m not sure why you’d ever use Wi-Fi again.

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