iPhone News Updated

AT&T confirms network blueprint for 3G iPhone

As Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference looms large on the San Francisco horizon, rumours surrounding the imminent unveiling of a new 3G iPhone have been gathering pace on an almost daily basis.

To help bolster than momentum, communications company AT&T, which just so happens to be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States, has this week confirmed that its full 3G network will be rolled out across the US in June, which is the same month current whispers suggest Apple will officially announce the 3G iPhone.

According to AT&T, by the end of June its new 3G mobile broadband service will be just as speedy as the high-speed Internet service already enjoyed by many American consumers.

Full deployment of the 3G network is fast approaching as the company looks to install High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) into six remaining markets, which will subsequently enhance upload performance into the 500-800Kbps range, reports Apple Insider.

That performance will then complement AT&T’s existing 3G download capabilities, which currently deliver up to 1.4Mbps of performance based on High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA).

Once its final six markets are locked, AT&T will be the only US-based carrier capable of offering blanket High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) coverage throughout the region. Upon complete deployment AT&T will offer 3G in more than 275 markets, and is aiming at increasing that figure to 350 by the end of 2008.

With such wide-ranging market saturation successfully achieved, AT&T has set its 3G ambitions predictably high, looking to increase speeds towards 7.2Mbps by Q1 of 2009 at the latest. The company also expects its network performance will have grown into the range of 20Mbps before the close of 2009.

The Worldwide Developers Conference kicks off in San Francisco on June 09 and runs to June 13. During the event, Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs is widely expected to whip the covers of the 3G iPhone ahead of the company then pushing its new iPhone model into the global market through a host of recently announced international carrier deals.

[Source: http://www.thetechherald.com]

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