Consumers Will Not See AT&T’s First LTE Smartphone Until Late 2011
For all of the loyal AT&T users patiently awaiting the carrier’s first LTE smartphone, it appears as if the wait will continue into the end of 2011. As AT&T is just beginning to get its LTE coverage off the ground the company confirmed they will not be offering any LTE smartphones until late 2011. AT&T did say they plan to offer LTE data cards sometime before that. On the bright side, that means we should see at least one LTE smartphone before the New Year rings in.
AT&T’s senior vice president for mobility and consumer markets, Peter Ritcher was positive about the company’s HSPA+ network, suggesting that it has been working to get the most out of it while waiting for LTE handsets to mature. Ritcher continued to remark that AT&T will let customers “fall back to faster speeds than our competitors” when they finally make the crossover to LTE.
