AT&T shows off its LTE chops; 28Mbps in lab setting

By on May 20, 2011 at 7:42 AM
General May 20, 2011

AT&T’s “4G” message may be a bit convoluted when its Long Term Evolution (LTE) network begins to bear fruit. The company has already branded its HSPA network as “4G”, although the coverage and real world speeds are less than impressive — especially when compared to other HSPA+ networks, like that of T-Mobile. But that hasn’t stopped the nation’s second largest carrier from working on a second 4G network and, thankfully, this one seems to be bringing the downlink goods. Recently, blog GigaOM was treated to a tour of AT&T’s Foundry laboratory in Texas. The site reports seeing “real world speeds” of 28.87Mbps on the downlink and 10.4Mbps on the uplink. Much better than the paltry 5Mbps down and 1Mbps up being pumped out by the company’s current 4G, HSPA network. AT&T plans to launch its LTE network in several markets by the end of this year and hopefully… these speeds hold up.

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  • Anonymous

    This article states something AT&T is doing thats good, and this thread (i bet) will be full of AT&T bashing.  Where is the first “fu*k AT&T” comment?  Or the always plentiful “they don’t even have 3g yet.”  U guys are hilarious.

    • Anonymous

      I saw 28mbps and thought to myself, “Here comes AT&T! The data wars are heating up!” Then I saw “in a lab setting” and realized it wasn’t relevant to my life in any way.

      Results in a lab setting are like movie previews. They might accurately resemble the end result, and they might not… but damn, they always look good.

      • Anonymous

        Yea but the lab tests were setup to reflect real world speeds (not max theoretical), as in they hopefully did some cell loading etc.

      • Anonymous

        I understand the point you’re trying to make. The point that I’m trying to make is that this is still a simulation. They’re trying to make it as close to reality as they can, but it’s still only going to be an approximation.

        For reference: VZW’s LTE lab tests were hitting 40/20 speeds. While AT&T’s lab tests are certainly impressive, I won’t be interested until real people are really going in on it. Nothing exposes the reality of a network like a shit-ton of people abusing it.

    • Anonymous

      Lol, 3G?  Heck, they dont even have EDGE coverage in many spots along the NYC -> Philly -> Harrisburg Amtrak corridor.

      Searching…
      Searching…
      Searching…
      NO SIGNAL

      • Thatswhatshesaid

         I bet you have an Iphone. and your just an idiot.

      • Anonymous

        Best not be calling someone an idiot if you don’t know the (2nd grade) difference between “your” (a possessive pronoun) and “you’re” (a contraction of you are).

        I’m just sayin’…. 

    • Travisw1992

      Thats why i hate coming to this site… All i ever see is horrible AT&T comments but the subscriber base obviously does not reflect it lol..
      Verizon customers are taking over these comment threads because they have nothing better to do I guess, I mean have you seen AT&T facebook page? It is a joke! People blame the because their phone is not working lol when they should be calling Samsung, ect. I love AT&T and have been a loyal customer for years. Never will I go to Verizon or Sprint or whoever else is in the market now. 

  • http://www.droiddoes.com/ Norm

    They don’t really have 4G yet so this is a good start.

  • AT&T hater

    AT&T should fix their Swiss cheese network first before starting this rollout. I’m not trolling, just stating the cold hard truth

  • CLS

    Lab setting is not reality. 28 in the lab means about 5 in the real world…..

    • Bill

      No it means that they artificially put loads on the network as if it is in the real world. This could be true…

      • Deval

         Bill, of course you can load the network when you have a dedicated site with dedicated backhaul. The real test is walking down 6th Ave in NYC and doing a speedtest. I give them credit, those numbers are impressive, but they remind me of Verizon’s original tests for theoretical speed, when their actual tests show 1/5 the speed.

      • KCRic

         Kind of like what they did before releasing the iPhone? Yeah, that went well.

    • Anonymous

      And about .5 (absolute best case scenario) in cities like NY and SF – assuming of course one is able to get and maintain a connection in the first place (will likely have to walk outside and up a block or two, as you do now with their 3G “network)”.

  • Anonymous

    It will be nice to see LTE speed test comparison’s for Verizon vs AT&T by the end of the year. Heck, even have a T-Mobile “4G” HSPA+ vs AT&T “4G” LTE vs Verizon “4G” LTE match up, in various cities such as NYC, Miami, Los Angeles, Boston, etc. 

  • Anonymous

    4G AND 2GB DATA USE=NO THANKS

    • A_g_ness

      You are 100% correct. 2gb is not even enough for 3G, imagine with 4g. I am not planning on leaving my unlimited data with Verizon anytime soon, so Fu€k AT&T.

      • Anonymous

        CORRECT,,,,MY ACTUAL USAGE ON 4G LTE W/VERIZON IS AROUND 6GB,,JUST IN 16 DAYS,,LOL LOL,,PLEASE ATT,2GB IS ………NOTHING!!

      • Travisw1992

        ummm you will not have unlimited for long haha…
        AT&T FTW  

    • Whatwhatwhat

       There is a 4 gig plan. Stop complaining if your not on it.

      • Anonymous

        Sorry ATT fan….lol lol,,,4gig plan…lol lol lol

      • Anonymous

        Pssh yea there is a 4 gig plan… that you gotta pay $45 a month for. Not happenin

  • Jon

     AT&T bashing…I’m in.
    I’ve never bashed them before….because I’ve Never used them.
    My company was on Alltel.  AT&T bought them out in this area….PROMISED us equal or better once the conversion happened.  It’s happened and I now have 140 staff complainly to me every day about how pathetic AT&T is.  Dropped calls..constantly.  Make a call and get a busy signal…..1 second later…call them back and then get through.   

    My company is NOT happy in any way shape or form with our brand new service with AT&T.  To be fair their pricing is pretty decent.  But using phones on their service is a NIGHTMARE.   

  • Chet Stovepiper

     so did they purposely design that building to look like barad dur? 

  • Jon

     I need to add the phones you get when you convert to AT&T from alltel are beyond horrible pieces of plastic crap.

    • Ijkm

      AT&T hasn’t even finished its 3G network yet. They are always on the EDGE of something amazing. smh

  • Anonymous

    I’d love to know where AT&T thinks its going to get the backhaul to support those kinds of speeds to multiple users on a single tower considering they are the major hurdle to Verizon’s LTE rollout in CT.

    Oh…thats right, they wont.

    Verizon’s current LTE offerings are what they have set the throttle too, its a balance of acceptable speeds vs. quality of service for multiple users dependent on what kind of feed they can get to the tower, thats the bottleneck these days, not the air interface.  I’ve seen as fast as 30 down and 40 UP from Verizon’s LTE when towers were lit up and testing in an un-launched market.

  • Tarpopolis

    Yeah Max Theoretical of LTE is in the 70Mbps range. The neat thing about the 2 4g networks is the second one remains for a backdown network. I am glad I will fall down to a 4g then 3g then edge rather than right down to EVDO.

  • badfishie

    Lab setting mean nothing. I have the Thunderbolt and see 20-30Mb daily in real world settings.

    • Anonymous

      I can’t wait to get AT&T 4g so my data limit can run out in 3 days.  Whats the point of 4g if you can’t take advantages of it’s best benefits without meeting your data cap quickly. 

  • Booboolala2000

    I hope we see up to at least 20mbps occasionally in real time. Like to see my Vzw put in its place so things improve not just stay the same. Is Good to see that AT&T is going to use their real 4g.

  • Ted

    Snooze

  • Anonymous

    I’m not impressed. Clearwire’s LTE Trial network gets 48/ 14 Mbps when using 10Mhz carriers. When using 20 Mhz carriers they were pushing 91/32 Mbps

    • Dude

      Trials are not real world speeds. Will it be faster than Wimax ? Most likely, but I would not expect to get those speeds

      • Anonymous

         That’s not the point. Im not expecting to see AT&T get these speeds either. What I’m saying is that the speeds that Clearwire has managed to get in a trial network, (yes i know that it is absolutely nobody using it) but its an actual network thats in place, not a “lab” test. Maybe if AT&T posted these numbers in a trial network I’d be a bit more impressed.

  • Matthew

     Wonder if they went over their monthly 2GBs data plan on that speed test. lol 

  • Anonymous

    That building has horns!

  • CMC

    Wish they’d build a 3G network that actually works some day.  Heck, a working 2G network would be an improvement.  But if they’re ready to launch 4G, then I guess they don’t need to eliminate T-Mobile after all.  Do they??

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