In addition, at a press conference, and in a press release, AT&T detailed its 4G plans with HSPA+ and LTE, as well as upcoming handsets.
Among the highlights were:
- Just as T-Mobile does, AT&T claims HSPA+, already on nearly all its network, provides "4G speeds"
- AT&T will launch LTE later this year, as we already knew, but accelerate it to complete full deployment by 2013
- AT&T will introduce 20 new 4G devices, including modems and mobile hotspots as well as smartphones
- Motorola ATRIX 4G: HSPA+, Android 2.2, 1GHz dual-core processor via NVIDIA Tegra chipset, 1 GB of RAM, 1930 mAh battery, 10.9mm thick, launching Q1 2011
- HTC Inspire 4G: HSPA+, 4.3-inch display, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor (not dual-core), Android 2.2, new HTC Sense UI, HTCSense.com support, 8-megapixel camera and an HD video recorder
- Samsung Infuse 4G: 4.5-inch Super-AMOLED Plus display, 1.2Ghz processor (unclear if it is dual-core), Android 2.2, 8-megapixel rear camera, front-facing camera for video chat, launching Q2 2011
- 4G Tablets: Two 4G tablets, by mid-summer, one of them an LTE tablet. The first 4G tablet will come from Motorola, carrying dual core Tegra 2 with a 10.1-inch display, and carrying Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)
- There will be twelve new Android devices in 2011
- BlackBerry Torch sales have been strong
- Windows Phone 7 sales have increased steadily since launch
During the presentation, AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega was joined by HTC CEO Peter Chou, Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha, and Samsung CEO J. K. Shin, to introduce the devices.
It's interesting that AT&T has decided it needed to start calling HSPA+ 4G. While technically only 3.5G, T-Mobile has been calling it 4G, and without such a move, AT&T looked to be the only carrier without 4G.
Of course, most customers just care about speed, and don't care what it is called.
You can read the full press release below.
