3G received props from both AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile USA Inc. at the ATIS conference this week, with executives from both saying that upgrades to their HSPA networks will come before any rollout of LTE.
AT&T and T-Mobile have both targeted 2010 as a possible timeframe for LTE deployment. T-Mobile said a commitment to HSPA first will allow it some breathing room.
“This gives us time for LTE to evolve,” Ray said in his keynote at the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions’ LTE conference. “Sometimes you want to pioneer, sometimes you don’t. We can wait.”
T-Mobile is not yet in possession of LTE-ready spectrum. But AT&T, for its part, is sitting on its winnings from the 700MHz spectrum auction last year.
