AT&T customers in New York City areno alien to complaining about the qualityof the carrier ’s 3 G service . Wireless coverage has been peculiarly problematic in several metropolitan areas across the United States , thanks to a mortal combination of data - hungry smartphones like the iPhone , high universe density , and magniloquent building , which can be damaging to the gamy frequencies used by 3 deoxyguanosine monophosphate communication .
It seems , however , that Big Apple residents may get some respite from its electronic connection woes : AT&T has announced the pass completion of an ambitious planto amend both the capacity and efficiency of its overhaul .
Targeted specifically at smartphone users , the plan admit both hardware and software system upgrade to AT&T ’s cellular infrastructure . Most of Manhattan and some other location in the Bronx , Brooklyn and Queens now play towers that have been outfit to transmit in the 850MHz frequency spectrum , which the company says provides higher functioning .
The cell ’ connections to AT&T ’s central offices , calledbackhauls , have also been replaced to let for faster transmittal rate , while the package that runs the cellular switches themselves has been upgraded to stick out HSPA , whose datum pace can get through of up to 7.2Mbps on compatible devices , as part of a nationwide initiative .
The rising slope also admit motion aimed at taking the stress off of the 3 G oftenness in locations that regularly see a magnanimous concentration of mobile users . For instance , AT&T has put in a Wi - Fi hotspot in Times Square , which has one of the large amount of pedestrian dealings in the world . Since AT&T smartphone client can reach the hot spot for free , its availability will avail alleviate some of the over-crowding on the 3 G frequency .
Altogether , these change are already paying off , according to the company : “ Internal numbers ” show melioration in voice call quality of 47 percent and 3 G data point download accelerate by 25 pct . unluckily , the company also says that data point usance on its electronic web is up 5,000 percent from 2007 to 2009 , and it ’s rather unreadable how all these portion relate to each other ( though this writer suspect that a telephone number of New Yorkers would say “ not favourably ” ) .
AT&T has been upgrade its meshwork nationally in reaction to the step-up in data point and voice dealings caused primarily by late - generation smartphones for some time now . Last December , the company announced a 100 - day , $ 2 billion plan to introduce numerous update and upgrades into its entire system , perhaps in response to surveys that recorded its customer gratification tier among the low in the industry .
Last week , AT&T forebode , via public press button , that an rise process similar to the one just completed in New Yorkis presently under way in Chicago , where it plans on raise dozens of new cellular towers and upgrading 300 existing ones .
