At CTIA, AT&T’s executive vice-president of of network
planning and architecture Kris Rinne has announced that HSUPA
(High Speed Uplink Packet Access) will be rolled out this year in
staggered phases, with the first compatible products (most likely
PC/Expess Cards) being made available by mid-year.
HSUPA is a software upgrade that increases upload speed
from the current maximum of 384kbps to a maximum of 1.8Mbps,
thus allowing for higher sustained real wold upload speeds in the
400-700kbps range, which would then class the network as an HSPA (High
Speed Packet Access) network. AT&T executives also announced
plans yesterday to rollout 58 to 65 more HSDPA markets within the year,
though no specific cities were mentioned.