AT&T CTO John Donovan mentioned at a San Francisco conference today that the speed of the carrier's 3G network upgrades have been slowed by some extraordinary factors. He noted that parts shortages have been a significant factor and have prevented the company from upgrading when it would like even when the plans were in place. The explosion of interest in smartphones has also "broken down" the usual testing routine by providing many more chipsets and devices to verify, the executive said.
