AT&T's planned HSPA+ 3G upgrade will hit more areas and deliver much faster real-world speeds than expected, the company's operations president John Stankey said in a presentation at a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch telecoms event today. Initially characterized as hitting only strategic locations, the faster service should now reach most areas and hit a practical 7Mbps speed when its network is unhindered. The benchmark is roughly in the middle of Verizon's estimated 4G speeds, although its LTE-based hardware will give lower latency and higher peak speeds of 12Mbps.
