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AT&T jumped on the 4G bandwagon to save face in the public arena. However, things have not worked out they way they planned as they have been called out by numerous testing facilities on the speed of their ’4G’ network. Today AT&T announced an upgrade to that ’4G’ network in San Diego. What I find interesting is that they state that it will enable the ’4G’ speeds that they claim they already have.

“AT&T*, building on its strong 2010 record of network accomplishments, today announced network improvement plans designed to enable 4G speeds** and enhanced reliability to San Diego and surrounding communities in 2011.  The wireless network enhancement plans are part of AT&T’s planned $19-billion investment in its wireless and wireline networks and other capital projects in 2011.” (Source – PRNewswire).

So really they don’t have the fastest network in the nation if they need to spend $19-billion to upgrade their network. Just something to think about.

As a side note – I have been a customer of the same network here in Las Vegas since 1997, which is now owned by AT&T. Am I a little critical? You betcha, the network service has been rapidly degrading over the last few years and is now bad enough to where I am looking for another service provider. Way to go AT&T!

UPDATE: AT&T has also announced a network upgrade in Portland, the release seems to be pretty close to a cut and paste job with some extra details. I am seeing a trend here…

Verizon announced that they are having an issue with their ’4G’ LTE and 3G handoff. What is the issue? When you roam from the LTE service to the 3G service you will loose your connection for up to 2 minutes. While they say that they are working on a fix, why didn’t they test for this before they launched? It is not really a show stopper, but gives me pause that someone missed this during testing and begs the question; what else did they miss?

2 minutes is a long time to loose your connection. Say goodbye to your streaming video, surfing, video conference, streaming audio, etc. Not such a big deal when you are walking, but we have enough issues with people using their phones while driving to add trying to restart your connection is a problem.

True, they don’t have phones yet. All you can use with the LTE service is a USB dongle, so only the laptop users are having issues. I am sure that they will find a solution before the phones hit the market, but still what a let down.

While Sprint won’t say who will be producing the tablet yet, they did indicated that it would be next year (2011). I find this interesting since CES is right around the corner, and the tablets will most likely be announced at that time. Currently there are 12 tablets that are slated to be announced at CES, but that number may grow.

There will be no shortage of tablets for Sprint to choose from next year, as handset makers vie to steal market share away from Apple’s iPad. In addition to RIM, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, LG and others all plan to release tablets next year.

As with all new things there will be the exceptional, the good, and the bad. Since I am going to CES (again), I will see what I can dig up while I am there as far as Sprint’s new tablet. Of course, since I am not the mainstream media, I will probably be finding out after everyone else. At least I might get to touch it though.

Have you seen the Clear ads? Well, you might not have if they haven’t launched in you area. Some of the ads are good, others not so much but they all have a common theme; 4G mobile internet is really here.

I have the service and can honestly say that I am rather happy with what has been built. I have used the service in multiple markets and while it is not perfect (like any wireless service) it does what is says (for the most part). Yes, you can stream video. Yes, you can check email. Yes, you can share it with your friends (with a WiFi adapter). No it’s not perfect. There are only so many sites available in any particular market, and while Clearwire has an aggressive build out plan, for some that is not enough.  You will loose connectivity at some point in time, and for that people will try to complain.

Look at it from this point of view though; this is the first nation-wide WiMAX market build in the US. Will it have problems, of course. Look at the cell networks of not so long ago that dropped your call every few seconds, they were horrible but we wanted them anyway (and paid premium prices for it). So now this new system has hit the streets, and it’s time for the critics to come out to play.

The service is a good alternative for those whom have nothing else or need mobility. How I would love to take my cable connection with me everywhere I go, but that is not feasible. The alternative is Clear (pardon the pun). I have streamed movies from Netflix, worked remotely, and even checked my email. So I am happy with the service.

As a final note; The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author alone, and do not convey the views and/or opinions of the Clearwire Corporation, Clear, or any of it partners.