AT&T announced today that they have launched 4G LTE in Atlanta and Chicago. The 4G LTE standard is 10 times as fast as its predecessor communications protocol, ‘3G.’
In a company statement, AT&T said, “We continue to see demand for mobile broadband skyrocket, and now our customers in Chicago have access to the latest in mobile broadband with 4G LTE,” said Dave Fine, vice president and general manager of Illinois. “Customers can now get everything from e-mail to apps to streaming video even faster.”
AT&T also said that they intend to expand the 4G LTE coverage map in Chicago and Atlanta. The company currently has 4G LTE service in place within the cities of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
The company has a forecast of enabling 15 markets for 4G LTE service by years end. AT&T expects that by the end of this year that they will have a coverage range enabling about 70 million Americans to receive the communications protocol with hand held wireless devices and other miniature computer peripherals.
Unfortunately, there is no word from AT&T if they will increase their data cap on monthly service plans or not. With 5GB per month being a common service plan, with data transfer speeds up to 10x of 3G, 5GB per month could be consumed at a much more rapid pace when it was easy to eclipse 5GB per month initially for some “power users.”
