AT&T’s 4G LTE Network in Atlanta Delivers Early Promising Speeds

Earlier this week, it was reported that AT&T had turned on its LTE network, though an official announcement was not yet made, in the Chicago, IL area with speeds that were a bit lackluster especially when compared against Verizon’s 4G LTE network. However, there are now reports that AT&T is also turning on its 4G LTE network in Atlanta, GA, and speeds there were a lot better than the Chicago tests.

The U.S.-based carrier which relies on HSPA+ as its 4G protocol still has yet to make an announcement stating that 4G LTE is live in either areas so these are very preliminary speed numbers and may not reflect the network once it launches.

Users reported on BGR that the Elevate hotspot modem was able to achieve download speeds of up to 25 Mbps and upload speeds were higher than 8 Mbps, which compares favorably against Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Again, since there aren’t any users on the Atlanta LTE network as AT&T hasn’t made it live and perhaps not many people know that it’s been ‘soft launched’ or has been turned on for testing, these speeds may drop when more users begin using the LTE network. For comparison, Verizon promises real world download speeds of up to 6-12 Mbps and upload speeds of between 2-6 Mbps. Real world usage is most often higher than that.