Skip to main content

AT&T quietly enables 4G LTE network in NYC

AT&T LTE

Late Thursday, AT&T customers in New York City began noticing something strange about their wireless signal: It wasn’t just 3G anymore. That’s because AT&T has quietly begun to roll out its long-awaited 4G LTE network in parts of the Big Apple.

The launch of LTE in New York is not yet official, even if it is real. The company has denied reports that its LTE network has launched in NYC, telling Business Insider that “AT&T has not launched LTE in NYC nor announced it — nothing new to add today.” Still, the company goes on to say that “as we work to turn on more markets, testing will be taking place. It’s possible you may see 4G LTE in markets we have not yet launched which would explain your experience and recent blog chatter.”

In other words, LTE has technically launched, but it may simply be for testing purposes, meaning the service may go down at any point. If you have one of AT&T’s LTE-enabled devices, which include the HTC Vivid, Samsung Galaxy S II “Skyrocket,” or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, and you live in New York City, today is the day to check out the new ultra-fast system, in case they decide to power down the system, now that all us pesky tech bloggers have let the cat out of the bag.

How fast, you ask? The Verge is reporting download speeds up to 41Mbps and upload speeds of around 15Mbps — far faster than the 5 or 6Mbps typically allowed on AT&T’s “4G” HSPA+ network.

Editors' Recommendations

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
T-Mobile’s 5G and 4G LTE networks are nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T
The T-Mobile logo on a smartphone.

Ookla's second-quarter market report has just gone live, revealing that T-Mobile still has a commanding lead over rivals Verizon and AT&T when it comes to offering the fastest and most consistent speeds throughout the U.S.

T-Mobile took the top spot for performance on both its 5G and 4G/LTE networks, with median download speeds of 187.33Mbps on 5G and 116.54Mbps across the board. Overall, that's nearly twice as fast as Verizon and AT&T, which clocked in at 59.67Mbps and 54.64Mbps, respectively. The Un-carrier also delivered the most consistent speeds of the bunch, with 85.7% of tests showing at least 5Mpbs download and 1Mbps upload speeds.

Read more
This crazy Nokia phone has a pair of true wireless earbuds inside
The Nokia 5710 XpressAudio phone with its earbuds in the back.

True wireless headphones always come inside a case, so why not make that case a phone? That’s HMD Global’s thinking with the new Nokia 5710 XpressAudio, another retro classic from Nokia’s archive reimagined for today.

This time you get a normal-looking feature phone with a slide-down panel on the back, which when opened reveals a handy pair of true wireless headphones. Just like every other case for true wireless headphones, the earbuds are kept charged when placed inside the phone.

Read more
T-Mobile’s 5G network just beat Verizon and AT&T (again)
T-Mobile smartphone.

T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T always claim to be America's best 5G network in their commercials. T-Mobile boasts this even more so, and as it turns out, it's true. During PCMag's annual Best Mobile Network test (previously known as the Fastest Mobile Network test), T-Mobile won over Verizon and AT&T as the Best Mobile Network for the second year in a row.

PCMag gave T-Mobile the title after testers drove 10,000 miles across the country to measure its performance against Verizon and AT&T. The test involved driving to 30 cities and six rural regions to test each mobile carrier's reliability using Samsung Galaxy S22+ smartphones. As expected, T-Mobile won that contest in 18 cities out of 30, followed by Verizon with eight and AT&T with four.

Read more