AT&T boosts capacity again for mystery product

AT&T is readying its network for an upgrade to handle devices it can't even announce yet, a tentative rumor would indicate today. The US carrier has purportedly been holding individual meetings with regional managers to ensure the network can support unnamed devices, including hardware that will require "heavy data." The BGR contact doesn't have any insight into the products in question.

When these upgrades would be necessary is also unknown and isn't necessarily a short-term prospect. Although it comes just a few days before Apple's January 27th event and a possibly 3G-aware tablet, network upgrades often require longer efforts and here may apply to other hardware, such as Apple's increasingly frequent iPhone releases during the summer. Some rumors have the tablet arriving in March or June.

Apple has been the most common impetus behind AT&T upgrades in the past three years and has been responsible for upgrades to EDGE speeds, a more rapid deployment of 3G and capacity upgrades to established 3G networks to handle expected demand.

Talk has increased in the past day of Apple dealing with Verizon for tablets and iPhones, but it's unlikely Apple will simply switch exclusives; technology also exists that will let it sell devices to both AT&T and Verizon without necessarily using separate production runs.

By Electronista Staff