We have even more information coming out of this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Engadget was able to have a nice chat with AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega about how they plan to expand their network coverage, among other topics.
AT&T now has 3G service in more than 350 cities. The problem has been that the coverage is still fairly spotty, but they are currently working on a frequency band transition that should remedy some of the problems. AT&T intends on transitioning from 1900MHz to 850MHz in some major cities while finishing the transition in San Francisco and parts of New York.
The lower frequency 850MHz spectrum has been growing in popularity because it provides better coverage with fewer towers. The lower frequency is also more able to penetrate through objects such as walls. AT&T has also discussed using the 700MHz band to bring added coverage to rural areas.
Ralph de la Vega also talked about AT&T's future plans on upgrading the speeds of their 3G network over the next year and a half. They think this strategy will give them an advantage over other companies like Verizon who are scrambling to get LTE implemented as quickly as possible. AT&T feels that they have more time to transition to LTE because of their large 3G network.
Engadget was not able to get much information out of de la Vega concerning Apple's iPhone. He did, however, admit to certain phones having more dropped calls than others but wouldn't specify where the iPhone would place statistically. He did say that they are constantly working with Apple to improve consistency:
"we communicate with Apple and say, you know, if we tweak this it would work better, so they've been very good about working with us and making sure that as we look at things to do the drop calls there, they're going to implement it."
When asked about new iPhone models coming out this year as well as other iPhone related information de la Vega simply said that he wouldn't answer for Apple.
To finish off the interview, Engadget asked what we can expect from AT&T this year:
"You can expect AT&T to continue to deliver some great, cool, innovative devices. You're gonna expect us to continue to improve and expand our 3G network, and you're gonna continue to see us deliver great value to customers at a time when the economy is asking our customers, or is driving our customers to seek really good values."
Hopefully by "great value" Ralph de la Vega means cheaper service plans including cheaper data prices.
AT&T should be making at least a few iPhone customers a little happier this year with better 3G coverage in some markets.
