AT&T begins cannibalizing its 2G and 3G networks to boost LTE capacity

Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are all turbo-charging their 4G networks, but AT&T won’t be left out of the party. It’s begun building a new LTE network in the PCS band, the swath of digital communications spectrum where carriers have traditionally run their 2G voice and 3G data services.

AT&T actually revealed its plans to cannibalize -- or as they say in industry speak, refarm -- portions of its networks for LTE in an August Federal Communications Commission filing related to Ma Bell’s planned acquisition of Leap Wireless. AT&T SVP of Network Planning and Engineering William Hogg wrote that AT&T was in the process of deploying LTE in PCS and would launch the service commercially in Baltimore, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington (DC) by the end of this year. But AT&T began laying the groundwork for this move well over a year ago. The new network will give AT&T a significant boost in overall LTE capacity. Between the two networks, AT&T will be able to support a lot more connections and maintain its current speeds even as its network grows more crowded.