AT&T to support HSUPA on all handsets within 1-2 months?

The battle over who has the fastest 4Gnetwork with most coverage is far from over, but recent outrage overslow upload speeds on AT&T might have given other carriers theedge. After users rushed in reports about upload speeds of lessthan a megabyte on the newly launched HTC Inspire 4G, AT&T replied that the phone simply doesn'tsupport HSUPA. AT&T's 3G HSPA network consists of theHSDPA part for downloads and HSUPA for uploads. In our review,we found upload speeds to peak at around 150kbps, much lower thanwhat the Inspire 4G should be capable of. What is the reason?

HSUPA is most likely present on thehandset, but for some reason it seems disabled in the firmware, so afuture update might fix the issue. Latest information by a sourcequoted by Engadget points to the 3GPP protocol as the mainissue behind this. Currently, AT&T handsets authorize as 3GPPRelease 5 devices on the network. This might not mean much to you,but what matters here is that the fifth version of the protocoldoesn't support HSUPA. The updated 3GPP Release 6, however,does, and as soon as AT&T allows devices to authorize as Release6, the magic of fast upload speeds will happen. There is oneexception to the rule and not surprisingly it is the iPhone 4. Thehandset uses the sixth release, which grants it much faster uploads.

Well, this solves the mystery, but justwhen are the higher speeds coming? AT&T is believed to allowother devices to use 3GPP Release 6 within 1-2 months. So,let's wait up, it should be well worth it.

source: Engadget