AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) said on Friday it started rolling out a software update that adds HSUPA capabilities to its HTC Inspire 4G smartphone, and will soon do the same for the Motorola Mobility (NYSE:MMI) Atrix 4G, delivering on a promise it made in late March to add HSUPA support sometime in April.
The carrier said the update for the Atrix cleared testing and will be deployed soon. "Updates will roll out to customers of both phones over the coming weeks," AT&T said in a statement. "Users will get a message on their device notifying them of an update and to connect to Wi-Fi to download it. After downloading it, the user needs to only allow the update to automatically install."
AT&T confirmed in March, via responses to inquiries to the Better Business Bureau, that it was not capping uplink speeds on the phones, but that it had simply not turned on the functionality. It is still unclear why the devices' HSUPA radios, which support data uplinks of up to 5.76 Mbps, were not enabled when AT&T released them earlier this year. An AT&T spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the issue.
AT&T also noted that its other recently announced HSPA+ smartphone, the Samsung Infuse 4G, will ship with its HSUPA radio turned on. The phones are part of a batch of HSPA+ smartphones the carrier is deploying to take advantage of its HSPA+ network and enhanced backhaul speeds ahead of its launch of LTE later this year. AT&T expects to cover the majority of its network with HSPA+ and upgraded backhaul connections by year-end.
For more:
- see this PC Magazine article
- see this CNet article
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