AT&T goes live on 3G

Four cities

AT&T Wireless is expected to announce its first 3G services in four US cities. The service will be available in Detroit, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. AT&T Wireless is in the process of being bought by Cingular for $41bn but had a legal obligation to offer next generation services. AT&T had to offer 3G services in four cities by the end of the year or pay a penalty to Japanese mobile fim NTT DoCoMo.

AT&T refused to give details of the new service ahead of a conference call later today but told the Seattle Times that executives from NTT DoCoMo, HP, Microsoft and Real Networks would join the call. AT&T originally planned to offer 3G in 13 cities by the middle of the year but problems with the technology meant those plans were scaled back. ®

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