Brace yourself. The "who's the fastest 3g" battle may be getting new life. AT&T announced the completion of their deployment of High-Speed-Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 across 3G sites nationwide. It should make the "nations fastest 3G network" even faster.

In addition to the HSPA upgrade, AT&T has started to enhance the network with cell site backhaul connections. Initial deployment of backhaul connections has already started in six U.S. markets (Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami) with the installation scheduled to expand to other cities later this year and into 2011.

"We are focused on providing our customers with the industry's best combination of mobile broadband speed, performance, coverage and available devices," said John Stankey, president and CEO, AT&T Operations. "As we light up new backhaul connections across the country, we're able to deliver a meaningful 3G speed boost for millions of customers who are already using HSPA 7.2-compatible devices. At the same time, we're also looking to the future with these backhaul enhancements, which will support our move to next-generation LTE technology starting in 2011."

The progress AT&T is making in improving their network speeds is good news for customers and will likely give Luke Wilson more ammunition to toss at the competition.

Read: prnewswire.com

Update:  It looks like our friends over at Android Central are reporting the T-Mobile has also completed similar upgrades to their 3G network.

Sure enough, that's an HTC Touch Diamond 2 for $589.99 at Newegg. [via] But before you go dropping that much jing, do notice our awesome Photoshop skills, which have highlighted the data transfer section of the specs. That's right, there's no U.S. 3G. (Yes, it'll still work on GPRS and EDGE. And as you read in our review, they work just fine.) Also, we didn't notice any "Shipping on xxxx" disclaimers, but ...

So if you're hoping for the full-fledged U.S. version of the phone, you're just gonna have to keep on waiting a little while longer.

Update: Engadget notes that, in fact, these are just the same old terms we've been living under for a while now. So, nothing new to see here. In other news, the sky is falling.

It's baaaack. Nearly a month after updating and then un-updating its terms of service, AT&T again has put in a clause that could make apps like Slingbox a big no-no.

Here's the section we're interested in, emphasis ours:

... downloading movies using P2P file sharing services, redirecting television signals for viewing on Personal Computers, web broadcasting, and/or for the operation of servers, telemetry devices and/or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition devices is prohibited. Furthermore, plans (unless specifically designated for tethering usage) cannot be used for any applications that tether the device (through use of, including without limitation, connection kits, other phone/PDA-to computer accessories, Bluetooth® or any other wireless technology) to Personal Computers (including without limitation, laptops), or other equipment for any purpose.

We're trying to get clarification on the "viewing on Personal Computers" clause. Smartphones certainly could be argued into that category, though the TOS use the word "phone" in a number of other instances. We'll let you know what we find out. In the meantime, you can read the whole TOS for yourself.

DSL Reports via Electronista

We've been expecting AT&T to beef up its 3G network in the coming months, and now we have some details.

AT&T Mobility VP Scott McElroy says software updates will double the downstream speed to 7.2 megabits per second and are already being tested in two markets. The rest of the network is targeted for an upgrade thereafter.

But AT&T's looking past that and toward HSPA+, which will increase speeds to 21 Mb/s. And looking even further into the future, tests with the 4G LTE standard should begin sometime next year.

Acronyms and numbers aside, what does this all mean? Quite simply, be on the lookout for faster speeds on an AT&T network near you.

TelephonyOnline via Phonescoop

Along with the speculation that T-Mobile is getting the HTC Snap and Touch Pro 2, it now looks like the service provider will be expanding its 3G Network. Tmonews has posted a leaked memo purportedly showing a list of cities  to receive 3G coverage the rest of this year.

As early as this month Shreveport, La; Lubbock, Texas; and Wichita Falls, Texas are to go live with 3G. June has cities such as Henderson, Nevada; Pueblo, Colorado, and Daytona Beach, Florida going live. Along with others, we'll keep this filed in the Rumor Mill for now but if true, combined with the new phone releases, it will be an productive year for T-Mobile.

Via AndroidCentral and IntoMobile

AT&T reportedly is contacting some customers to see if they'd like to test out a femtocell service.

Writes Ars Technica:

An Ars Technica reader forwarded a customer survey question he'd seen after being solicited by AT&T for his opinion: "AT&T's new product is a small, security-enabled cellular base station that easily connects to your home DSL or Cable Internet, providing a reliable wireless signal for any 3G phone in every room of your house. The device allows you to have unlimited, nationwide Anytime Minutes for incoming or outgoing calls."

Sprint has been offering femtocells for a while now under the name AIRAVE. For the uninitiated, it's a router-looking device that hooks into your broadband Internet connection and spits out a short-range (like, inside your house) 3G signal. Helpful if you're in an otherwise poor coverage area.

Sprint's and AT&T's offerings are different from T-Mobile's @Home service, which needs special handsets and doesn't just spit out a pure cellular signal.

No word on what AT&T might charge for the service. Sprint is charging $100 for its AIRAVE base station, $5 a month for the service, another $10 for unlimited use, plus the usual taxes and fees. [edited] So, how much is a better signal that you're already paying for worth to you?

Having to make do with "old" technology is a bitter pill to swallow. Witness the recent move by AT&T, which according to OFB is relegating its EDGE service to the 1900MHz band from the 850MHz band and giving its 3G service some 850MHz exclusivity.

Why should you care? If you're in a 3G service area, you're going to get a better signal with the 850 band than you would with 1900. And that should equate to better battery life. But if you're in a 3G area and are running on EDGE because you're forcing your phone to connect to 2G, you're going to suffer a little, both in signal quality and battery life.

And our friends at the The iPhone Blog, who certainly have a vested interest (see iPhone 2G), raise an interesting point: What's that mean for customers in an EDGE-only area? Are they going to get screwed over in the name of progress? Is this just a move to indirectly force customers to upgrade their phones? And is there really anything wrong with that?

AT&T's definitely growing its 3G network, but there are still plenty of people without it.

Open For Business via Gizmodo & TiPB

We really weren't expecting to see 3G out of the box with T-Mobile's upcoming Shadow II, and it's looking more and more like that's the case.

The bad news, from a blurrycam shot from TmoNews of the Shadow II: GPRS/EDGE only.

The semi-interesting news: We get another (albeit blurry) shot of how the color scheme's gonna play out, again confirming the red and silver paint jobs we've already seen. Also note the release date of Jan. 28, which also matches up with what's been reported.

So at this point our previous question still stands: If the Shadow II truely has a 1700MHz 3G radio as the FCC testing implied, will we ever see it implemented? And the other burning question: Is UMA and WinMo 6.1 enough of an upgrade to the Shadow line to make you want one?

Update: In more "meh" news, the Boy Genius reports that the Shadow II will be called ... wait for it ... Shadow 2009.

Our friends at WMPowerUser have found a HTC Touch HD service manual (pdf link), and lookie what’s in there. A reference to the U.S. 3G bands of 850 and 1900 MHz.

But while our hearts briefly went pitter patter over what might have been, our heads tell us this is more a case of misprint than a sign that HTC has changed their mind on whether or not to bring the Touch HD to the U.S.

We pinged HTC and they confirmed it: Despite what this manual states, there are no plans to bring the Touch HD to the U.S.

Still, we have to admit, if you don't mind EDGE, it's worth considering importing this lovely phone.

Oh, the dreaded question headline. It indicates that, in all likelihood, you will finish reading this post and not have an answer to the question.

And you won’t.

You’ll be left pondering, like us, whether the T-Mobile Shadow II, recently outed by the Federal Communications Commission (thanks, guys!), will meet the public with 3G speeds. The conundrum, as posed by AllShadow.com:

• The FCC documents clearly show that the Shadow II’s radio is capable of working the 1700MHz band. That, as you well know, is T-Mobile’s very own 3G playground.
• However, the post’s author, Mike Benton, writes that he has an unnamed inside source who says that the Shadow II won’t launch with 3G.

Benton’s conclusion? The phone likely won’t launch with 3G enabled in the initial ROM build, thanks to delays in T-Mo’s rollout. He posits that an update (official or otherwise) likely will turn on 3G at some point.

Shocking, we know, to think that a phone would launch at the end of 2008 and still not have 3G. But the idea isn’t totally without precedent. When the Palm Treo 750 officially launched on Cingular (now AT&T), 3G wasn’t enabled. (Edit: UMTS was available, but not HSDPA.) That didn’t come until the update to Windows Mobile 6, though an easy patch leaked out soon enough. At the time, Cingular’s high-speed network wasn’t anywhere near what we’re used to today, and T-Mo’s 3G network is still in its infancy, though it’s growing quickly.