AT&T 4G LTE Coming to New York City by Year End

AT&T’s LTE expansion will officially hit New York City later this month.

John Stephens, the senior executive vice president and CFO for AT&T, announced that the wireless carrier will cover 70 million users with LTE service by the end of 2011.

This follows reports of unofficial LTE availability in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn.

AT&T has trailed its chief competitor, Verizon Wireless, in deploying its next generation network. Verizon started its push for 4G LTE last year and is now in a growing number of metropolitan areas.

I had a chance to test AT&T’s LTE network while in Atlanta for Thanksgiving, and when it’s available, the network is exceedingly fast. As with Verizon’s implementation, however, LTE devices — including the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket and HTC Vivid — suck down battery life faster than non-LTE handsets.

Still, for many users, increased speeds might be worth battery-life compromises. AT&T said today that it expects to break its single-quarter records for smartphone sales — thanks to increased demand for high-speed devices as well as strong sales of phones like the iPhone 4S.

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