Ha Ha thats funny! In all reality though..... Gilligan's Island had a gigE fiber line ran to it back in 2009. Lol
Your area should be getting 3G/UMTS anytime now. In fact the vast majority of towers up there are supposed to be running HSPA+ by the end of the year. If you can get Uverse that would be great because the internet is fast. I can't get it at my house because I am 1 1/2 miles from the VRAD
AT&T LTE will indeed be everywhere in the U.P.
Lewyman, I'm starting to think you work for ATT 
You seem to throw out a lot of "supposed to be, should be, soon, by the end of xxx" etc...just like they feed.
Bottom line is they have been talking 3g for going on 2 years. I would hope by now we have all learned that ATT rarely meets a date they publicly state or CSR's tell people.
Once again, if you want to see how ATT operates, take a look at Sensorly 3g and 4g coverage for the carriers. It shows how pathetic ATT really is even though they promise the world.
Ha Ha.... No, I assure you I don't work for AT&T. I have received information on several occasions from someone that is actively involved in their buildout though. If you take a look at what AT&T has accomplished in the last 6 months, it is quite amazing considering how much of northern MI was EDGE this past spring. Pretty much all of the towers in northern lower MI are upgraded to 3G/UMTS/HSPA+ including several towers in the U.P. Basically, the western U.P. is the last large area in MI remaining on E with bare bones infastructure and backhaul, so it is going to take time to build out 2 generations of network technology. I'm sure there are several problems they have run into, especially with transfer lines (T-1 backhaul) and now the cold hard fact winter has set in.
As far as LTE, they will have no choice but to launch it within a certain amount of time. They are required to basically...use it or lose it and pay hefty fines. That was set by FCC, I believe to prevent companies from hording spectrum.
I have mapped many, many miles of Verizon LTE and AT&T 3G coverage in northern MI on Sensorly. Excellent program and very accurate. The question is....what percentage of people in northern MI have AT&T service and use Sensorly? And what percentage of those AT&T devices are iPhones? For some reason you cannot map coverage using an iPhone.....at least as of a few months ago. I figure with the big universities in Houghton/ Hancock and Sault St. Marie, LTE will more than likely show up in those areas of the U.P. first. I check Sensorly everyday
Lovells tower update: My source has reaffirmed that the Lovell's tower is still on Edge and because of backhaul issues it will not be upgraded until March or April.
I just heard through the grapevine that AT&T is almost set to begin testing LTE in the Traverse City area. When they do, they will launch on either band 5/850 MHz or band 4/AWS. I don't think they have any 700 MHz spectrum there yet. Northern MI will get a whole lot "brighter" by the middle of next summer
I stopped by the Lathrop tower today and the broadband panels are up.
Here are some pics.:
Links to larger images:
http://i.imgur.com/qsIe0v2.jpg?1
@Lewyman wrote:
With Midland being along 10 and so close to Mt Pleasant and Saginaw/Bay City, I am guessing they will have LTE service there before March of 2014.
I'm surprised to hear that AT&T has not deployed LTE markets in Midland. Midland has quite a large population comparable to both Saginaw and Bay City. I guess you'd think that since Midland is considered a "Tri-City", they would have had LTE up and running by now. Hmmm...
It's still great to see AT&T investing more money in network upgrades in the state of Michigan, especially in the northern counties. After all, they have some of the best views and likely draw the most tourists in the whole state.
Remember that Wild Banchi... 1993-2010 
