AT&T first LTE devices to run on 21 August (before their LTE network)

Greg Kumparak — editor of MobileCrunch.com, the mobile industry blog TechCrunch network. Greg writing for TechCrunch network since May 2008. Greg was born in the vicinity of San Jose, California and currently lives in East Bay. ? Read More

Tired of waiting for AT&T to launch their first LTE device? Yes, this is AT&T, it would seem. So much so in fact that they are prepping to launch their first LTE devices early next week. Before their LTE network even officially fired up.

So why start these devices before LTE network is up and ready? Because it allows them to say they've got LTE devices, of course. In addition, they will continue to work, to some extent, they will simply be restricted to not-quite-4 g-but-they-call-it-4 g-anyway AT&T Online HSPA +, until the light starts to LTE later this summer.

Now before you get too work my colleagues phone geeks: in what appears to be a tendency for carriers, as of late, AT&T the first device to run on the new network will not be phones — laptop, tethering devices.

For single road warriors AT&T to run the USBConnect impulse (pictured right), which would juice your laptop in LTE network via USB. For people who roam in packs, they you start raising (pictured up top), 4 G MIFI esque-powered WiFi hotspot (turn it on, let it connect to the network, 4 G and up to 5 devices over WiFi). Both start on 21 August, although the price tags on these things still seem to be in secret. (Updated: looks like the momentum will go for $ 50 on two year contract, while the increase will go for $ 70.)

AT&T also took the opportunity to confirm the monthly prices for mobile broadband devices only "LTE data (read: not phones): $ 50 per month is 5 gigabytes, each gigabyte you have over $ 10. The future of data still look pretty damn expensive.

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