AT&T sources have confirmed that it is upgrading it existing wireless network in view of the launch of the next generation iPhone expected in mid 2009. This is the third major upgrade the company is going to implement as the official iPhone carrier in the US. The launch of the first generation iPhone was preceded by the company upgrading its whole Edge network and the iPhone 3G was launched after the company upgraded their network to 3G spectrum.  

This time the company is planning to double its existing downlink capacity of its high-speed packet access (HSPA) 3.6 megabits per second to 7.2 megabits per second through software upgrades. The company is also reported to be getting ready for major upgrade of its 3G mobile data service in anticipation of the expected new iPhone hardware’s high network traffic. 

There are speculations that Apple has set May 31st as the deadline for the network carrier to implement the necessary upgrades.

Scott McElroy, vice president of technology realization with AT&T Mobility told TelephonyOnline ” we feel very good about our spectrum position, and we say that with full understanding of what the data demands would be.” 

All these network tweaks and upgrade are in anticipation of the soon expected next generation iPhone that would support data intensive features like streaming video and video calls (possibly). It’s good that AT&T is doing their best to burn themselves up.