By Sam Oliver
Published: 03:40 PM EST (12:40 PM PST)
AT&T, Apple's exclusive wireless partner in the U.S., expects in the next few weeks to gradually fix an issue that has significantly reduced upload speeds for some iPhone 4 owners.
The company announced on Monday that it has begun rolling out a fix for a software glitch that has caused slow upload speeds for weeks. The issue lies with Alcatel Lucent equipment, and affects users of Apple's newly released iPhone 4.
According to
Reuters, AT&T will be
implementing the "gradual" fix over the next two to three weeks. The iPhone 4 is the only handset affected, because it is the only smartphone that uses the network's HSUPA technology.
AT&T said that users in markets with the defective software will be restricted to data speeds no greater than 384Kbps until the fix is in place. That's an improvement from previous reports from users, who said their uploads were
as slow as 100Kbps.
Earlier this month, AT&T revealed the
software defect was at fault for the issues. The company said the issue has affected less than 2 percent of its wireless customer base.
"AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect -- triggered under certain conditions -- that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment," the company said. As a temporary fix, they provided normal 3G uplink speeds for affected customers.
When working properly, High-Speed Uplink Packet Access can allow theoretical uplink speeds of 5.76Mbit/s. The glitch does not affect download speeds, AT&T said.
