AT&T seeing ‘radical shift’ in cellphone usage

As part of a larger New York Times article discussing the problems some iPhone users are having with AT&T’s network, AT&T CTO John Donovan said the company has had a hard time keeping up with data demand. “It’s been a challenging year for us,” said Donovan. “Overnight we’re seeing a radical shift in how people are using their phones,” he said. “There’s just no parallel for the demand.” The report states that the company has delayed its rollout of MMS multimedia messaging for the iPhone, and has postponed computer-to-iPhone tethering as well, although it’s unclear whether the delays will last past the end of summer, as previously announced for MMS. Finally, AT&T states that the majority of the roughly $18 billion it will spend this year on its networks will go towards upgrades and expansions to help meet the demands placed on the 3G network.