AT&T on Tuesday followed the unusual strategy of committing to a ship date for its LTE-based 4G hardware before the network itself is active. Both the Elevate 4G hotspot and the Momentum 4G modem are do to ship on August 21. The Elevate will cost $70 on a contract after a rebate, while the Momentum will drop to $50 on the same terms.
At the same time, those who bought the Adrenaline modem earlier will get access to a software update switching on hidden LTE support as of August 26.
AT&T hasn’t narrowed down a go-live date for the LTE network itself other than before the end of the summer. All three devices will still work on HSPA and HSPA+ 3G without the faster network available.
The carrier is planning a monolithic price strategy for all data-only LTE hardware, where just one $50, 5GB tier is available. Those who need more have to pay $10 for every gigabyte over the initial transfer limit. Its pricing makes service somewhat more expensive for heavy users than Verizon, where 10GB is available for $80 instead of the $100 AT&T charges
