I had to add a new category for this, “Quickie”, because it’s going to be short.

Don’t ask how, but I’ve got a good reason to believe that AT&T is rolling out 3G in Chattanooga on June 30th.

AT&T’s 3G coverage nationwide is currently just above pitiful, so it makes sense they’re expanding it.

However, think to yourself what else has launched at the end of June before and what is expected to launch in roughly the same time period this year. I’ll let you figure it out.

All I’m saying is the rollout around the 30th is probably not limited to Chattanooga and is probably going to consist of a lot more than just a technology launch. I mean, you would probably want to launch a flagship product to demonstrate it, right?

(Note, everything below the Chattanooga rollout statement is speculation, but damn if it doesn’t sound just right.)

EDIT (June 11, 2008):

Sorry, I didn’t get to find much more out yet or write a post, but I did make this. I placed 28 of the 3G towers onto a Google Map. This isn’t complete, though. For example, there are more between the big group of Chattanooga ones and the single Cleveland one. There are some important boundaries, though. The towers go no further north, south, east, or west at this time than the farthest towers in those directions.

This is going to be a tiered rollout. If your area doesn’t have it yet, and you are close to the Chattanooga market, they are working on pushing it out in the weeks (and, most likely, months) following the June 30th activation date. If I get any more info or find out changes to the “go” time, I’ll add it to this post.
View Larger Map

This data is correct as of 5/31/08. I didn’t post a screenshot of the interface I’m looking at for two reasons.

1) I’m pretty sure I can’t show the *actual* program I’m pulling these from, and my AT&T reps already know I blog here. (But, I mean, there’s nothing wrong with arbitrarily placing little dots on a Google Map that just so happen to roughly line up with coverage, right?)

2) You can’t tell anything from a screenshot. It shows all towers: new, old, dead, and dying. You have to pull up another popup for each one to get useful information.