Hasta La Gadget!

AT&T is okay with VOIP over their wireless network. No, not their current wireless network – their future LTE network. Execs gave a picture of the network future at a Q&A session today that showed connections getting really fast, then going all data.

The nation’s number-two carrier is currently upgrading their network to HSDPA 7.2, which will up to double the speed of their current high-speed network HSDPA 3.6. Realistically, that means we’re looking at about 1.5 mbits/sec on average. After that, though, they’re going to 14.4 and even HSDPA Release 7, which offers maximum speeds of 20 Mbits/sec, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said.

“We’ve got an all-out assault to increase the bandwidth on the radio access network as well as on the backhaul,” de la Vega said.

That’s just the opening act, though. Just like Verizon Wireless, AT&T is prepping a next-generation LTE network. With LTE, everything becomes data; there are no circuit-switched voice calls. And once everything’s data, AT&T will become much more comfortable with VOIP systems like Skype, de la Vega implied. Right now AT&T disapproves of running VOIP applications like Skype for iPhone on their cellular network.

“It will be an environment where people just buy the amount of data they need. What rides on the data could be voice, and it could be whatever you want,” he said.