Last week, Cupertino-based Apple unveiled to the world its first tablet, the already widely known and commented upon iPad. The new device was announced to hit the market in the United States via the long term carrier partner for the company, none other than AT&T. The Apple iPhone is also available from AT&T, something that has created quite a few issues when it comes to the performance of the operator's network, and now another bandwidth hungry device joins it, the iPad, something that rises questions on the capability of AT&T's airwaves to withstand all the strain.

Most of you might have learned already that AT&T's 3G network has been heavily criticized due to a great deal of issues its subscribers faced, including frequently dropped calls, slow download speeds, some network outages, and more. Metropolitan areas are those with most issues, such as New York and San Francisco, since they are more densely populated and the demand for 3G services is higher here. If the iPhone hasn't managed to put the network on its knees, though it was close to doing so occasionally, the launch of the iPad, coupled with the increasing number of iPhone users with AT&T, might just do so.

On the other hand, the carrier says that it has in plan a great deal of enhancements to its network during the ongoing year. The company is reportedly gearing up for multi-billion spendings for increasing capacity and expanding coverage of its 3G network in 2010. Work on this direction has started since last year, when AT&T added 1,900 new cell sites to the network, expanded 3G coverage to 360 markets, and also started deploying spectrum in the 850MHz frequency bands, to strengthen its 3G signal. Moreover, it also announced HSPA 7.2 speeds available for its users, showing that it can keep up with the increasing demand for data connectivity.

John Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T Operations, said recently, “We're very pleased to say that one of the 7.2-enabled devices that will have connectivity on our network is Apple's new iPad, which was unveiled yesterday. […] We're really excited about the device, and we work closely with Apple in planning for its connectivity on our network. AT&T is a natural fit for the iPad, given the combination of the ever-improving speed of our 3G network and our robust Wi-Fi capabilities. We have a thorough technical understanding, with a good read on the iPad's usage requirements and characteristics, and all that is included in our network plans for 2010.”