Cingular will expand its 3G UMTS data network on November first according to a posting on Cingular's internal sales website. Service has already been up in several markets thanks to a joint deal between AT&T Wireless and NTT DoCoMo last year.
After the first, the active UTMS markets will be: Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle and Tacoma.
Cingular claims the average download speed is 220-320 kbps. Once the network is updated to UMTS with HSDPA, download speeds should reach 400-700 kbps which is what users are getting with EV-DO from Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel.