We’ve reported before that AT&T is scrambling to upgrade its network capacity in time for the next generation iPhone’s launch this summer but an interesting tidbit of news has slipped by that may shed some more light on what Apple will be packing in its new handheld: much faster data speeds.

Scott McElroy, AT&T Mobility’s vice president of technology announced the plans to move data speeds from the current 3.6Mb/s to 7.2Mb/s through a simple Software upgrade at their cellular towers. Of course this would require a change in hardware for any cellular device that connects to it if a wireless subscribers wants to take advantage of the higher throughput but it does give some credence towards the next generation iPhone’s wireless capabilities and it would be surprising if Apple didn’t support the faster HSPA + spec with speeds of 7.2/14.4 and 21Mb/s.

McElroy didn’t give an estimation on when the faster 3G network would launch but did say that it will be tested in two markets shortly and reiterated AT&T’s focus on upgrading the cellular baseband through software upgrades within their towers to boost speed over installing more equipment. The rationale behind a pure software upgrade path is the imminent migration to 4G hardware such as LTE which would be a massive upgrade over current 3G technology.

Via: iPhone Alley