Ball State students have been experiencing faster speeds on their 4G capable mobile phones, as long as their mobile provider is AT&T.
The increase in speed isn't a fluke or temporary. On Sunday, AT&T turned on its 4G LTE network in Muncie.
"AT&T is in the process of rolling out 4G LTE nationally and upgrading our network," AT&T spokesman Jim Kimberly said. "Our goal is to have a nationwide 4G LTE network. Muncie is apart of that rollout."
The money required to roll out the network comes out of AT&T's pocket.
"It involves quite a bit of a private investment on behalf of AT&T," Kimberly said. "We're proud to do it. We invest a lot of money in our network, and we want out customers to have a great experience."
In AT&T's efforts to provide a nationwide 4G LTE network, the company also made the network available to two other cities affiliated with college campuses, Bloomington and Bryan-College Station, Texas, on Sunday.
College campuses are being targeted for the 4G LTE network because of students' high demand for its benefits.
"Our 4G LTE rollout in Muncie is an example of our efforts to address areas where we're seeing high demand, like near college campuses," AT&T spokeswoman Tammy Rader said in a previous Daily News article.
Students will benefit from the network because the 4G LTE network allows for fast, wireless Internet connection. The instantaneous connection will benefit students because now they can check and do homework assignments from their phones without a decrease in speed, Kimberly said.
The network will also benefit AT&T's iPhone 4S customers.
"The iPhone 4S is a 4G phone and is reaching 4G speeds on the AT&T network," said Kimberly.
AT&T's announcement of Muncie becoming 4G LTE capable prevented current AT&T customer Nick Thee, who is a sophomore advertising major, from changing to Sprint's iPhone 4S, he said.
"I'm excited about this because I'm really impatient," he said. "I bought the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note and now I can finally get the 4G speed that I paid for. I almost changed phones for Sprint's iPhone 4S, but now I'm going to stay with my phone."
With Muncie being added to the list of cities where AT&T's 4G LTE network is accessible, senior telecommunications major Ryan Yapp said he sees a symbol of success.
"It shows a lot of progress on how far Muncie and Ball State have come, especially Ball State," Yapp said.
"This [4G LTE network] is the platform everyone will be using," Kimberly said. "This is the future of wireless technology. I can't predict how fast we'll get, but the speeds we are getting now is very impressive."
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