In an interview with Telephony Online, AT&T VP of Technology Realization, Scott McElroy, revealed that AT&T is currently in advanced testing of a new faster 3G network.

McElroy mentioned that his team plan to ugrade “the downlink capacity on its high-speed packet access (HSPA) from 3.6 megabits per second to 7.2 Mb/s through software upgrades at the base station.”

McElroy failed to provide any such timetable as to when the upgrade will be completed, but he did reveal that the carrier are in the process of field testing the faster network in two test markets.

He added that AT&T plan to enevtually migrate its 3G networks to evolved-HSPA (or HSPA+), which would triple peak speeds.

According to reports from AT&T most of the data cards, smartphones, and the iPhone will support the new upgrades - at least up to 14.4 Mb/s.