Reports have surfaced that AT&T will be upgrading its 3G wireless network from the current 3.6 Mbps download standard to 7.2 Mbps. Several rumours have been floating around that this is to do with the new iPhone set to release this summer. The new speeds will be great for mobile gaming on the iPhone.

Also, the HSPA standard has the capability of supporting 14.4 Mbps through future upgrades, AT&T appears to be planning to move past that step and go directly to the HSPA+ standard later this year, offering download speeds of up to 21 Mbps and a number of other upgrades.

AT&T is increasing 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, said Scott McElroy, AT&T Mobility vice president of technology realization. AT&T currently has the enhanced networks running in two test markets but plans to extend those capabilities to its entire network.