Update: In response to a Better Business Bureau complaint against AT&T for capping upload speeds, the wireless carrier has acknowledged that HSUPA is not currently available and insists that customers "will continue to have a world class experience" (obviously dismissing the fact that some customers' experiences are far from world class).

AT&T points out that the speeds were not "capped," but are simply not HSUPA-capable. While this does accurately reflect that the carrier was not intentionally throttling data speeds, it seems to only distract from the fact that, on the customer's end, the result is the same.

They say they are currently in the process of testing HSUPA, which will enable high-speed uploads that many customers were led to believe they would have from the beginning.

Well it isn't much, but according to BGR, those with a Motorola Atrix 4G or HTC Inspire 4G who have been frustrated with slow upload speeds may have gotten some kind of pseudo-response from AT&T.

The monumental response? Brace yourself:

"We have a number of HSUPA devices today and we will have more HSUPA-enabled devices in the future — new devices and updates to existing models."

What's that you say? That quote said nothing whatsoever to even remotely alleviate your agony? Maybe not, but consider that this comment was apparently in reference to a query about the allegedly capped data speeds. When read from that perspective, the "updates to existing models" portion of the quote could be interpreted as alluding to software upgrades that will allow HSUPA high-speed uploads. The phones are HSPA (marketed as 4G by AT&T) capable, but are apparently not currently set up to implement HSUPA, which handles high-speed uploads.

You know Atrix and Inspire users are getting desperate when forced to cling to some corporate business-speak like this for hope - but at least it opens the possibility that their phones may someday feature the full HSPA capabilities they had originally hoped for.

Source: BGR [1] [2] and androidandme