Yesterday, many users were reporting that out of nowhere, upload speeds on their smartphones (notably iPhones) significantly dropped to about 1/10th of the speeds they were previously getting and AT&T didn't have anything to say about it until now. AT&T is blaming these issues on a software bug found in Alcatel-Lucent's hardware and they are working on a fix. Here's their brief statement:

AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent jointly identified a software defect — triggered under certain conditions – that impacted uplink performance for Laptop Connect and smartphone customers using 3G HSUPA-capable wireless devices in markets with Alcatel-Lucent equipment. This impacts less than two percent of our wireless customer base. While Alcatel-Lucent develops the appropriate software fix, we are providing normal 3G uplink speeds and consistent performance for affected customers with HSUPA-capable devices.

Many thought AT&T was limiting upload speeds to put less strain on their already stressed network, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Hopefully once the software bug is fixed, speeds should return to normal.