EDGE network unusually slow lately? (AT&T)

HSDPA/HSUPA are subsets of UMTS (3G data - WCDMA). Edge is 2.75G (GPRS is 2.5G) but they are part of GSM extended data standards. Technically they are “compatible” because they use the same frequency band that ATT broadcasts but the standards are two different as far as multiplexing data, etc…