Earlier this week, AT&T announced that the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 would finally be getting its Android 5.0 Lollipop. In a surprise move, the same release date OTA update for Android L now applies to the previous year's model, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 on AT&T.

It's surprising because this year AT&T has been taking longer than other carriers, if not the longest, to update its customers' flagship phones to various versions of Android Lollipop.

For example, the 2014 Samsung Galaxy Note 4 just hit the release date on AT&T, while the Samsung Galaxy S5 and S4 waits for some bug clearing.

But if it's been enough time for the Note 4, apparently for AT&T, it has been for the Note 3 as well, and so owners of the 2013 flagship phablet can expect to see an OTA notification to download Google's Android 5.0 Lollipop update appearing along the same timeline as its 2014 updated variant. It's kind of amazing -- AT&T is actually leapfrogging some other carriers on the Note 3 Lollipop update.

Of course, since OTA updates roll out in stages, the "release date" could mean anytime from a couple of days ago until the end of March, but Galaxy Note 3 owners should be happy they are getting Lollipop with such little delay by AT&T, at all.

The Android 5.0 Lollipop brings UI enhancements like Material Design, a better (if not perfect yet) quick settings menu, new enhancements and customizations for notifications, new security improvements, and, of course, Samsung's Lollipop- updated TouchWiz.

Much like the Android Lollipop update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 on AT&T, the new package for the Galaxy Note 3 is quite large -- 1.2GB large.

So you'll want to take the usual firmware update precautions extra seriously to ensure a successful upgrade on the first try.

Before you click "Yes, I'm in" on your OTA update notification, make sure your Note 3 is at least 50 percent charged, plugged in to a charger, and of course connected to WiFi. It wouldn't hurt to do it at a time of day when you don't see yourself needing the phone for a good stretch, since updates can take a while -- especially something as in demand as Android Lollipop.

If you have a Galaxy Note 3 on AT&T, let us know in the comments if you've gotten the Android L update yet, and if so, how you like it.