Hot off the press news

ATT asserted Thursday that it’ll invest a further $2 bln in its network in 2010 to be sure it keeps up with the increasing demand from new smartphones and other 3G information devices , for example the Apple iPad, on its network.

During its 4th quarter 2009 conference chat, Chief Operating Officer John Stankey announced ATT plans to spend between $18 bln and $19 billion in 2010 upgrading its wireless and backhaul networks to deal with the attack of new traffic. This is approximately $2 bn. more than the company had invested in the year before. Specifically, Stankey announced ATT will add two thousand new cell sites and upgrade existing cell sites with 3 times more fiber links than it had in 2009. This could increase capacity for the backhaul network that connects the cell towers to ATT’s main network. The backhaul portion of the network is a critical element to ATT’s network ; with these upgrades ready Stankey recounted the company will be ready to simply upgrade in the future to 4G wireless technology. ATT will start testing its 4G network using LTE, the same technology Verizon Wireless is using for its 4G network, beginning in 2010, with a few commercial deployments prepared in 2011 and more commercial deployments in 2012. ATT, which is the sole wireless operator in the U.S.

Selling the iPhone, has been the target of much feedback over this past year, as many iPhone customers, especially in very populous built up areas, have complained about dropped calls, slow Web access, and poor all around service. Some critics claim the Corporation has not been spending enough on network upgrades to keep abreast of skyrocketing demand. Stankey recognized that ATT has faced some problems, especially in towns as new York and San Francisco. But he claimed the company is “closing the gap.” he claimed there are periods in the week in some sections of Manhattan where virtually 70 p.c of the telephones active on its network are data-intensive devices. He announced to address this surge in use, ATT is steadily increasing 3G radio capacity in those difficulty areas by over one 3rd. The company will also add extra radio network controllers on existing cell sites.

As for San Francisco, Stankey blamed the poor network performance on zoning issues that have stopped the company from getting new cell telephone towers up. But he claimed the company was been working to deal with these issues. And ATT is expecting to add new cell towers in the Bay Area in 2010. And it’s boosting capacity at convention centers, sports stadiums and along public transport routes. But keeping abreast of demand on ATT’s network is sort of like shooting a moving target. Use on the network keeps augmenting as ATT adds new devices and customers. In quarter four, ATT added 2.7 million new mobile customers.

Overall use on ATT’s network grew two hundred % in 2009 alone. And the company is now servicing more than twice the amount of smartphones as its rivals ; again, it’s the exclusive carrier in the U.S. For the iPhone, one of the most info thorough devices on the market. And in the 4th quarter, ATT turned on an extra 3.1 million iPhones.

The company is also adding even more smartphones to its lineup as well as other information radical devices , that might eat bandwidth. In January at the electronics Show ( CES ) in Vegas, ATT asserted it would shortly offer 2 Palm smartphones and a couple of Google Android handsets this year. On Wed. , Apple announced ATT will be the exclusive carrier to provide 3G wireless service to the new iPad tablet. Many Apple fans and industry watchers moaned at this revelation, commending that if ATT can not handle the iPhone it will not be in a position to the iPad. But Stankey announced ATT has made significant progress in upgrading its network in the 4th quarter and will continue to make upgrades in 2010 to stay alongside of demand. He further said that a lot of the use on the iPad will be offloaded to Wi-Fi hotspots, which won’t affect ATT’s 3G network.

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