AT&T Will Invest Up To $18 Billion This Year To Improve Its Networks
As part of AT&T’s announcement today regarding plans to boost the speed of its wireless 3G network, the company said it will spend between $17 billion and $18 billion this year on infrastructure, of which more than two-thirds will go towards broadband and wireless. Release.
Clearly, the second-largest U.S. carrier is willing to invest heavily to resolve the network problems that subscribers have been complaining about recently. However, its not going to be a quick fix. AT&T (NYSE: T) said the higher-speed technology, called HSPA 7.2, will be turned on in six major U.S. cities this year, including Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Miami. By the end of 2010, the company plans to have the technology live in 25 of the largest markets, and by the end of 2011, it will reach about 90 percent of its existing 3G network.
Other initiatives underway include: expanding the wireless spectrum serving 3G customers in hundreds of markets across the country, using 850 MHz spectrum; the addition of about 2,000 new cell sites in 2009; enabling access to the company’s Wi-Fi network of more than 20,000 hotspots; and preparing for field trials of 4G LTE wireless networks next year, with deployment planned to follow in 2011.
There are some numbers and pointers to sources below.
Basically, AT&T is continuing to do well and seems to have an every expanding requirement to deliver data services to their customers.
From the numbers below, Q1 2008 profits were $3.4B and revenues $30B.
So I am disappointed that they are only spending $18B in a few cities in the next year. I am disappointed as a customer with a smartphone, who would like to upgrade but can't see the point if the older services are still germaine in my area, and as an investor that they're not giving the US more reason to go to GSM and deny revenues to that good old CDMA holdout VZW.
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From Will Park on 22-Apr-2008 as posted on:
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/04/22/att-1q-2008-revenue-net-income-profits-way-up.html
Coming off a fresh wireless subscriber infusion of 1.3 million customers, AT&T has posted a 22% increase in profits from the previous yearâs quarter. Net income hit $3.46 billion, an increase from $2.85 billion, and revenue saw a 6% increase from $28.97 billion to $30.74 billion.
AT&T saw wireless sales increase 18% to $11.8 billion. As the leading wireless provider in the US, AT&T has cemented their lead by ending the quarter with 71.4 million mobile customers.
On 23-Jul-2009 posted on http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26961
AT&T themselves said:
# 1.2 million retail postpaid wireless net adds, the companyâs best-ever second-quarter total â up 29.0 percent from results in the year-earlier quarter and up 31.8 percent versus the first quarter of 2009; record low postpaid subscriber churn at 1.09 percent
# More than 2.4 million iPhone activations in the second quarter, reflecting a record-setting iPhone 3GS launch; including iPhone, more than 3.5 million increase in 3G integrated devices in service (handsets with QWERTY or virtual keyboards in addition to voice functionality)
# 37.2 percent increase in wireless data revenues to $3.4 billion, more than double the total for the second quarter two years earlier; growth driven by messaging, Internet access, access to applications and related services
# Sixth consecutive quarter with a year-over-year increase in wireless postpaid subscriber ARPU (average monthly revenues per subscriber), up 2.3 percent to $60.21