AT&T to invest $8 billion in wireless, 4G LTE will reach 300 million Americans by end-2014

posted by Victor H. / Nov 07, 2012, 8:50 AM

AT&T to invest $8 billion in wireless, 4G LTE will reach 300 million Americans by end-2014

AT&T might be trailing behind Verizon Wireless when it comes to 4G LTE adoption, but it is catching up quick and now have announced plans to have 300 million Americans covered by the ultra-fast LTE by the end of 2014. This will mean spendings of the whopping $14 billion in the next three years, of which $8 billion for wireless.

Earlier, AT&T had announced plans to have LTE coverage in areas where 250 million users live by the end of 2013.

Verizon in comparison already has 400 active LTE markets, plans to have 260 millions in the United States with 4G coverage by the end of the year.

AT&T, the nation’s second largest carrier, has been on a shopping spree for spectrum and now has slightly more than Verizon: 118MHz versus 105MHz. It also has good amount of spectrum in the low frequencies where it is allegedly easier to roll out an LTE network.

This announcement comes just as some of the key growth areas for AT&T like those on a long-term contract slows down.

Interestingly, AT&T expects that after the investments bear fruit, 90% of its revenue will be from this high-growth rather than traditional phones and landlines.

source: AT&T

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11 Comments

1. StalkinUrMom

Posts: 111; Member since: Apr 16, 2012

Great, 'cause I was stuck with one bar of EDGE in my neighborhood when I had at&t a couple of months ago. I live literally 5 minutes away from downtown Austin too, wtf at&t?

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 9:07 AM 1

2. Jeradiah3

Posts: 1149; Member since: Feb 11, 2010

Its good to see that AT&T is expanding their LTE service on their own terms. They're not trying to force their service because they're behind Verizon in the amount of areas and customers that can receive LTE. I'll stay with AT&T because I believe that they have a better backup data network than Verizon Some people will disagree, but like the election yesterday, we have the right to choose what we feel is right lol

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 9:19 AM 1

3. networkdood

Posts: 6330; Member since: Mar 31, 2010

Goes from 4G LTE to H+ - better than VZW that goes from 4G LTE to slowrizon 3G CDMA...I should know as I have a Droid RAZR and finally have 4G access in my area.

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 12:05 PM 0

4. KingKurogiii

Posts: 5713; Member since: Oct 23, 2011

i don't think that's gonna be a problem being that Verizon will be covering 260 million Americans by the end of the year while AT&T only projects 40 million more than that after 2 more years. imagine the progress Verizon will make in those next 2 years and imagine how much more prepared Verizon is versus how everyone else is for LTE Advanced. Verizon only invests towards the future and the largest scheme of things. aggressive roll-out of only the very best network technology from the largest US Carrier > split effort of working with two networks at the same time from the second largest US Carrier.

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 12:33 PM 1

11. lsutigers

Posts: 832; Member since: Mar 08, 2009

Talking about aggressive rollout, Sprint will have their entire network, which is around 300 million pops, covered with LTE by the end of 2013.

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 5:41 PM 1

12. KingKurogiii

hahaha, that right? well we'll just have to see about that. i wouldn't hold my breath though. xD

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 6:40 PM 0

13. lsutigers

As far as all media and Sprint reports their nationwide LTE network should be completely rolled out by year end 2013. You're right, we'll see but if they do keep the timeline Sprint will have completed it's LTE deployment nationwide a full year before AT&T. I've been following this closely as I currently have VZW for my personal phone but I am constantly watching my data cap so I've been looking to switch my family plan to Sprint next year.

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 7:53 PM 1

14. KingKurogiii

i think i'd probably consider switching to T-Mobile before i'd consider going to Sprint tbh.

posted on Nov 07, 2012, 8:02 PM 0

15. lsutigers

Well I've had TMO and currently have a work provided Sprint phone. I travel all over the country for work and Sprint's coverage is hands down better than TMO's...in fact, my Sprint phone practically works everywhere my VZW works. The only issue with Sprint is data speeds in some markets but they're fixing that. Areas that have been upgraded to Network Vision run ~2mbps on 3G and 15-30 mbps on 4G LTE and I have seen these speeds myself.