RALEIGH – In the quest to become North Carolina’s top wireless provider, AT&T sunk nearly $2 billion in building up the state’s wireless and wired networks, the firm revealed today.
Invested over a three-year period starting in 2016, the funds went towards boosting “reliability, coverage, speed and overall performance for residents and businesses.”
Among those: improving services that support Public Safety and first responders using the FirstNet communications platform; and helping customers in largely rural areas through participation in the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Connect America Fund.
By the end of 2018, the company said it offered high-speed internet access to over 7,800 locations across North Carolina in mostly rural areas through technologies like Fixed Wireless Internet.
“North Carolina’s policymakers have, over many years, carefully and consistently built a public policy environment that encourages private investment,” Trey Rabon, president of AT&T North Carolina, said in a statement.
“As a result, we’re now speeding our next generation wireless technology build out plans in North Carolina with millions of dollars dedicated to improving the customer experiences on our mobile network. This investment will also pave the path to 5G mobile services in the years ahead.”
Network upgrades
Last year alone, AT&T reported 1,891 wireless network upgrades across North Carolina. They included 12 new wireless towers, 11 Distributed Antenna Systems and more than 1,400 projects to increase network capacity and speed.
Breaking it down by regions, the firm invested:
- More than $475 million in the Charlotte region.
- More than $500 million in the Triangle region.
- More than $190 million in the Triad region.
- Nearly $850 million across other areas of the state.
AT&T wins Triangle in wireless speed but Sprint offers fastest downloads, tests show
The investment has also earned the company top honors.
AT&T recently won best overall wireless performance in the Triangle, according to PCMag in its 10th annual review of wireless performance nationwide. However, Sprint dominated in download performance.
Over in Charlotte, however, the company fared event better. AT&T outperformed Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile in virtually every category, winning with a performance score of 96 with 100 being a perfect score.
“AT&T is clearly best positioned for the 5G revolution here. The company has already launched its 5G network for enterprise and developer use in Charlotte. We expect it will become public soon, and it will be joined by Verizon’s 5G network later this year,” the report’s author wrote Sascha Segan at the time.
Not all rosy
However, the news hasn’t been all rosy.
Back in June, a union representing communications workers at AT&T said the telecom giant was cutting hundreds of jobs in the southeast district it represents. That includes the Carolinas.
The cuts of 911 jobs represents more than half the 1,800 layoffs being made nationally, according to the Communications Workers of America.
In response, AT&T said it was hiring to fill other open jobs. Specifics about where cuts weree made have not been disclosed.
“It would be misleading to refer to this as ‘layoffs,‘” an AT&T spokesperson told tech news site ChannelPartners Online at the time.
