Legit Reviews

ST. LOUIS, MO. (FEB. 27, 2013) — AT&T* invested nearly $2 billion in the bi-state St. Louis area wireless and wireline networks from 2009 through 2012, with a focus on expanding 4G LTE mobile Internet coverage and enhancing the overall performance of its networks.**



People in the greater St. Louis area increasingly depend on mobile Internet connections for communication, entertainment and productivity at work, at home and everywhere in between. AT&T’s continued investment is designed to deliver the highest levels of service, with network enhancements driving improvements in key areas of the mobile Internet experience: 4G speed, broad coverage and network reliability.



AT&T’s significant investment over the past four years is delivering customers a stronger network performance:

The AT&T wireless network recently ranked tied for No. 1 in St. Louis by RootMetrics®, an independent research and testing organization. AT&T was tied as the RootMetrics RootScore® Combined Award winner for its combination of call quality, text performance, and mobile Internet speed. The RootMetrics award is the result of more than 28,300 wireless test calls, texts and mobile Internet transmissions conducted during July 2012.
The AT&T network kept 99 percent of all St. Louis area wireless calls connected in the fourth quarter of 2012 (October through December).



“We know the mobile Internet has become central to our customers’ lives, and we’re committed to driving both investment and innovation to deliver the best possible experience over the AT&T network,” said Nancy Garvey, AT&T vice president general manager. “While third-party and internal testing shows that these investments are paying off with excellent service for St. Louis customers, we are continually planning and deploying network enhancements to improve service in the future.”



2012 Network Enhancements Deliver Faster Speeds, Broader Coverage to Customers



AT&T customers are benefitting from more than 600 wireless network upgrades in six key categories in St. Louis during 2012, including activating new cell sites, adding capacity, upgrading cell sites to provide fast 4G LTE mobile Internet speeds, deploying high-capacity Ethernet connections to cell sites, and adding or upgrading Distributed Antenna Systems, which boost wireless coverage and capacity in buildings and at major venues like convention halls or sports arenas.



AT&T launched 4G LTE in the St. Louis area in April 2012. AT&T 4G LTE is the latest generation of wireless network technology and provides faster mobile Internet speeds — up to 10 times faster than 3G**— and improved performance on a variety of mobile smartphones and tablets.



The AT&T 4G LTE network has been nationally recognized for its speed and coverage. AT&T 4G LTE delivered faster average download speeds than any of the competitors in PCWorld’s most recent 13-market speed tests, and telecommunications industry analyst firm Frost and Sullivan awarded AT&T its North American Mobile Network Strategy Award for the second year in a row in 2012.



"Across St. Louis, this robust investment in the AT&T wireless and wireline networks is important to spurring the economy and creating jobs. In our wireless world, mobile and broadband networks create economic opportunities for health care, manufacturing, education, transportation and public safety and virtually every other economic sector,” said John Sondag, President of AT&T Missouri.



Also in 2012, AT&T completed the installation of a new 4G LTE-capable Distributed Antenna System (DAS) in Busch Stadium. DAS, which consists of multiple strategically placed antennas that distribute AT&T’s wireless network coverage throughout an area, has the ability to provide enhanced, more consistent wireless coverage to customers in indoor or outdoor spaces where geographical limitations – terrain, building construction, etc. – or crowd density might otherwise prevent the optimal wireless experience.



Planned Investment to Expand Reach of Wireless and Wired Broadband



AT&T recently launched Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment initiative to expand and enhance its wireless and wired IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to increase the density of its wireless network by deploying more than 10,000 macro sites, more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems, and more than 40,000 small cells. Through this initiative, we also plan to:

· Expand 4G LTE to cover more than 300 million people by year-end 2014

· Expand the AT&T wired IP broadband network to cover approximately 75 percent of customer locations in our wired service area by year-end 2015

· Expand the AT&T fiber network to reach 1 million additional business locations by year-end 2015



For more information about AT&T’s coverage in St. Louis or anywhere in the U.S., consumers can visit the AT&T Coverage Viewer. Using the online tool, AT&T customers can measure coverage quality of coverage from a street address, intersection, ZIP code or even a landmark. For updates on the AT&T wireless network, please visit the AT&T network news page.