ECONOMICS

AT&T* customers in Maryland are expected to experience improved mobile broadband coverage and voice performance as a result of continued investment by AT&T. The company announced today network improvements made to enhance the wireless capacity and performance of its local mobile broadband network.

Since the start of 2011, AT&T has made numerous wireless network upgrades in Maryland. Some of the enhancements include:

Adding capacity or an extra layer of frequency -- which is like adding lanes to a highway -- to nearly 300 existing cell sites.

Activating new cell sites to improve network coverage in areas such as Salisbury, Beltsville and Little Italy in downtown Baltimore

Installing new distributed antenna systems (DAS) inside high-traffic destinations, such as the BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and Arundel Mills

Investing more than $325 million in its Baltimore area wireless and wireline network, in the first 6 months of 2011

Installing Wi-Fi Hotspots in Baltimore near popular local destinations, totaling to more than 100 Wi-Fi Hotspots available for customers

"More than ever before, customers look to wireless communications to stay in touch with family, friends and business colleagues. Mobile broadband investments also are important to the continued economic competitiveness of the state," said J. Michael Schweder, president of AT&T Mid-Atlantic. "We're working to make this possible by investing in our wireless network across Maryland. In addition, our recently announced agreement to acquire T-Mobile USA represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand our network. If approved, this deal means that we'll be able to expand the next generation of mobile broadband - 4G LTE - from our current plan of 80 percent of the U.S. population to more than 97 percent."

"Our goal is to deliver a network experience that mobilizes everything for customers," said Rob Forsyth, vice president and general manager for AT&T in the greater Washington/Baltimore area. "The ongoing investment we're making in Maryland is designed to increase coverage and reliability, and to provide advanced services to our customers so they can do even more with their wireless devices."

AT&T plans to support the build or upgrade of thousands of cell sites nationwide to increase network speed, coverage and reliability for both mobile voice and broadband services. AT&T also plans to install additional radio "carriers" at thousands of cell sites nationally this year, enabling new layers of spectrum capacity to carry larger volumes of mobile broadband traffic. Additional capacity helps support rising mobile data traffic volumes, which have increased more than 8,000 percent over the past four years.