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AT&T's City-By-City Plan To Up Wireless Coverage

Posted by kdawson on from the hockey-stick-gone-vertical dept.

alphadogg writes "AT&T has created different mobile calling models for every major city in America as it tries to improve a network that has come under fire for poor performance as the data-friendly iPhone has proliferated, an executive said Thursday. Other carriers just use one nationwide calling model to plan for all cities, claimed CTO John Donovan, speaking at the Open Mobile Summit conference in San Francisco. The nation's second-largest mobile operator has had a hard time planning for bandwidth needs in the rapidly changing mobile world, Donovan said. AT&T has seen rapidly growing mobile data usage — and much criticism over its 3G coverage — as the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US. 'If a network is not fully loaded, it's hard to know exactly how much demand is out there,' Donovan said. 'You put all you can in the ground, and they eat it all up, and then you put more in there, and they eat it all up.'" The story notes that mobile data at AT&T has grown 4,932% over the last 3 years.

4 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Umm, what? by lalena · · Score: 3, Informative

    If a network is not fully loaded, it's hard to know exactly how much demand is out there.

    1. Re:Umm, what? by FatAlb3rt · · Score: 2, Informative

      That's what I thought too, but I think it's poorly worded. I think he means, if we haven't fully loaded our towers with equipment and they're still maxed out, it's hard to know how much demand is out there.

      Still a cop out.

  2. Re:Bullshit by cyberjock1980 · · Score: 5, Informative

    I do have some (very small) sympathy for a company that has seen a 5000% growth in data traffic. Who can realistically plan for that kind of growth?

    But, this is not the customer's fault either. Plan better. And how about you stop laying more people off? If you are growing at these record levels why are there lots of articles about layoffs in the last 3 years? I don't understand this. I'll admit that data growth != customer growth but why the huge layoffs?

    http://www.techworld.com.au/article/269777/t_cut_12_000_employees_through_2009

    Apparently AT&T has 12000 unemployed former employees from just this year. Sounds like bad planning across the board. Maybe this is a good indicator that the top executives are totally clueless to the actual situation of their company.

  3. Re:I look forward to the day by TooMuchToDo · · Score: 2, Informative
    That's cool. Let's us Android users enjoy the new 7Mbps HSPA they're rolling out:

    http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/04/t-mobile-7-2mbps-hspa-rolling-out-now/