In mid December, AT&T set up a 100-day plan to dramatically improve their network in densely populated cities, reports the WSJ.
The plan comes ahead of the iPad launch this weekend and a new iPhone which is expected to be released in July.
AT&T has added new network spectrum to better handle traffic, repositioned antennas to improve reception in office towers and wired more neighborhood cell towers with faster connections.
While AT&T has demonstrated a speed advantage over their competition, a poll last month by J.D. Power & Associates found they still rank poorly against Verizon Wireless in call quality.
Analysts are concerned that they won't have the network fixed before their exclusive contract with Apple runs out. "They haven't fixed the network and they're going to see a huge exodus to Verizon" when it gets the iPhone, said Edward Snyder, managing director of Charter Equity Research.
AT&T intends to spend $2 billion more this year on build-outs for its wireless network and add twice as much capacity as it did in 2009. They also argue that if other networks do get the iPhone they will have to go through the same growing pains AT&T has.
However, some of these problems may have already been solved for other carriers. Apple helped AT&T develop new technologies to limit the load that iPhones put on their network. Obviously these new technologies would be implemented for any other network that Apple worked with.
"They're well past networking 101, 201 or 301," said Mr. Donovan, Chief Technology Officer at AT&T. Apple is now "in a Master's class."
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The plan comes ahead of the iPad launch this weekend and a new iPhone which is expected to be released in July.
AT&T has added new network spectrum to better handle traffic, repositioned antennas to improve reception in office towers and wired more neighborhood cell towers with faster connections.
While AT&T has demonstrated a speed advantage over their competition, a poll last month by J.D. Power & Associates found they still rank poorly against Verizon Wireless in call quality.
Analysts are concerned that they won't have the network fixed before their exclusive contract with Apple runs out. "They haven't fixed the network and they're going to see a huge exodus to Verizon" when it gets the iPhone, said Edward Snyder, managing director of Charter Equity Research.
AT&T intends to spend $2 billion more this year on build-outs for its wireless network and add twice as much capacity as it did in 2009. They also argue that if other networks do get the iPhone they will have to go through the same growing pains AT&T has.
However, some of these problems may have already been solved for other carriers. Apple helped AT&T develop new technologies to limit the load that iPhones put on their network. Obviously these new technologies would be implemented for any other network that Apple worked with.
"They're well past networking 101, 201 or 301," said Mr. Donovan, Chief Technology Officer at AT&T. Apple is now "in a Master's class."
Read More