DETROIT — AT&T Inc. says it invested more than $1.3 billion in its Michigan wireless and wired networks over three years, from the beginning of 2015 to the end of 2017.
The company said the investments boost reliability, coverage, speed and overall performance for residents and businesses. They also improve critical services that support public safety and first responders.
In 2017, AT&T made nearly 1,000 wireless network upgrades in Michigan, adding new cell sites, additional network capacity, and new wireless high-speed Internet connections.
The AT&T LTE network now covers more than 400 million people in North America. Notable Michigan network enhancements in 2017 included:
* Distributed antenna upgrades at Michigan State University, University of Michigan, Detroit Metropolitan Airport and GM Renaissance Center
* New site builds in places such as Adrian, Roscommon, Sault Ste. Marie, Ionia, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor and Grand Blanc
* Capacity upgrades in areas such as Van Buren, Muskegon, East Lansing, Portage, Holland and Colon
* Bandwidth expansions in areas like Sanilac County, Tuscola County, Roosevelt Park, Battle Creek, Auburn Hills and Birmingham
The company says the expansion of the 4G LTE network lays the groundwork for 5G technology.
Since the formation of the FirstNet public-private partnership a little over a year ago, governors from all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia recognized the value of the effort to strengthen and modernize public safety’s communications capabilities. FirstNet is a new nationwide communications platform dedicated to America’s public safety community.
For the fourth year in a row, AT&T earned the top spot in the telecommunications industry on Fortune magazine’s Most Admired Companies list in 2018. We also placed No. 49 among the 50 most admired companies across all industries.
AT&T was ranked first or second in all 9 attributes used to compile the list, including innovation, people management, quality of management, long-term investment value, quality of products and services and global competitiveness.
The company also said it now offers its new ultra-fast internet service powered by AT&T Fiber to more than 225,000 customer locations in Michigan. AT&T is the largest U.S.-based provider of fiber for business services, marketing a 1-gigabit connection3 on a fiber network to 9 million locations across 71 major metro areas nationwide. The company says it plans to reach at least 14 million locations across at least 84 metro areas by mid-2019 for consumers.
To learn more about our coverage in Michigan, or anywhere in the U.S., visit the AT&T Coverage Viewer at https://www.att.com/maps/wireless-coverage.html.