AT&T (NYSE:T) said it plans to spend nearly $1 billion in additional capital expenditure in 2011 to keep up with wireless growth and prepare for the rollout of its LTE network this summer.
In January, AT&T said it planned to spend about $19 billion on capex. But during the company's second-quarter earnings call, AT&T CFO John Stephens increased that number to $20 billion for the year. Some of that money will be allocated to bolster capacity on its 3G network by adding additional backhaul and radios.
"Wireless continues to exceed expectations," Stephens said on the call. "The volume of use by our customers is greater than we expected." The operator added a total of 1.1 million new customers in the second quarter.
Stephens also said AT&T is on track to roll out its five previously announced LTE networks this summer. The operator plans to launch LTE service in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio. AT&T has said it will deploy LTE across 70 million POPs and 15 additional markets by year-end and launch 20 HSPA+ and LTE devices this year, with more LTE devices, including USB modems and smartphones, geared toward the second half of the year. AT&T has said it will complete its LTE deployment by 2013.
For more:
- see this Light Reading Mobile article
- see this FierceWireless article
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