AT&T to Spend $14 Billion to Upgrade Wireless Networks
4G LTE coverage to reach 300 million consumers by the end of 2014.
U.S. carrier AT&T has announced an ambitious plan to upgrade its wireless networks through investment totaling $14 billion.
Project Velocity IP, otherwise known as VIP, will receive an investment of $14 billion over the next three years. $8 billion will be focused towards its wireless division and a further $6 billion for wireline.
The investment is designed to expand the company's 4G LTE coverage for its wireless network, as well as delivering a faster service and more fiber-optic lines. On the landline side of its investment, it'll receive expanded U-Verse availability.
"This directly addresses the strategic questions concerning our spectrum position and gives us a bigger platform for new growth," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said. "The last five years have been an adrenalin rush, and in the next five years the cloud technology will drive even more change. The past five years changed communication industry, but over next five years every industry will change and there will be demand for high-speed secure networks."
The carrier also announced that it will be extending its 4G LTE coverage to 300 million consumers by the end of 2014, which is 50 million more customers than previously planned. AT&T expects to cover 99 percent of all customer locations through the deliverance of 4G LTE.
Project VIP's upgrade plan will result in considerably higher speeds for customers. The firm will eventually be able to offer 90 percent of its U-Verse region 75 megabits per second, while 75 percent will receive speeds of 100 megabits per second.
When the investments are completed, AT&T said 90 percent of its overall revenue will derive from its high-growth area, with the carrier aiming to discontinue traditional phones and landline connections.

hidden fine print : current AT&T customers will see a 50% increase in their bill over the next 5 years.
Dude it's already paid for by every person who went 1GB over in the last few years trust me this was a cash deal
here in Indiana i have gone well over 250GB cap plenty of times and have never been throttled because of it.. or charged ... although most of my network usage involves watching 1080P streaming content and or game downloads from sites like steam or origin .. this is great news for subscribers considering the max speed currently is topped out at 24 Mbit a second .. in my area
This better not pose insane prices, I should be able to get the 75Mb-100Mb per second data rates at the same price I'm paying now, if not, then AT&T is losing a honest costumer to Charter.
I am on time warner cable at the moment, they are not 'great' but at the same time I have no real complaints. I normally get doubble the bandwidth I pay for, and rarely does it slow down (thank god for elderly neighbors?). However, I am beginning to see the added benefit of having a decent uplink so that I can have easier access to my files when I am out of the home (upload on cable is awful), so I really really want fiber. Cincy Bell promised my fiber at my address 3 years ago. Last year they finally put a fiber line in my area... and it stops literally 50 feet from my house. It has been a whole year of a fiber line sitting there, staring at me, and the only response I get form Cincy Bell is that 'fiber is not yet at you address, but we plan on having it available soon'...
grr
The tower nearest my condo in South Florida looks like a palm tree.
Ive had U-Verse for a few years now and usually download over 250gb a month with my newsgroup service alone and never had any issues.