AT&T on Tuesday announced it will spend $250 billion from now until 2030 to beef up its fiber and wireless networks, expand rural coverage for its satellite partnership with AST SpaceMobile and make other improvements to its US connectivity offerings.
The company, which has 100 million customers and 110,000 employees in the US, said the rollout is part of its 150th anniversary celebration, marking Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone.
John Stankey, the company's chairman and CEO, said, "Today, we're committing more than $250 billion to increase US connectivity competitiveness and expand access to AT&T's leading fiber and wireless networks."
Locating local internet providers
He cited federal telecom policies being particularly "strong" at the moment as a reason AT&T is making the commitment.
What does it mean for customers?
For those who use AT&T's wireless or fixed-line services, it sounds as if much of the investment will go toward updating and improving wireless and fiber networks, which could mean fewer dropped calls and faster broadband speeds.
Locating local internet providers
AT&T said it will expand its rural coverage through its AST SpaceMobile partnership, an area that puts it in direct competition with services such as Elon Musk's Starlink.
Mahdi Eslamimehr, an executive vice president at Quandary Peak Research who closely follows the satellite communications industry, said that part of the announcement is especially notable.
"It aims to enable direct-to-cell satellite service, allowing ordinary smartphones to connect to low-Earth-orbit satellites using existing cellular spectrum," Eslamimehr said. "Satellites could fill the coverage gaps where building towers is difficult or uneconomical, remote highways, national parks, oceans and rural communities, effectively extending the reach of the traditional mobile network."
Given the other wireless improvements, that could mean fewer cell dead zones and more service in areas that previously weren't ideal for texting, calls or data service, such as remote areas like hiking trails in the mountains.
How soon will customers notice?
With the investments spread out over five years, per AT&T's timetable, it may be hard for current customers to anticipate when they'll notice changes or improvements. AT&T has been the butt of jokes about dropped calls, and its nonfiber internet offerings have not impressed CNET's reviewers.
"Customers don't experience investments, they experience whether their internet works or not," said Greg Davis, CEO of Bigleaf Networks, a company that works in network optimization. "So if AT&T follows through, the absolute top priority should be strengthening the core infrastructure, fiber expansion, better redundancy, and, of course, networks that stay stable under heavy demand."
For businesses relying on AT&T, Davis said, a key issue right now is "reliability, not speed. This is because when the network slows down or drops entirely, operations stop."
Those types of improvements, Davis said, will take years, and AT&T's plans could shift along the way.
Other investments from AT&T
The company also said in its spending announcement that it'll continue building out FirstNet, an emergency network built specifically for first responders that includes built-in security controls.
Other spending mentioned included additional Wi-Fi personalization options for broadband customers and improvements to data for large events such as concerts. Some of the money will also be spent on workforce training, hiring more technicians and improving network security.