AT&T plans high-speed coverage for 70 mn this year

CALIFORNIA, USA: AT&T Inc plans to kick-off a wireless network upgrade with faster mobile Web services in five U.S. cities this summer as it adopts an emerging technology already being used by Verizon Wireless.

AT&T will expand the new high-speed service to markets with 70 million people by year-end, Chief Technology Officer John Donovan wrote in a company blog on Wednesday.

The No. 2 U.S. mobile operator appeared to be slightly trimming its upgrade plans from a previously stated target to cover up to 75 million people with the service by year end. But spokesman Mark Siegel said AT&T has not changed its plans.

AT&T is currently seeking regulatory approval for its proposed $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA on the basis that the deal would help it improve its network and bring high-speed services to consumers more quickly that it could have.

Donovan said that Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta and San Antonio would be the first markets where it offers the new the service based on a technology known as Long Term Evolution (LTE). AT&T plans to add the service in another 10 or more markets in the second half of this year, Donovan said.

Verizon Wireless has been offering services using this technology since late 2010, but AT&T has argued that it did not need to upgrade as quickly because its existing network technology is faster than Verizon's older technology.

AT&T will kick off services with data cards used to connect laptop computers and will follow with LTE phones around the fourth quarter, John Stankey, AT&T's head of business services recently told the Reuters Global Technology Summit.

Both AT&T and Verizon Wireless currently sell different versions of the Apple Inc iPhone but neither has said when they will have an LTE version of the popular phone.

AT&T has said that its purchase of T-Mobile USA, a Deutsche Telekom unit, would help it move more quickly with its upgrade to LTE.

But rivals, including Sprint Nextel, say the deal would hurt the competitiveness of the industry and some consumers have said they are worried it will result in higher prices.

The deal would allow AT&T to vault to the top position in the U.S mobile market, leapfrogging the current market leader, Verizon Wireless - a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.