AT&T Invests More Than $325 Million Over 3-Year Period to Enhance Local Networks in Cleveland

CLEVELAND, May 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- At AT&T¹, we've invested more than $325 million in our Cleveland wireless and wired networks during 2014-2016. These investments enhance reliability, coverage, speed and overall performance for residents and businesses. They also improve critical services that support public safety and first responders.

In 2016, AT&T made more than 610 wireless network upgrades in Cuyahoga and surrounding counties. The completed improvements include adding greater capacity and speeds to cell towers within the area.

"For Downtown Cleveland and the surrounding area to continue to thrive and serve residents, it's crucial companies invest through thoughtful innovation," said Joe Marinucci, president and chief executive officer at Downtown Cleveland Alliance. "By investing here, AT&T is enhancing our ability to attract business and job growth. And our growing number of residents will have the tools to stay connected and entertained."

The AT&T LTE network covers nearly 400 million people in North America. Notable Cleveland network enhancements in 2016 included the following:

• Tripling our 4G capacity in downtown Cleveland.
• 165 LTE upgrades to cell sites to provide a more reliable experience, as well as faster download and upload speeds.
• Adding 70,000 feet of new fiber to strengthen our network.
• 8 Outdoor Distributed Antenna System projects to improve street-level mobile coverage and capacity in downtown Cleveland.
• Voice-Over-LTE launched in Cleveland, allowing for higher quality calls, video calling and enhanced messaging services.
• 8 LTE-capable Indoor Distributed Antenna Solutions at key downtown venues (including the Quicken Loans Arena) to improve mobile coverage and capacity.
• Deploying LTE-capable small cells to improve in-building coverage in key venues and select hotels.

The First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) recently chose AT&T to build a nationwide public safety broadband network. The network will be dedicated to America's police, firefighters, EMS personnel and other first responders when they need it. Should Ohio opt-in to the FirstNet network, we will build upon our current and planned investments with a dedicated focus on the state's first responders.

And we would expect to make a significant investment to upgrade and maintain Ohio's FirstNet network over the next 25 years, bringing your first responders the coverage, value and experience they expect.

"We're investing to provide faster, more reliable, highly secure connectivity. We want customers to have internet access at any moment, from almost any device—anywhere," said Nicolette Jaworski, external affairs director, AT&T Ohio. "These continued investments bring Cleveland residents and businesses a host of new opportunities."

For the third year in a row, FORTUNE magazine recognized AT&T as the Most Admired Telecommunications Company in the world in 2017. We also placed No. 37 among the Top 50 World's Most Admired companies.

AT&T is the only telecommunications company on the list. We ranked No. 1 in all 9 attributes. This included innovation, financial soundness and quality of products/services.

We continue to expand the scope of our ultra-fast internet powered by AT&T Fiber. We now market our ultra-fast internet service powered by AT&T Fiber to more than 50,000 customer locations in the Cleveland area.

We have the largest fiber network within our 21-state wireline footprint.² We also now market a 1 gigabit connection³ on our 100% fiber network to 4.6 million locations across 52 major metro areas. We plan to reach at least 75 major metros overall. We expect to add 2 million locations in 2017, and we plan to reach at least 12.5 million locations by mid-2019.

We have an extensive Wi-Fi network with more than 40,000 AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots at popular restaurants, hotels, bookstores and retailers. And we provide access to Wi-Fi at more than 1 million locations around the world. Most AT&T smartphone and home internet customers get access to the entire national AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spot network⁴ at no additional cost. Wi-Fi usage doesn't count against customers' monthly wireless data plans.

To learn more about our coverage in Cleveland or anywhere in the U.S., visit the AT&T Coverage Viewer. For updates on the AT&T wireless network, please visit the AT&T network news page.

¹ AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.
² Based on publicly available data for the top fiber providers in the AT&T operating footprint.
³ Actual customer speeds may vary. Download speeds are typically up to 940Mbps due to overhead capacity reserved to deliver the data.
⁴ Wi-Fi enabled device required. Other restrictions apply. See www.attwifi.com for details and locations

Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements
Information set forth in this news release contains financial estimates and other forward- looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.

About AT&T
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) helps millions around the globe connect with leading entertainment, business, mobile and high speed internet services. We offer the nation's best data network* and the best global coverage of any U.S. wireless provider.** We're one of the world's largest providers of pay TV. We have TV customers in the U.S. and 11 Latin American countries. Nearly 3.5 million companies, from small to large businesses around the globe, turn to AT&T for our highly secure smart solutions. 

Additional information about AT&T products and services is available at about.att.com. Follow our news on Twitter at @ATT, on Facebook at facebook.com/att and YouTube at youtube.com/att.

© 2017 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved. AT&T, the Globe logo and other marks are trademarks and service marks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

*Claim based on the Nielsen Certified Data Network Score. Score includes data reported by wireless consumers in the Nielsen Mobile Insights survey, network measurements from Nielsen Mobile Performance and Nielsen Drive Test Benchmarks for Q3+Q4 2016 across 121 markets.

**Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; and voice roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.

To define a market, we rely on the Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSA), as established by the United States Office of Management and Budget.  Minor differences, if any, between annual totals reflect annual updating of market boundaries in our record systems.

From FORTUNE Magazine, March 1, 2017. 2017 Time Inc. FORTUNE© and The World's Most Admired Companies® are registered trademarks of Time Inc. and are used under License. FORTUNE and Time Inc. are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of, AT&T.

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SOURCE AT&T Inc.