"Can you hear me now?" may be Verizon Wireless's line, but competitor AT&T wants to make sure its customers hear that it's committed to improving spotty coverage.
As part of a plan to improve the reliability of its mobile data and voice services, AT&T installed two towers on the northwest side, near Oro Valley at 1212 W. Magee Road and at 6169 W. Seven Saguaros Circle, in the Dove Mountain area.
"We're basically always analyzing the network and seeing where we have room to improve," AT&T spokesman Scott Huscher said. "We come in and put in new cell towers where we want to bring up coverage in certain areas."
In addition to the northwest side locations, AT&T placed towers near McDonald District Park at 4100 N. Harrison Road in the Foothills and at 3620 E. Speedway midtown.
The new towers will not only boost current coverage for AT&T cellphone users, Huscher said, but make it easier for AT&T to upgrade coverage to its faster 4G LTE network in the coming weeks.
People are also reading…
Fourth-generation 4G LTE coverage is up to 10 times faster than 3G coverage. AT&T is attempting to keep pace with Verizon Wireless, which rolled out its 4G LTE to Tucson in August 2011, spreading it to Marana, Vail and other areas in September 2012.
AT&T currently offers HSPA+, a less-advanced 4G network that is as many as three times faster than 3G, Huscher said.
The upgrades are part of $115 billion AT&T has invested in expanding its network by building and upgrading towers, as well as acquiring spectrum.
AT&T's network upgrades here are a sign that the company sees the Tucson market as growing and worthy of investment.
"AT&T's investment in Tucson helps ensure that our community has fast and reliable wireless access to the tools that help us excel," Lea MƔrquez-Peterson, president and CEO of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said in a news release. "Enhancing our local wireless networks is a vital part of our economic health."
The new towers aren't a sign that AT&T coverage was weak in those areas, Huscher said.
"It's not necessarily that they were bad," he said of the areas where AT&T built the towers. "These are enhancements."
AT&T arguably has a reputation of spotty coverage. Atlanta-based telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan said AT&T's service is on par with its competitors.
"Several years ago there was a problem when AT&T was the only carrier selling the Apple iPhone and it was overwhelmed," he said. "Now that the iPhone is available on several other carriers, AT&T ... no longer has these problems."
