T AT&T Inc

CHICAGO, Oct. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- At AT&T¹, we've invested nearly $3-Billion in our Illinois wireless and wired networks during 2014-2016. These investments drive a wide range of upgrades to 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 1,100 wireless network upgrades in Illinois. We added new cell sites, addition of network capacity, and new wireless high-speed Internet connections. 

Following the passage of recent state legislation, AT&T will continue its investment in Illinois with additional upgrades.

"Illinois state lawmakers are taking steps to ensure that our state's policies pave the way for more investment in communications networks that residents and businesses rely on throughout the state," said Paul La Schiazza, AT&T Illinois President.  "Customer demand is skyrocketing and we continue working to bring more investment into Illinois to help fuel the economy, create jobs and deliver connections and entertainment to our customers."

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

• The construction of 54 new cell sites
• The expansion of LTE to 13 Central Illinois counties
• More than 1,000 LTE capacity upgrades
• Installation of Ultra-fast internet powered by AT&T Fiber in more than 200,000 living units in Chicago and dozens of suburban communities.

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 Illinois 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 Illinois's FirstNet network over the next 25 years, bringing your first responders the coverage, value and experience they expect.

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 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 have the largest fiber network within our 21-state wireline footprint.² We also now market a 1 gigabit connection³ on our 100% fiber connection to over 5.5 million locations across 57 major metros areas. We'll plan to reach at least 75 major metros overall. We've added more than 1.5 million locations this year. We plan to add another 1.5 million locations by the end of the year. 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 network.⁴ at no additional cost. Wi-Fi usage doesn't count against customers' monthly wireless data plans.

To learn more about our coverage in Illinois 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. 

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. 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 on 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 Q1 + Q2 2017 across 121 markets.

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.