AT&T to spend $26M in Missouri this year

By the end of 2007, AT&T’s three-year investment in Missouri will total $283 million. The company will have built 153 cell sites in Missouri in that time.

Network upgrades also are included in that spending. Coverage has been enhanced in Anderson, Rolla and Fort Leonard Wood, and third-generation service – a DSL-speed service for laptops that provides access anywhere in the network – will be launched in Columbia and Jefferson City this year. The service already is offered in Independence, Kansas City and St. Louis; there are no plans to introduce 3G in Springfield at this time, according to AT&T spokeswoman Chelsey Ilten.

Also this year, AT&T began rebranding its 1,800 U.S. retail locations that include seven stores in Springfield, and one each in Nixa, Republic and Ozark. The brand change comes after the completion of AT&T’s merger with SBC and its acquisition of Cingular.