AT&T, Verizon boost wireless networks

A new wireless tower at U.S. highways 60 and 65 is part of AT&T's ongoing effort to shore up spotty coverage for customers and vie with Verizon Wireless, which is converting and upgrading Alltel towers in the Springfield area.

Dallas-based AT&T (NYSE: T) has been expanding its wireless network in southwest Missouri for the past two years; nine new towers were added in 2008 and 10 more are slated to come on line by year's end. The work represents an investment of approximately $5.7 million, based on the $250,000 to $350,000 cost of each tower.

Towers in the Springfield area have been largely concentrated on the city's southern edge to address complaints of dropped calls along major highways, said Mike Haynes, regional director of affairs for AT&T and a registered lobbyist for the telecommunications company.

Haynes said AT&T partnered with City Utilities of Springfield for the 60-65 interchange tower.

"If you were coming from the south on 65 or the west on 60, you have that big dip going down into the valley," he said. "We had customers (whose) calls were getting dropped. Also the congestion of that intersection - we needed more capacity."

Haynes said AT&T mounted its tower on a utility pole erected by CU near the interchange, which is undergoing a major overhaul replete with new flyover ramps, bridges, lighting and drainage. AT&T has a lease with CU, but details of the agreement were unavailable at press time.

AT&T also has recently added a tower along U.S. Highway 160 between Springfield and Nixa to cover another well-traveled stretch that's caused headaches for its customers, Haynes said. Other tower sites either already in operation or nearing completion include Sparta and Clever, he said, declining to identify future tower locations.

"When we talk about our future plans, we have to be careful about protecting our competitive edge," Haynes said.

New tower locations will be finalized once AT&T's capital budget process concludes later this year, Haynes said, noting that new towers cost roughly $300,000, the majority in electronics and cabling expenses, not the structure itself.

"There are always going to be places where there's no coverage ... and there's always an evaluation going on," he added. "They're already making their plans for 2010. I bet you will see a bunch more (towers) filling in those gaps where those corridors are."

AT&T's largest competitor nationally is New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless, a division of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) that earlier this year acquired Little Rock, Ark.-based Alltel Corp. for $28.1 billion. Alltel has a large presence in southwest Missouri, and Verizon is in the process of converting and upgrading Alltel's existing wireless towers, said Verizon spokeswoman Cheryl Bini Armbrecht.

"(The Alltel towers) pretty much sewed up the area," Armbrecht said, adding that outlying areas of Greene, Christian and Taney counties have been picked up. "We continue to expand our coverage in Springfield with our own build plan that we have in place to fill in gaps, but certainly the gaps were helped by the Alltel acquisition."

Verizon entered the Springfield-Branson market in early 2008 after spending $26 million to expand its network in the Ozarks. In 2007, Verizon Wireless installed 89 cell sites to lay the groundwork for its entrée into southwest Missouri. About 6 percent of the cell sites were new towers while the rest were collocated antennas on existing buildings or towers, according to previous Springfield Business Journal coverage.

Both Verizon and AT&T are enhancing their tower capabilities to accommodate 3G, a network standard that supports higher data rates. Both companies expect those upgrades to be complete by year's end.

"3G is all about data speed," Haynes said. "And if you make it faster, then more people are going to use it. And if more people use it, then you need more capacity. That's the demon right now. How do we keep growing at the rate that people are using it?"

Neither Haynes nor Armbrecht could say how much their companies had invested in southwest Missouri, although they did provide statewide figures. AT&T has invested more than $1.75 billion in Missouri between 2006 and 2008, and Verizon has spent more than $27 million on cell sites and upgrades throughout the Show-Me State in the first half of 2009.