Neowin.net

AT&T has been sued multiple times over its alleged "3G" network, where people claim the speeds are not actually 7.2mbps, and range far less than that, even in hot spots. The plan to help keep up with the growing number of iPhone and smartphone sales put a stress on the current 3G wireless network.

After lawsuits in Florida, San Jose and San Diego in California, and Alabama, the company has set forth $18 billion to upgrade all of their networks. The upgrades will include adding fiber optic cables to almost all of their cell phone towers to provide true 3G speeds (7.2mbps). AT&T will be adding 2,100 new cell cities across the nation to widen their reach across America.

The company also plans on upgrading to HSPA 7.2 and LTE (Long-Term Evolution) next year, the successor to UMTS 3G technology; providing faster download and upload rates on mobile devices. AT&T also plans to almost double their current radio frequency capacity. Currently, most of their cell phone towers use the high-quality 850-Mhz spectrum in more than half of their towers.

The purposed $18 billion budget for upgrading AT&T's network across America is planned to begin operations soon and last up till 2011, trying to keep up with the demand of the mobile cell phone market.