SAN FRANCISCO, April 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- At AT&T¹, we've invested nearly $7.2 billion in our California 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.

AT&T made numerous network upgrades in California in 2016. We expanded the availability of AT&T Fiber^SM, our 1-gigabit connection² on our 100% fiber network, to communities in many of the areas of California we serve, including parts of Bakersfield, Clovis, Fresno, Lincoln, Los Angeles, Modesto, Riverside, Roseville, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Santee, Stockton, and West Hollywood. We now market our ultra-fast internet service powered by AT&T Fiber to more than 550,000 customer locations in more than 60 California communities.

Nationwide we now market a 1-gigabit connection on our 100% fiber network to 4.6 million locations across 52 major metro areas. We plan to reach at least 75 major metros overall. We expect to add 2 million locations in 2017, and we plan to reach at least 12.5 million locations by mid-2019.

In addition, we have started to expand access to locations with slow or no internet connectivity — primarily in rural areas — as part of our participation in the FCC's Connect America Fund Phase II (CAF II) Program. In California, we will use the CAF II support to offer high-speed internet access to more than 141,500 homes and small businesses in the FCC-identified census blocks by 2020. Many of these communities will jump to at least 10Mbps Fixed Wireless Internet service.  

"We know that Californians demand a world-class communications network, and we're committed to maintaining and growing our wired and wireless networks to provide our customers with the fast, reliable, highly secure connectivity they expect, in every corner of the state," said Ken McNeely, president of AT&T California. "We're proud that our continued investment across California is driving innovation and opening up new possibilities for consumers and entrepreneurs, from San Francisco to Bakersfield to San Diego and beyond."

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 California 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 California'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 are 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 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 network³ at no additional cost. Wi-Fi usage doesn't count against customers' monthly wireless data plans.

To learn more about our coverage in California, 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 Actual customer speeds may vary. Download speeds are typically up to 940Mbps due to overhead capacity reserved to deliver the data.
³ 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. 

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 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 Q3+Q4 2016 across 121 markets.

**Global coverage claim based on offering discounted voice and data roaming; LTE roaming; and voice roaming in more countries than any other U.S. based carrier. International service required. Coverage not available in all areas. Coverage may vary per country and be limited/restricted in some countries.

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.

SOURCE AT&T Inc.

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