AT&T outlines $11 billion in 2009 spending

In recent months, AT&T has announced 12,000 job cuts, reduced capex for 2009 and given no 2008 bonus to its CEO, but good news came this week, as the company is outlining how it will spend some of the money in its capex budget and add jobs this year.

AT&T said it will spend about $11 billion this year--out of a total capital spending plan estimated to be between $17 billion and $18 billion--to expand and enhance both its wireline and wireless broadband networks. The telco giant previously had committed about $1 billion of its capex budget to global network initiatives. This year's projects are expected to create about 3,000 jobs, specifically in the wireless, broadband and video parts of the business.

The wireless investment will center around ongoing 3G network expansion, femtocell trials and Wi-Fi hotspot expansion, among other things. The wireline portion of the investment will go largely toward ongoing expansion of AT&T U-Verse fiber network. While the overall spending for this year still represents lower capex than last year, it is at least re-assuring for vendors to hear AT&T starting to talk more specifically about how it will spend the money.

For more:
- Network World has this story  

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