August 16, 2011 > AT&T upgrades for southern Alameda County AT&T upgrades for southern Alameda County Submitted By George Ross AT&T announced on July 20, network upgrades in South Alameda County designed to provide its customers faster speeds, increased reliability and best-in-class wireless service. As part of that announcement, the Company gave a tour of a cell site in Newark that has been disguised as a pine tree to provide enhanced performance without disrupting neighborhood aesthetics. Further, AT&T's network enhancements include a new cell site in the city of Hayward, improving coverage in the area bounded by A Street, Princeton Street, Grove Way and State Hwy 185 and surrounding neighborhoods in the City of Hayward. "The Chamber applauds AT&T's expansion of wireless coverage in our region," said Kim Hugget, President and CEO, Hayward Chamber of Commerce. "Wireless connectivity in today's business is a requirement, not a luxury. Our businesses depend on reliable wireless connectivity for their day-to-day operations. We appreciate AT&T is making this investment in our community." AT&T has also added additional capacity to improve connectivity and performance for mobile voice and data network to nine more cell sites to improve service in Southern Alameda County, especially in Hayward, Newark, Fremont and Union City. "It's the equivalent of adding more lanes on the freeway so that voice and data traffic flows faster," said John Britton, AT&T's Director of Corporate Communications. In addition, AT&T continues upgrading cell sites with fiber optic and Ethernet connections back to the central switching facilities, enabling faster 4G speeds. "We're investing in our network across Southern Alameda County because we're committed to providing best-in-class wireless voice and data service to our customers," said Ken McNeely, AT&T's California President. "AT&T has invested nearly $775M in its San Francisco Bay Area wireless and wireline networks from 2008-2010. We shall continue investment and network improvements."