It’s easy to forget as we talk endlessly about getting broadband service to everyone in America, that some places don’t even have adequate wireless coverage.
One of those places is Upstate New York, where AT&T is making wireless signals stronger, particularly in rural areas.
The carrier has pumped several million dollars into the region to build new cell towers. One of the most recent additions is in Hoosick Falls, N.Y., near the Vermont border. This was an area that had almost no AT&T coverage, despite being just three and a half hours from our nation’s largest city and less than an hour from Albany, the state capital.
Verizon Wireless offers 3G service in the area, which AT&T doesn’t offer just yet. A spokesperson said simply making sure there was some cell service in case of emergency was an important first step.
Wireless issues have been a bugaboo for AT&T in the other New York – the city – over the past year as data downloads from a glut of iPhones have weighed down the carrier's network there. But improvements have been made there as well.
