AT&T service updated

Customers with mobile serve through AT&T may have seen an interesting icon on their phones recently.
Sue Sperry, with AT&T Corporate Communications for the Gulf States region, said the work being conducted on towers around Atmore and Monroeville should improve reliability and service in the coming weeks and months.
“We have two towers in the area that are seeing some upgrades,” Sperry said. “As of Friday those towers are not experiencing any problems with the 3G network.”
Although problems with 3G capabilities by the mobile provider weren’t apparent at the end of the week, Sperry said customers could see some issues as work continues to improve the network.
“There are a lot of things that have to be done to get the system optimized permanently,” Sperry said. “There are electronics to replace, antennas to install and other things as well. That will take some time to complete and some of the capacity available for the mobile network will be unavailable during the work process.”
Sperry said the work will continue for some time with not specific date for full optimization set.
“When the work is complete and the system is turned up it can be very temperamental,” Sperry said. “Until it optimizes fully, the system won’t work as normal. This is kind of like the darkness before the dawn.”
The dawn may not have broken completely on the upgraded system, but some Atmore area AT&T users are already seeing an improvement in mobile use.
Shane Hadley, an Atmore resident and businessman, said he is seeing some improvements in certain areas of service with the beginning of the 3G system around Atmore.
“I can already tell the 3G is great,” Hadley said. “Because of the 3G, emails are working a lot better for me.”
Not all mobile users have access to email and Internet capabilities; however, Hadley said even his simple mobile phone service as improved.
“There were a lot of times between Atmore and Monroeville that I’d lose a lot of calls,” Hadley said. “Since the 3G has been up that has improved a lot.”
Sperry said work will continue on the towers, antennas and upgrades throughout the coming weeks with as little disruption in service as possible.
“There may be times when the service is limited due to the capacity of the system being used for upgrading,” Sperry said. “It’s hard to pinpoint a date for completion. Our workers are typically running ahead of schedule. However, you never know when there may be some issues that have to be addressed that could slow down the process.”
Sperry said once the system is fully upgraded and operational, customers should be pleased with the improved service and capabilities of their mobile devices.