AT&T Strengthens 3G Wireless Broadband Coverage In and Around Atlanta

/PRNewswire/ -- AT&T* today announced a substantial enhancement to its local 3G wireless broadband network with the launch of additional wireless spectrum in the 850 MHz band. This new spectrum adds significant capacity to the network to support ever-growing demand for 3G mobile broadband service, and provides improved in-building 3G wireless coverage for customers across the metropolitan Atlanta and surrounding areas including parts of Fulton, DeKalb, North Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Fayette Counties.

The network enhancement is part of AT&T's continual efforts to enhance and expand the scope, capacity and speed of its 3G wireless network - the fastest 3G network in Atlanta, according to recent data compiled by leading independent wireless research firms. It is also part of AT&T's ongoing investment to build the broadband networks that will create jobs and fuel economic growth, and enable its customers to quickly access the content, applications and services that matter most to them.

"Our mission is to connect people with their world, everywhere they live and work, and to do it better than anyone else," said Sylvia Russell, president-AT&T Georgia. "This substantial network upgrade is part of our commitment to deliver the nation's fastest 3G connectivity along with the highest possible levels of service quality and reliability."

"A thriving economy is driven by the ability of businesses to connect, and the investments AT&T continues to make in Georgia help us attract and retain jobs and build strong communities," said Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue. "By enhancing existing networks and bringing innovative communications technologies to Georgia, AT&T is helping position our state to be a leader as the economy recovers."

The 850 MHz spectrum has been added to the existing 1900 MHz spectrum across more than 540 cell sites in and around Atlanta to deliver a substantial increase in overall network capacity in these areas. Overall, the effort enhances 3G wireless broadband coverage across more than 3,800 square miles. The 850 MHz spectrum is part of the highest-quality spectrum band available. While specific benefits of the new spectrum will vary by location, AT&T 3G customers should receive improved quality and coverage. AT&T will continue work to fully optimize the new spectrum over the next several weeks.

"We know many of our customers depend on wireless as their primary communications connection to work, family and friends, and our mission is to ensure that every time a customer hits the 'send' key, whatever the application, it just gets done," said Keith Holmes, vice president and general manager, AT&T Mobility & Consumer Markets for Georgia. "We're enhancing our network every day to help customers do more with and get more from their wireless connections."

In markets where the 850MHz spectrum has been deployed, AT&T technicians who continuously monitor network performance for service quality and coverage have seen significant increases in total 3G data traffic.

"Atlanta consistently ranks as one of the most technology-savvy cities, and investments in technology and broadband continue to position our region for success," said Sam A. Williams, president of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. "We are truly becoming a national hotbed for technology innovation and investment."

The AT&T 3G network opens the door to a new era of advanced mobile services, devices and feature-rich audio and video content, such as AT&T Video Share(SM), a first-of-its-kind technology that allows users to share live video during a wireless call.

AT&T's wireless network is based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) family of technologies, which includes GSM and UMTS, the most open and widely used wireless network platforms in the world. As a result, only AT&T can offer 3G data roaming in more than 70 countries, as well as voice calling in more than 200 countries, in addition to AT&T's continuously expanding U.S. 3G footprint.

AT&T also enables unsurpassed choice and openness in the range of devices, services and applications compatible with its 3G network. AT&T offers a wide variety of devices from more than a dozen manufacturers, including handsets that are compatible with six different operating systems and five different e-mail applications. Our Media Mall 2.0 offers more than 90,000 content options, and customers can download virtually any application over the Internet. Additionally, AT&T supports a community of more than 13,000 application developers via its devCentral portal.

AT&T's 3G network is now available in more than 350 U.S. major metropolitan areas. AT&T plans to deploy 850 MHz spectrum in the majority of these markets over the course of 2009.

*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.

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Georgia State Professor Studies New Approach to Cyber Defense

Georgia State University’s Raheem Beyah is exploring innovative ways to keep computer networks secure from potential attackers.

The assistant professor of computer science has received a five-year, $400,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program grant from the National Science Foundation to explore methods to better detect cyber activity that could do great harm to individuals, organizations, businesses and government.

There are two ways to approach intrusion detection — either on the computers themselves, such as antivirus and firewall software, or having a detection program on a network that observes intrusions.

Both have their benefits, but there are detractions for each method.

“The software itself on a computer can damage the device, or it can open up new avenues for attackers to access the system,” Beyah explained. “If you have intrusion detection on a network, this is mitigated, but it does not give you the same level of detail about intrusions compared with methods residing on the host.”

Attempting to find the intrusion could be as harmful as the intrusion itself, a situation Beyah compares to a biopsy in cancer patients.

“It would be really nice if they could use a non-intrusive tool to tell whether you have cancer without having to cut into the body,” he said.

“My goal is to do something to bridge between the two detection methods, and to give us the strengths of both while minimizing the weaknesses.”

In addition to security research, Beyah plans to reach out to underrepresented groups in science, mathematics, technology, and engineering subjects — including minorities and females — through a summer academy which will help teach students about computer architecture and networking.

The Acknowledge Academy at the Knowledge Is Power Program West Atlanta Young Scholars (KIPP WAYS) Academy, a preparatory charter school of the Atlanta Public Schools will give students hands-on experience in these abstract subjects by using popular electronics.

“We hope to use devices like the iPod Touch to let the students break them open to look at the processors and memory,” said Beyah, who is on the board of directors of KIPP WAYS.
“Hopefully, they'll learn that there's science behind all of this cool stuff they use.”

Previous Georgia State Computer Science CAREER recipients include assistant professors Yingshu Li and Xiaojun Cao. Li is researching routing problems in sensor networks, while Cao is investigating optical networking.

For more about computer science and research at Georgia State, visit www.cs.gsu.edu.

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