AT&T earmarks $8.5bn for international expansion

US telecoms provider AT&T has unveiled an international investment plan that will see the company invest up to $8.5bn worldwide.

AT&T is planning to introduce a Metro Ethernet service in 12 European countries including the UK, France and Germany.

The service promises connection speeds up to 100Mbps and will be targeted at customers in densely populated areas.

AT&T is also planning to expand access to its Wi-Fi service through a new partnership with international roaming network WeRoam which provides 5,500 access points.

The deal enlarges AT&T's worldwide Wi-Fi network to 24,000 locations of which 8,000 are in Europe.

AT&T also plans to double its DSL offerings for businesses and service providers, including expanding its DSL network to Greece and Ireland in the coming months.

The telco will add additional backbone interconnections to its Nordic network, similar to those it has in the UK and other European countries.

The expansion will increase regional coverage for AT&T, allowing it to improve its overall service levels, increase guaranteed network speeds and lower prices.

AT&T was acquired last year by SBC, one of the so-called Baby Bells, giving rise to concerns over the firm's international strategy.

"An $8.5bn global investment plan over 2006 should finally put that to rest, " Dustin Kehoe, a senior telecoms analyst at Current Analysis, wrote in a research note.

The new investments will principally allow the company to catch up with competitors including BT, Colt Telecom and Verizon Business, Kehoe pointed out.

"The market is already expecting a lot of announcements and is waiting to see the proof of deployment before it gets overly excited," he said.