AT&T details investments in Reno area

AT&T said week it invested more than $300 million in wireless and wire-line networks in the Reno-Sparks area from 2009 through 2011.

The work included 125 upgrade projects during 2011 alone, the company said, including:

* Activation of two new cell sites to improve network coverage.

* Deployment of faster fiber-optic connections to more than 30 cell sites. Combined with HSPA+ technology, these deployments enable 4G speeds.

* Addition of 85 additional channels of capacity to cell sites in the area.

Separately, J.D. Power and Associates said last week that AT&T customers reported the highest incidence of problems with calls of major wireless carriers in the Western states.

AT&T customers experience problems with 17 out of 1,000 calls in the West, J.D. Power said. Verizon customers experience 11 problems, T-Mobile customers experience 13 problems, and Sprint Nextel customers experience 14.

Problems for all carriers have risen as more customers use Web applications on their cell phones, analysts for J.D. Power said.