Cell Phone Service Provider, AT&T Introduces 4G Cellular in Nome

At the beginning of this month, the renowned cell phone service provider AT&T began offering its Nome customers a 4G network. Regardless of the enhanced coverage, more local support for AT&T customers won’t be included in the upgrade.  

AT&T’s Director of External Affairs for Alaska, Shawn Uschmann, says that the company has invested over $150 million in network upgrades throughout the State between the years 2014 to 2016.

On asking Uschmann why a 4G network was introduced just freshly in Nome, he answered, “AT&T launched 4G service in Nome to improve the customer experience, and with these investments, our customers are going to see increased reliability, coverage, speed, and overall performance on the network, and that is definitely something they are going to see in Nome.”

                                    

He continued, “These investments also improve critical network services that we use to support public safety and first responders throughout the state of Alaska, specifically in Nome.”

The giant cell phone service provider has used the existing infrastructure to establish a 4G network in Nome. Thus, it has not built any separate AT&T towers to accommodate the service. To execute the 4G project, the company’s employees from different Alaskan locations and several contractors are working together.

“This was a big job for us,” Uschmann said. “It’s going to be a game changer, we think, for Nome when the customers see the increased data speeds and get to experience that in real time; we hope it’s happening right now. We really look forward to hearing from our customers and what those experiences are.”

Some of the citizens in Nome have shared their experience. They have faced diverse problems with their phones since 4G was turned on. There were more frequent dropped calls or a poor network connection between the caller and the receiver.

Uschmann said that in case customers face any issue, they can report to AT&T by calling 611 from their cellphone or a national customer support number.

“Again, this is the same call center that handles calls nationwide for AT&T, so we’re comfortable with the level of support that they’re going to be able to provide, and we think the customers in Nome are going to be pleased with the experiences they have calling into those numbers,” Uschmann stated.

According to the director of the cellular phone service provider, the company never discloses any details about the number of customers it covers in a given area, therefore, there is no information about the number of people using AT&T service in Nome. However, the company has plans to include any additional staff as they can manage the performance of its network remotely.

Presently, a small team from the cellular phone service company is visiting with its local partners, including Kawerak and the City of Nome for the day.