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Underserved Communities Foundation awarded $25,000 grant. * By El Paso Inc. staff * Aug 6, 2026 Updated Aug 6, 2026 * 0 The Underserved Communities Foundation has received a $25,000 grant from AT&T to launch its Digital Empowerment for All initiative, a digital literacy and online safety program serving underserved communities in the El Paso region. The funding will support the purchase of devices and software for hands-on training workshops, while AT&T, Compudopt and the foundation will provide 50 refurbished laptops to preselected trade, vocational and college students. The digital literacy series is scheduled to begin this fall through partnerships with local shelters, transitional living centers and youth-serving organizations. (0 Ratings) We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

AT&T and Ericsson enhance wireless capacity, coverage, and performance nationwide. Aug 06, 2026, 10:06 ET AT&T continues investing in its nationwide wireless network to help customers stay connected with improved coverage, better performance, and more reliable calls Key Takeaways: * AT&T has selected Ericsson to provide 600 MHz dual-band radios to support deployment of newly acquired spectrum from EchoStar. * The new spectrum and advanced radios will improve capacity, reliability, coverage, and performance for customers. * Customers can expect more reliable connections in more places, including indoors and in rural areas where coverage can sometimes be harder to deliver. * These upgrades help prepare the network for growing demand from everyday apps, connected devices, AI-enabled tools, and data-heavy experiences, both now and in the future. DALLAS, Aug. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - AT&T is working with Ericsson to put its newly acquired 600 MHz spectrum to work for its customers. Ericsson's advanced radios help AT&T use this spectrum to strengthen its wireless network and deliver a better everyday experience. The 600 MHz spectrum AT&T acquired from EchoStar is especially valuable because it can travel farther and provide stronger coverage inside buildings compared to some higher-frequency spectrum. This helps customers stay connected in more places - at home, at work, on the road - in both urban and rural areas. Progress customers can experience AT&T is more than 60% of the way through its wireless network modernization effort, which has greatly improved customer experience. In areas with upgraded Ericsson infrastructure, AT&T customers are seeing: * Up to 2x improvement in average speeds * Improved call reliability, with a 10% reduction in dropped and blocked calls * Reduced occurrences of slower data speeds by up to 70% * By standardizing equipment at the top of cell towers, customers could experience reduced uplink interference by up to 80% These upgrades are designed to help America's largest wireless network carry more data, respond faster, and keep customers connected more consistently as wireless demand grows. Strengthening performance for the AI era Through an open and competitive process, Ericsson was selected as a supplier of 600 MHz dual-band radios, enabling AT&T to deploy uplink-enhancing 8RX technology across low bands for the first time. This work supports future connectivity needs while strengthening the network for AI-driven creation, sharing, and real-time interaction. This work also builds on AT&T and Ericsson's previously announced collaboration to accelerate Open RAN deployment. "We're more than halfway through our wireless network modernization, and we're executing to plan," said Yigal Elbaz, SVP and Network CTO, AT&T. "By combining our newly acquired 600 MHz spectrum with Ericsson's advanced radios, we're improving coverage and performance for customers while building a more modern, flexible network for the future." "AT&T's network modernization is a powerful proof point for how open architectures and advanced capabilities can transform performance at scale," said Dyon Agnew, SVP and Head of Customer Unit AT&T, Ericsson Americas. "Together, we're helping deliver faster speeds, more reliable coverage, and a more consistent customer experience across the United States." AT&T will provide additional details about its 600 MHz deployment plans, including timing and commercial availability, at a later date. The expected capital investments associated with this agreement are reflected in the financial outlook and capital allocation plan provided in AT&T's second-quarter 2026 earnings release. About AT&T We help more than 100 million U.S. families, friends and neighbors, plus nearly 2.5 million businesses, connect to greater possibility. From the first phone call 150+ years ago to our 5G wireless and multi-gig internet offerings today, we @ATT innovate to improve lives. For more information about AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), please visit us at about.att.com. Investors can learn more at investors.att.com. About Ericsson Ericsson's high-performing, programmable networks provide connectivity for billions of people every day. For 150 years, we've been pioneers in creating technology for communication. We offer mobile communication and connectivity solutions for service providers and enterprises. Together with our customers and partners, we make the digital world of tomorrow a reality. www.ericsson.com SOURCE AT&T

AT&T puts 600MHz to work with Ericsson for coverage and uplink. AT&T to roll out Ericsson dual-band radios with 'uplink-enhancing' technology in newly acquired 600MHz spectrum from EchoStar. August 6, 2026 Now that the $23 billion deal to buy EchoStar spectrum is done, AT&T is getting down to work on deploying uplink-boosting radios from Ericsson in newly acquired 600MHz frequencies. AT&T gained nationwide access to about 30MHz of 3.45GHz midband spectrum and 20MHz of 600MHz lowband spectrum from the EchoStar transaction that closed last week. It has already switched on the additional midband frequencies for more 5G capacity, but the lowband spectrum requires new radios because the carrier's network does not support 600MHz. AT&T said today that its prime wireless supplier Ericsson will provide the 600MHz dual-band radios for the rollout. The standout advantage of lowband spectrum is the propagation characteristics that extend cellular coverage over longer distances. AT&T said it expects the new spectrum and radios to improve "capacity, reliability, coverage and performance." But it also flagged that the new radios can increase uplink capacity, which is a relatively new feature in sub-1GHz networks and the latest example of telcos' increasing fixation on mobile upload performance. AT&T said that with Ericsson's dual-band radios, it will deploy "uplink-enhancing 8RX [i.e., eight receiver] technology across low bands for the first time." That could bring a big upstream capacity gain because lowband frequency division duplex (FDD) spectrum, like 600MHz, is typically served by radios with 4RX. "8RX is not new per se, but it is gaining traction in low bands," said Gabriel Brown, senior principal analyst at Omdia, a Light Reading sister company. "It is pretty rare at sub-1GHz and more often deployed in midband FDD (e.g., 1.8GHz and 2.6GHz), but gains in technology are making it viable at sub-1GHz. It's brilliant for uplink and coverage." AT&T CEO John Stankey hinted some uplink innovation was coming while speaking on the carrier's Q2 earnings call. He discussed how the 600MHz spectrum acquisition will help the carrier to build better upstream capacity in preparation for increased AI traffic and agentic AI applications. "Part of why we did the spectrum acquisition... is we believe the best way to manage a robust upstream and an agentic environment, is to have a really strong lowband position. We already have an advantaged low band position in the market, [and] the 600MHz is going to make that advantage even more substantial... because you can engineer the spectrum a little bit differently," he said. Ahead of potential traffic pattern changes from AI in the future, adding uplink capacity is also important today for video calling and fixed wireless access (FWA). Uplink is having a moment. Recent moves to boost uplink capacity came up on T-Mobile's Q2 investor call as well, indicating the topic is top of mind at executive levels. Indeed, a recent Ookla report found that US telcos dedicate just 5% of spectrum capacity to uplink traffic, the smallest percentage of the countries surveyed, which puts carriers behind the curve for handling AI applications that are bound to have more device-generated traffic hitting mobile networks. Along with the focus on uplink, there is also a resurgence in interest in FDD spectrum bands, a trend that Omdia's Brown calls the "FDD renaissance." AT&T's use of higher-capacity uplink radios in 600MHz is part of the renaissance, he said. "In 5G a lot of focus has been on TDD massive MIMO in midband for capacity and end user downlink speeds. FDD - the real workhorse bands of mobile, globally - have been a bit neglected in the 5G era. This is now changing and will have very positive impact on customers by giving more reliable cell edge service," he said. "In the same vein of FDD renaissance, in FDD midband we are seeing very substantial gains from FDD massive MIMO using new active radio technologies... There is strong interest in FDD massive MIMO in the US and various other markets," he added, noting that Verizon is leading in this technology. Lowband boost for wireless upgrade. AT&T said it is more than 60% through a major wireless network upgrade, which is part of a $14 billion five-year deal with Ericsson announced in December 2023. The project involves replacing Nokia radios with Ericsson's, implementing open RAN and adopting cloud RAN architecture. The carrier said that in areas with upgraded Ericsson equipment, it is seeing "up to two times improvement in average speeds," 10% fewer dropped calls, 70% less occurrences of slower data speeds and reduced uplink interference. The 600MHz rollout builds on this effort. AT&T did not provide further details about deployment timelines or commercial availability for services on the new lowband spectrum. Previously, AT&T said the rollout would take "a number of years." In approving the EchoStar spectrum sale, the FCC set tougher buildout requirements for AT&T in 600MHz than what the carrier had proposed. For example, it will need to provide coverage to at least 40% of the population covered by the band licenses within three years of the transaction close and to 75% in five years. Senior Editor, Light Reading Michelle Donegan covers all things 5G, 6G and mobile tech for Light Reading. She has been writing about the telecoms sector since the early 1990s. Her first job was with Global Telephony magazine in Chicago, where she got an intro to publishing and tech reporting. After moving to the UK in 1999, she has covered telecoms tech, business and policy issues at publications including Communications Week International and Total Telecom. She was also part of Light Reading's European editorial team from 2007 to 2013. Between stints at Light Reading, she was busy freelancing and was a regular contributor to Mobile Europe, Mobile World Live, TelcoTitans, TM Forum, and more. Want more Light Reading stories in your Google search results? Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.