The company will use the capital to reduce some of its own debt and that of its subsidiaries. It also states that it may also be used to fund new acquisitions. The capital raised is in addition to its $6.5 billion bond sale in March 2001.
AT&T’s plan to deploy a UMTS network by 2003 is seen by many as being both aggressive and overly optimistic, due to an expected lack of development in the data market.
The rollout of GPRS and the expected launch of EDGE networks, coupled with the possibility of technical problems with UMTS services will impact upon the deployment and success of AT&T’s network. However, an early launch is a requirement of NTT DoCoMo’s investment in the company.
