DETROIT – AT&T Chairman Edward Whitacre, during a keynote address to the Detroit Economic Club on Monday, announced the former SBC will spend billions of dollars over the next several years to bring broadband Internet service to rural areas and to low-income households.

Whitacre also said AT&T will bring WiMAX and other fixed wireless technologies to the market to evaluate their potential to bring broadband Internet service to rural areas that can’t get high-speed access. AT&T plans to spend approximately $4.6 billion on its Project Lightspeed initiative to reach nearly 19 million homes by year-end 2008 as part of its initial deployment.

?Innovation and a meaningful commitment to bring those advances to all of our customers were at the foundation of our efforts to create the new AT&T,? Whitacre said. ?With our resources, scope and expertise, AT&T today is well positioned to deliver the benefits of new innovations to customers of all sizes ? from the largest global enterprises to small businesses to consumers.

?By rapidly deploying these new broadband technologies and aggressively rolling out new services, we?re meeting that goal by making broadband and competitive video programming services accessible to many customers who have had limited access to broadband?until now,? said.

The initiatives include three components:

Offering a satellite-based broadband service later this month in select rural markets in AT&T?s residential service territory, most of which are not served by landline broadband services today.

Affirming the company?s intent to make its Project Lightspeed video services available ? within three years ? to more than 5.5 million low-income households as part of its initial build in 41 target markets, making them among the first in the nation to receive these new IP-enabled video services.

Expanding the scope of the company?s market efforts related to WiMAX and other fixed wireless technologies. New deployments will begin later this year in Texas and Nevada, joining existing AT&T fixed wireless service offers in Alaska, Georgia and New Jersey.

AT&T is already the nation?s largest provider of DSL broadband, with 7.4 million DSL lines in service and DSL service options available to nearly four out of five customer locations within the company?s 13-state local service area.

The satellite and fixed wireless broadband offerings announced today are designed to evaluate promising new technologies that have the potential to extend AT&T?s broadband reach to 100 percent of its residential and rural service area. The technologies hold strong promise for delivering broadband services in remote, rural and hard-to-serve areas, many of which have no DSL or cable broadband services today. In the AT&T traditional local service area, these initiatives could help bring broadband to as many as 11.5 million additional homes and businesses.

AT&T?s deployment of WiMAX and other fixed wireless technologies will enable the company to evaluate the potential of these platforms as another option for delivery of broadband services in rural areas, as well as for delivery of competitive services in other areas of the United States. The company?s existing and upcoming limited fixed wireless offers will provide opportunities to evaluate various technology solutions under a number of conditions, using both licensed and unlicensed spectrum, and including both rural and urban settings and for both business and residential customers.

AT&T will offer a satellite-based broadband Internet access service in select rural markets later this month, with additional market availability planned for later in the year. The service, delivered via an operating agreement with high-speed Internet provider WildBlue, will be offered to customers in AT&T?s 13-state local service areas where AT&T DSL service is not available, under the name ?AT&T High Speed Internet Access, powered by WildBlue.?

Rural satellite broadband subscribers will have three service packages to choose from, with prices ranging from $49.95 to $79.95 per month, and broadband speed options ranging up to 1.5 Mbps downstream and up to 256 Kbps upstream. AT&T satellite customers will have direct access to the public Yahoo! portal, which will be set as customers? default Internet home page.

Within three years, the company intends to make its new IP-based video services available to more than 5.5 million low-income households ? identified using U.S. Census Bureau data ? within the 41 markets where the company is initially building its new video-capable network, an unprecedented pace and reach of such advanced technology. Customers in these areas would have access to the full suite of AT&T U-Verse products, including voice, video, high-speed Internet access and, later, voice-over-IP services.

Emerging WiMAX and other fixed wireless technologies enable delivery of a range of networking services ? such as Voice over IP, Internet access, and private business network access ? over broadband wireless connections. AT&T?s new fixed wireless deployments, which will be launched this summer in Pahrump, Nevada and Red Oak and Midlothian, Texas, will extend the AT&T Yahoo! experience to residential and business customers in these communities, and will enable AT&T to further develop and refine WiMAX and other fixed wireless technologies as potential solutions for delivering services on a mass-market scale.

The new deployments expand AT&T?s fixed wireless research initiatives beyond its existing commercial trial deployments in Alaska, Georgia and New Jersey. At the Detroit Economic Club keynote, Whitacre announced that AT&T?s WiMAX trials in the villages of Aniak and Northway, Alaska, have already proven to be successful enough that the company plans to offer services on an ongoing, commercial basis in those communities. Broadband customers in these small Alaska communities include residences, small businesses and community centers.

In addition, AT&T in mid-April launched a limited service offering of wireless broadband Internet access in the North Texas communities of Frisco, McKinney, Prosper, Centennial, and Little Elm. This service offer was launched in mid-April, with price points starting at $39.95 per month. Customers in these service areas will have direct access to the public Yahoo! portal, which will be set as customers? default Internet home page.