AT&T may have tried to slow sales of the iPhone in New York to avoid putting additional stress on its overtaxed network, but in the company’s earnings call today, the talk was all about how things are getting better. In slides shown to investors, the company pointed to service improvements in New York and San Francisco — the two cities where customer service chief Ralph De La Vega had warned that data hogs had been eating up too much network capacity.

The company highlighted its network, boasting that it has the “fastest 3G network” in the U.S., and reaches “97 percent” of the population. Other boasts: 1,900 new cell cites added in 2009, voice quality up 22% and broadband throughput up 19%.

AT&T also said that it plans to spend the next 90 days working on “Continued Enhancements to Drive Further Improvement.” Gee, isn’t there a new, highly anticipated product — that just happens to come with an AT&T 3G card and a $29.99 per month unlimited access plan — coming out in 90 days? If that product takes off, AT&T had better drive further improvement, or we may hear the company’s CSRs saying New York isn’t ready for it. And that may make Steve very unhappy.

AT&T Investor Update [AT&T via Engadget]

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