Following up on yesterday’s news that Apple is preparing to start production on Verizon-compatible iPhones, the Wall Street Journal now says that AT&T has been working since December to improve their existing networks to remain competitive when the inevitable battle for iPhone market share begins.

Even before the iPhone, AT&T’s mobile network has always been criticized for its poor coverage in major cities. (As both an AT&T subscriber and a New York City resident, I can attest to this firsthand.) The Journal story claims that the company launched a 100-day plan in late 2009 to begin to remedy this problem — adding new network spectrum, repositioning towers and improving the connection speed on cell towers.

AT&T has already said that they plan on spending $2 billion more in 2010 on network improvements than they did in 2009.

What remains to be seen is if Verizon (and potentially others), who have not had to handle the high-amount of data devouring done by iPhone users, will be able to keep up with customer demand or if they’ll experience the same growing pains as AT&T has in recent years.

AT&T Prepares Network For Battle [WSJ]

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