AT&T is poised to spend $17-18 billion this year according to their investment plans. That’s pretty much on track with last year’s plans.

In the wireless world it’s steady as she goes with plans to improve existing coverage and potentially enter 20 new markets. The ETA for LTE (long-term evolution) is 2011. No word on the 700 MHz spectrum acquired in 2008.

In the wired it’s also steady as she goes. The plan is to increase coverage of U-Verse from 17 million homes today to 30 million by 2011. They’re working on making the backbone better.

This announcement was made the day after the FCC/NTIA/USDA meeting on the stimulus package. I have noted before that unfortunately I think that the promise of stimulus funding put a lot of projects in a holding pattern over the last 3 months. I hope this is the start of plans moving forward.