AT&T will invest $1 billion this year to build four undersea cables and to expand its network services. The bulk of this investment will be outside the U.S. The undersea cables will reach to Japan and the rest of Asia.

AT&T has been dedicating significantly more capital to building its worldwide network since 2006.

AT&T plans to also deploy MPLS routers in Europe, Asia and the U.S. AT&T wants to begin providing Ethernet services in 14 cities in Europe and Asia by the end of the year. That would give it a presence in 39 countries total.

AT&T said it also intends to offer xDSL as an alternative broadband service in China, Finland and Saudi Arabia.

AT&T will also build a data center in the Indian software hub of Bangalore by December, according to a Reuters report.

More Broadband Direct:

• Comcast gears up for wideband deployment in S. Fla. 

• AT&T expanding worldwide presence 

• Ovum: Cable ops’ revenues increased in Q4 

• Secure Signals seeks ops for free beta test of GuardDog 

• Verizon hiccups fulfilling FiOS promo offer 

• AT&T’s VOD syncs up with movie review Web site 

• Rentrak signs up 10 new content provider customers 

• Yahoo buys time to fend off Microsoft 

• Broadband Briefs for 3/05/08