AT&T's chief technology officer today highlighted how the recently maligned carrier is addressing skyrocketing demand for mobile data as it experiences a 5,000 percent surge in mobile data traffic.

As AT&T (NYSE: T), the exclusive carrier for the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone, has embraced smartphones and their applications as well as other devices including netbooks and e-readers, mobile data traffic has grown nearly 5,000 percent on the AT&T network over just the past three years, said AT&T CTO John Donovan, who was speaking at the CTIA IT & Entertainment conference.

Donovan outlined how AT&T is addressing this unprecedented challenge by investing $38 billion over two years on its wireless and wired networks. "AT&T is focused on delivering an ideal combination of more mobile data capacity and faster 3G speeds, with these capabilities being deployed over a very short timeframe to maximize customer benefit," said Donovan.

AT&T is 90 percent complete in its deployment of high-quality 850 MHz spectrum for 3G, which adds overall network capacity as well as improved in-building coverage.

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