AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) says that it plans to deploy a network technology that can help identify when a cell tower is overloaded and support it with radio resources from nearby cell sites.

John Donovan, senior EVP of AT&T technology and network operations, revealed in his blog Friday that the operator plans to deploy self-optimizing network (SON) technology from Intucell across its network.

So-called dynamic SON technology can detect when too many users are connected to a single tower and tell nearby towers to expand their footprint to cover some of the users in the overloaded area. It can also detect when a site is down and reroute users to the next-best cell.

"Initial field trial results from California and Georgia have shown as much as a 10 percent improvement in call retainability, 10 percent improvement in throughput speeds and 15 percent reduction in overloading," Donovan writes in the blog. "Based on that success, we plan to deploy SON throughout our network this year."

Why this matters
AT&T claims to be the first carrier in the U.S. to deploy SON technology after working with Intucell since April 2011. The self-healing technology could help to improve the overall network performance.

For more
Read up on the application of SON:

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile