BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — AT&T Inc. is scoring a winover rival Verizon Wireless as it takes
over the contract to supplywireless connections to cars with General Motors’ OnStar service.VerizonWireless
and its predecessor companies have supplied the network forOnStar since the service launched in the 1990s,
but AT&T will takeover with the 2015 model year, AT&T and GM said Monday.Thenews comes as
cellphone companies are jostling to connect non-phonedevices to their networks. Now that nearly everyone has
a phone, thephone companies have to look elsewhere for growth. Dallas-based AT&Thas been
particularly aggressive in this area, garnering, for instance,the contract to connect Amazon Kindle
e-readers.AT&T willconnect OnStar cars to its new "4G LTE" network, which can supply
muchhigher data speeds than current OnStar connections. That means GM coulddeliver car software updates
wirelessly, instead of making owners taketheir cars to the shop. It could also enable video streaming
forpassengers, in-vehicle Wi-Fi "hotspots" and give GM a better view ofwhat’s going on inside a
car, and whether it needs maintenance.Ownersmight even be able to call up views from their car’s cameras,
remotely."They’re basically smartphones on wheels," said Glenn Lurie, head of AT&T’s
"emerging devices" division.Verizonhas an LTE network that delivers speeds similar to
AT&T’s, withwider coverage. Lurie said that by the time AT&T takes over thecontract, its LTE
network will cover 300 million Americans, or 96percent of the population. It also has older, slower networks
as abackup.Verizon Wireless said it was looking forward to continuing to provide service to current OnStar
customers.AT&Tand GM made the announcement just before the opening of Mobile WorldCongress, the
world’s largest wireless trade show, in Barcelona. Thecompanies didn’t reveal financial terms. The 6 million
current OnStarusers pay $19 per month or $199 per year, plus per-minute calling fees.Turn-by-turn GPS
navigation costs extra, too.British automotive research firm SBD believes that 100 million cars worldwide
will have built-in wireless capabilities by 2015.___AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed from
Detroit.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.