Apple knows of and supports AT&T’s future 3G plans, the iPhone creator said during its December quarter conference call on Monday. Addressing a question over AT&T network problems, Apple said it has seen AT&T’s plans for upgrades and is confident that the carrier will make “very significant progress” on improving the capacity of the network. Specific details of what this would involve weren’t mentioned.

Previously, AT&T has said it mostly plans to add 850MHz spectrum in more areas and to improve the backhaul that handles overall traffic. It has more recently added second network layers in existing areas to balance the load in key areas.

The observation regardless both confirms Apple’s inside access to AT&T’s network plans and that it publicly remains loyal to AT&T in the future. Many have suspected that Apple has been the primary impetus behind advance upgrades in 2007 for EDGE as well as 2008 and 2009 for 3G, but both companies have typically stayed silent on the amount of collaboration.

News of the teamwork comes just as rumors are circulating of a union with Verizon for one or more devices that some critics believe may have been prompted by AT&T’s network issues. Since launching the iPhone 3G in 2008, AT&T’s network has seen a large upswing in the number of reported dropped calls and drops down to EDGE from 3G. Many have accused AT&T of being poorly prepared for a rush of data-aware devices, though others have noted that the iPhone itself may be partly responsible as it may be overly sensitive to 3G issues.

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