AT&T has announced two new cities for its gigabit internet offering – Charlotte, North Carolina and San Antonio, Texas. The AT&T offering called GigaPower offers roughly the same range of service as other gigabit providers like Google Fiber. However, the service is fairly limited in scope – offered in primarily large cities so far.
AT&T is deploying additional fiber and electronics to the existing network in Charlotte to meet the growing demand for ultra-fast broadband. The network enhancements will enable customers to have access to AT&T’s fastest Internet speeds available to consumers.
The San Antonio offering will also build on existing network infrastructure in the area.
In April, the company announced that it would be looking at up to 100 additional cities to expand its GigaPower offering. As part of that announcement, AT&T said it is also considering other North Carolina areas – Apex, Garner, Gastonia, Greensboro, Huntersville, and Morrisville as candidate municipalities for the service. AT&T will also the network to Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas this summer.
Availability and pricing in both states has yet to be announced. However, Comcast recently released information that they lowered prices on some of their packages in response to the proximity of Google Fiber. Similar realities could impact AT&T pricing, in what might actually resemble low-level competition in the broadband market.
Additionally, AT&T has committed that upon approval of its proposed acquisition of DIRECTV, the company will expand the AT&T GigaPower network to an additional 2 million customer locations. So, naturally, more consolidation is also in the offing.
