AT&T Gigabit Network in Austin Spurs Competition, Innovation with Google Fiber
AT&T will deploy a gigabit-speed fiber network in Austin, Texas, in December, before Google Fiber’s start there in 2014 (CD April 10 p10). AT&T will use AT&T U-verse with GigaPower to make fast Internet and TV services available to consumers, said the company in a news release Tuesday (http://soc.att.com/1dUEYZF). The December start will initially feature symmetrical speeds of up to 300 Mbps, and customers who sign up for the service will be able upgrade to gigabit speeds in mid-2014 at no extra cost, said the telco ISP.
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AT&T’s network in Austin follows other cities and municipalities promoting and increasing their speeds. Chattanooga, Tenn., municipal utility EBP increased the speeds of all residential and business customers from 100 Mbps or higher to 1 Gbps for the city of Chattanooga (CD Sept 18 p18) for the company’s fourth anniversary, a company spokeswoman told us. “As we learned more about our service, we felt confident that we gained efficiencies to manage the network at higher speeds with minimal costs for our customers.” EBP started as a electric utility and built a broadband network to create “robust communication,” she said. EBP soon realized it could use its network to deliver phone and TV services at speeds that cable companies can’t offer, said the spokeswoman. “High-speed Internet is becoming like electric power was at the turn the last century,” she said. “No one could have predicted the innovation, and it leads to smart development of next generation businesses."
Utopia, an open access fiber network in Utah, showed a competitive streak with Google Fiber in Provo in September when it announced a drastic price reduction in its gigabit residential service (http://bit.ly/1gomZKC). Seven Utah-based ISPs on the network are offering a gigabit service for as low as $64.95, a 78 percent reduction from the launch price of $299 in June 2012, said Utopia. “This new price is an incredible value,” said Utopia Chief Operating Officer Gary Jones in a statement. “For not much more than most phone and cable companies charge for their basic 8 megabits per second service, our customers get speeds that are more than 100 times faster."
AT&T’s negotiations with the Austin to offer a gigabit service are a “good idea,” said Blair Levin, Gig.U founder, in an email to us. “Gig.U has a few dozen other university towns -- similar to Austin in many key criteria -- that would be happy to negotiate similar deals with AT&T, Google or any other ISP,” he said. “It would be a shame if the fun stopped in Austin.” Google Fiber welcomes any competition to the service in Austin, said a spokeswoman. “We've always said more competition and choice are better for users.” Networks from AT&T and Google Fiber will put Austin on the cutting edge of innovation, said Mike Rollins, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce president, in a statement. “Jump-starting the actual construction of GigaPower will add another reason for people to want to do business and innovate in Austin and call Austin home.”