AT&T will expand its AT&T Fiber internet program to five new cities this month, the company announced Monday.
The cities receiving coverage are Columbia, S.C., Jackson, Miss., Knoxville, Tenn., Milwaukee and Shreveport, La. and it is expected to be set up on a rolling basis. AT&T Fiber launched in Milwaukee Monday and is slated to be available in the other four regions by the end of February.
AT&T Fiber is the company’s gigabit high-speed internet option, designed to go head-to-head with competitors like Google Fiber. With faster upload and download speeds, gigabit internet is optimized for applications like streaming 4K or high-definition video. Currently, the service only has a base of around 4 million users, but aims to roll out to additional areas soon. Coverage is also available in an estimated 650,000 apartments and condos. You can see AT&T Fiber’s coverage map here.
AT&T wants to reach 12.5 million locations in 67 metro areas with fiber coverage by mid-2019. As Ars Technica notes, the expansion is also a condition from the Federal Communications Commission that is tied to AT&T’s merger with DirecTV in 2015. Prices for gigabit AT&T Fiber service also run between $70 to $90 per month.
The update is the latest rollout from AT&T as it tries to establish a foothold in the burgeoning gigabit Ethernet market. AT&T Fiber, which originally launched in 2013, earned a brief reprieve from competitor Google Fiber when the side venture went on hiatus last October. However, Google quietly updated its “upcoming cities” list early this month for Fiber. As streaming and data consumption become a bigger part of users’ daily media habits, though, expect gigabit coverage to become increasingly commonplace.
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