AT&T GigaPower fiber expanding to 38 more cities
The carrier also said it launched GigaPower on Monday in Los Angeles and West Palm Beach, Fla., making fast fiber available to homes, apartments and small businesses.
AT&T launched GigaPower in Austin, Texas, about two years ago and has been waging a battle with Google Fiber and others ever since then. Aside from California cities, nearly all of AT&T's GigaPower deployments are in Texas and states to the east of Texas, with none in the northeast, according to AT&T's online map.
Among GigaPower's 38 expansion sites, the largest cities include Birmingham, Ala., San Francisco and San Jose, Calif., St. Louis, Mo., Detroit, Mich. Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, Memphis, Tenn. and Milwaukee, Wis.
Google announced in October it had begun serving customers, was designing or building fiber or was exploring service in 18 cities altogether, with that roundup including Oklahoma City and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.. Google launched Google Fiber in Kansas City in 2011, joined by Austin, Texas, and Provo, Utah, in 2013.
"With today's announcement, AT&T GigaPower is far outpacing every other competitor, even Google Fiber," said Jeffrey Kagan, an independent analyst. The carrier noted it is now providing the service to 1 million locations within the 58 cities and expects to double that number by the end of 2016.
"Gigabit Internet is one important key to the future," Kagan added. "Cities that get it early on have a competitive advantage. Eventually, every city will have to have this or they will be at a competitive disadvantage."