AT&T says it will expand super-fast Internet services to as many as 100 additional cities in 25 metropolitan areas, several of which are in the Triangle and North Carolina.
Apex, Garner and Morrisville have been added to the Triangle target list that already includes Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Carborro and Cary.
The latter five plus Winston-Salem were part of AT&T’s proposed response to build a gigabit Internet network as outlined by the North Carolina Next Generation Internet consortium.
NCNGN has already recommended that city governments approve the plan, and Raleigh has done so.
N.C. State, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest universities are also part of the consortium.
Now on the list are Charlotte and Greensboro.
The list of 21 candidate metropolitan areas also includes: Atlanta, Augusta, Chicago, Cleveland, Fort Worth, Fort Lauderdale, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, Oakland, Orlando, San Antonio, San Diego, St. Louis, San Francisco, and San Jose.
AT&T says it now has committed to or is exploring 25 metro areas for fiber deployment.
“We’re delivering advanced services that offer consumers and small businesses the ability to do more, faster, help communities create a new wave of innovation, and encourage economic development,” said Lori Lee, senior executive vice president, AT&T Home Solutions. “We’re interested in working with communities that appreciate the value of the most advanced technologies and are willing to encourage investment by offering solid investment cases and policies.”
The service’s 1 gigabit per second speed is about 100 times what U.S. consumers typically get with broadband. That means faster video downloads and the ability for more devices to connect to the network without congestion.
AT&T currently has such speeds in Austin, Texas, and has committed to offer the service in Dallas. A rival offering from Google Inc. is available in Kansas City and is coming soon to Austin and Provo, Utah.
AT&T Inc. says the specific number of new markets will depend on discussions with local officials and assessments of potential demand. The company may start building some of the new networks by the end of the year.
