AT&T executives along with business leaders from Durham will be on hand today for the formal launch of ultra-fast Internet service known as GigaPower in the Bull City and Durham County as part of the North Carolina Next Generation Network.

The service will offer customers download speeds up to one gigabit – more than 100 times faster than standard cable Internet access.

But AT&T, which has provided only limited services in Durham County in the past, faces embedded competition. Frontier Communications also offers gigabit access in parts of the city and county.

Frontier is the dominant provider of standard phone services in Durham County, having acquired the business previously provided by Verizon.

Plus, Google Fiber is currently deploying its own network that is intended to cover the Triangle.

Recently, Time Warner Cable began increasing Internet speeds for subscribers across the Triangle, including Durham, but has yet to disclose any plans for a fiber network to the home.

Monday’s launch means that AT&T now offers services in some areas of six cities that are part of the NCNGN initiative. In addition to Durham, the NCNGN now reaches:

  • Raleigh
  • Cary
  • Carrboro
  • Chapel Hill
  • Winston-Salem

The NCNGN is a partnership between those municipalities and Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State as well as Wake Forest universities.

Durham is the latest of North Carolina communities to get the GigaPower service, and the company says Greensboro is next.

No immediate details on pricing and packages were disclosed.

AT&T, Durham Mayor Bill Bell, the Durham Chamber of Commerce will kick off the new service 9 a.m. Monday at the AT&T retail store on Fayetteville Road in Durham.

AT&T North Carolina President Venessa Harrison and area elected officials and community leaders will be at the event.

Other NCNGN efforts

The NCNGN partners also plan to create a community enablement panel to identify new opportunities when broadband becomes available.

The panel’s working groups will explore initiatives and opportunities in areas such as software defined networking, data analytics and the development of applications across several areas, including health and wellness, education, smart homes, municipal services, public safety, transportation, advanced manufacturing, arts and culture, smart grids and medicine.

The panel includes delegates from AT&T, NCNGN, Duke University, NC State University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wake Forest University and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. They will collaborate on how to best leverage high-speed Internet and other technologies to drive economic development, workforce training, digital inclusion and technology innovation.

Connecting residents, tech leaders, students

“We’re in the very early stages of planning, but this is an exciting next step in the relationship between the NCNGN project and AT&T to invest in the future of this region and deliver next generation applications that will keep us as the forefront of technology trends,” said Tracy Futhey, chair of the NCNGN Steering Committee and vice president of Information Technology at Duke University in a statement. “This kind of private sector collaboration opens up new opportunities for our universities, students, communities, and residents in several areas, including advanced learning, application development, and job training.”

“This is about connecting North Carolinians – residents, technology leaders, and students – with new opportunities in ways we haven’t done before,” said Venessa Harrison, AT&T North Carolina state president in the announcement.

“Through collaboration, research and a shared desire to introduce exciting technologies in the regions, the potential is endless. We can’t wait to get moving.”

The community enablement panel is tied to AT&T’s previous agreement to deploy a 100 percent fiber network in parts of six North Carolina communities. This includes areas where service is live in Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, and where plans have been announced to launch service in Durham on July 20. As part of the agreement with the NCNGN, Durham residents and small businesses will receive AT&T U-verse Internet connectivity and U-verse TV and Voice services for the first time.