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AT&T’s 1-gigabit-per-second GigaPower high-speed fiber network is growing again, this time adding 38 U.S. metro areas that are scheduled to be served by the end of 2016. The additional metro areas will expand the GigaPower network to 56 metro areas around the country.
The latest metro areas to be connected are Los Angeles and West Palm Beach, Fla., which get the services immediately. Those deployments give the company 20 metro areas where customers can get GigaPower today, according to a Dec. 8 announcement by AT&T.
The phone carrier began its GigaPower high-speed Internet services back in 2014 for customers around Austin, Texas, which was one of the first cities where Google launched its own Google Fiber high-speed services.
“Customer demand for AT&T GigaPower and sales have exceeded expectations since launching speeds up to 1 gigabit per second in Austin,” Brad Bentley, the executive vice president and chief marketing officer for AT&T Entertainment Group, said in a statement. “The faster speeds offered through AT&T GigaPower keep consumers and small businesses connected as they are accessing more content on more devices. This improves a customer’s experience when they are connecting to the cloud, hosting a videoconference, streaming videos and music, playing online games and more.”
AT&T says it has come a long way since the Austin service deployment, with GigaPower service in more than 1 million locations in 20 metro areas so far. The company expects to more than double availability by the end of 2016. Eventually, AT&T says it plans to extend its network to reach more than 14 million residential and commercial locations.
The 38 latest metro areas to get the high-speed services are Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile and Montgomery in Alabama; Fort Smith/Northwest Arkansas and Little Rock in Arkansas; Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose in California; Pensacola and West Palm Beach in Florida; Augusta, Ga.; Indianapolis; Wichita, Kansas; Louisville, Ky.; and Baton Rouge, Shreveport-Bossier, Jefferson Parish region and the Northshore in Louisiana. Also getting service are Jackson, Miss.; St. Louis; Detroit; Reno, Nev.; Ashville, N.C.; Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio; Oklahoma City and Tulsa in Oklahoma; Charleston, Columbia and Greenville in South Carolina; Memphis; El Paso and Lubbock in Texas and Milwaukee, Wis.
The GigaPower services promise download speeds that allow users to download 25 songs in less than a second, a TV show in three seconds or an HD movie in less than 36 seconds, according to AT&T.
AT&T ties the GigaPower services into its DirecTV offerings as well as with bundles that tie the services together for customers.
In April 2014, AT&T announced that it was starting an initiative to expand its fiber network to 100 cities and municipalities nationwide as part of its GigaPower services, according to an earlier eWEEK story. The original announcement included 21 major metropolitan areas around Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Cleveland; Fort Worth, Texas; Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando in Florida; Houston; Kansas City; Los Angeles; San Diego and San Francisco.