Good news for Cupertino: AT&T plans to bring its GigaPower all-fiber network to local homes and businesses, offering symmetrical upload and download broadband speeds of up to one gigabit per second (1 Gbps). Customers will also have access to AT&T's TV services, which includes a DVR with 1 TB of internal storage and the ability to record and watch five HD streams simultaneously.
The company announced its plans to expand its fiber network back in April, reporting that up to 100 candidate cities and municipalities nationwide will receive both AT&T U-verse and GigaPower. The company listed 21 new metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami and more.
The company is just one of several that are pushing to install gigabit Internet in homes and businesses across the nation. Google is one such competitor, which has built a gigabit network in Kansas City and Provo, Utah; Google Fiber in Austin, Texas is "on the way." Google lists nine other candidate cities including San Jose, Phoenix, San Antonio, Nashville, Charlotte and more.
CenturyLink is another company looking to establish gigabit Internet service. Just last week, the company said that its gigabit network will be coming to select locations in 16 cities. This network uses the company's fiber-to-the-premises technology, meaning this network will be connected to the home rather than ending at the street.
In addition to building a bigger gigabit network, AT&T is also shooting to purchase DirecTV for $49 billion, which would include 20 million U.S.-based satellite TV customers. The merger is expected to close sometime before May 2015. However, there are regulatory hurdles yet to overcome, as the Federal Communications Commission is currently taking public comments (pdf) about the merger until November 5.
AT&T's press release said that when the DirecTV merger is complete, the resulting company will be a "content distribution leader". AT&T will offer bundles to consumers that include mobile services, video and high-speed broadband. That likely includes GigaPower connectivity in cities that provide that service.
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