AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) finally revealed on
Monday the details of its long-rumored fiber network for
ultra high-speed Internet connections. AT&T will launch
"GigaPower" in Austin, on Dec. 1, beating Google Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) planned Google Fiber network
to the punch in the Texas capital.
AT&T and Google are both
promising that their services will offer users Internet connectionspeeds
of 1 gigabit per second. At first, GigaPower will only run at 300 megabits per
second before AT&T upgrades next year, but that is still about 40 times
faster than the average homeconnection in the U.S.
Google
Fiber is already available in Kansas City, and Google is now running adsfor the service in Provo, Utah, where it will
launch in mid-October. The service has generated a lot of buzz, and AT&T is
hoping that it can overcome some of this in Austin by coming out first.
AT&T said GigaPower will be
included in its U-Verse bundle of services but did not disclose how much a
GigaPower connection will cost.
Google
Fiber costs $70 per month for Internet service and $120 per month with a TV
bundle. For comparison, Verizon’s 500
megabit-per-second service is only available for homes in a phone
and TV package for $309.99 per month.
Google may have an advantage with
Fiber by starting from scratch and installing a brand new fiber optic
network. This allows all Fiber customers to experience the same speeds.
AT&T will instead by tapping into an existing network of fiber optics and
copper lines, meaning that not everyone will get the same speed.
AT&T said this is just the start
of its super high-speed services, but did not state where it plans to go next.
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