AT&T Begins Spreading Its Gigabit Fiber in Austin, Taking On Google

AT&T said Monday night that it has begun its gigabit-per-second fiber deployment in Austin, Texas — a move that rivals Google’s own fiber plans for the city.

AT&T said it will begin offering service in some areas of Austin by December, reaching tens of thousands of customers this year, and more neighborhoods in 2014.

“In Austin we’re deploying fiber very aggressively,” AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said at last week’s Goldman Sachs conference. “The cost dynamics of deploying fiber have dramatically changed. … The cost dynamics look good, the revenue implications look good, the market implications look good, so you’re going to see more of this over time, and I fully expect you’ll see us doing markets like this over the next few years.”

Google, meanwhile, has taken its service to Kansas City, and has announced that service is coming to Austin, and plans Provo, Utah, as the destination after that.