AT&T to expand 100% fibre service by 85 cities

15 November 2016 | James Pearce

AT&T has expanded its 1Gbps internet service to become live in nearly 85 cities across 20 major metros.

The rollout of the 100% fibre networks begins with four locations – Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Charleston and Reno – which went live on 15 November 2016.

The addition of these four metros takes the total AT&T Fiber is available in to 44 across the US, with the carrier planning to reach 67 overall, it said.

AT&T also unveiled plans to expand its 100% fibre service in 16 existing locations (Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Fresno, Houston, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, Raleigh, San Antonio, San Francisco, St. Louis and West Palm Beach).

The US giant has previously laid out plans for its fibre service to hit 12.5 million locations by mid-2019, which it claims it is on track to achieve. So far, it is marketing its ultra-fast service to over 3 million locations.

“The 100% fibre network under the AT&T Fiber umbrella brand gives customers the power to choose from a wide range of internet speeds over an ultra-fast internet connection,” AT&T said in a statement. “This network is just one of the network technologies we plan to use to connect customers as a part of AT&T Fiber.”

The announcement comes just a week after AT&T unveiled plans to launch a new SD-WAN product for businesses, and also announced a new SDN partnership with Colt. Both announcements were made at Capacity Europe.