AT&T extends fiber reach into 50 Louisiana office buildings

AT&T (NYSE: T) has lit up 54 multi-tenant office buildings in Louisiana as part of its fiber to the building (FTTB) drive, extending fiber-based services to over 2,600 business customer locations in the state.

This latest fiber connection milestone is part of its $14 billion Project VIP initiative to expand its wireless and wireline IP networks. It has set a goal of bringing fiber to an additional 1 million business customer locations throughout its 22-state wireline serving area.

Businesses that are connected to AT&T Fiber Ready Buildings will be able to a larger suite of security, network and cloud-based services such as Ethernet and IP/VPN.  They will be able to get symmetrical Ethernet of up to 1 Gbps.

AT&T has been making similar strides in other areas, such as North Carolina where it installed fiber into 93 new multi-tenant units in the state.

Providing greater access to fiber means that AT&T can sell higher speed Ethernet services to more customers that reside in these buildings.

During the third quarter, the telco reported that next-gen business services, which include Ethernet and IP VPN, grew 15.7 percent vs. Q2 2013. These services represent an $8.6 billion annualized revenue stream and make up more than 24 percent of wireline business revenues.

For more:
- see the release

Special report: AT&T's $14B Project VIP: breaking out the business service, U-verse numbers

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