AT&T, Winston-Salem agree to deploy a 1 Gbps FTTP network

AT&T (NYSE: T) has reached an agreement with the city of Winston-Salem, N.C., to supply residents and businesses with its 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) U-verse with GigaPower service.

The plan outlines potential deployments to deliver fiber-based broadband to parts of Winston-Salem.

The agreement with Winston-Salem stems from its discussions with the North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN), a regional initiative focused on stimulating the deployment of next-generation networks to North Carolina. NCNGN is composed of six cities, four leading universities, and local business leaders working to encourage the development of high-speed broadband networks in the state.

Similar 1 Gbps FTTP plans related to the NCNGN initiative are awaiting ratification in five other North Carolina towns and cities: Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh.

Between 2011 and 2013, the service provider invested more than $1.6 billion in its North Carolina wireless and wireline networks.

North Carolina is just one of several targets in which AT&T is either considering deploying or has deployed its 1 Gbps-capable FTTP service.

After seeing high demand for the 1 Gbps service it launched in Austin, Texas, last December, AT&T said in January that it would double its rollout. It also plans to bring the service to Dallas this summer.

Outside of North Carolina and Texas, AT&T said that it would expand its fiber network to up to 100 of what it calls candidate cities and municipalities nationwide, including 21 new major metropolitan areas.

AT&T CFO John Stephens told investors in May that the expansion of the FTTP network into new areas will be driven by a favorable permitting process from local communities to gain access to necessary rights of way along public streets and utility poles to lay fiber and install related network electronics.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
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AT&T's Stephens: Local permitting efficiencies could drive more FTTH deployments
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