AT&T responds to Google Fiber's $70 challenge with 1 Gbps launch in San Francisco area

AT&T (NYSE: T) is making another statement in the wake of Google Fiber's (NASDAQ: GOOG) move to bring competitively priced FTTH into the San Francisco metro market by launching its 1 Gbps GigaPower FTTH service in six areas at the same $70 per month price point.

Specifically, the service provider will offer GigaPower in parts of San Francisco, San Jose, Dublin, Mountain View, Santa Clara and San Ramon, California.

Eligible customers can get the service for $70 a month, but they have to participate in the AT&T Internet Preferences program, which tracks a user's web activity. 

These communities follow the initial 2015 debut of AT&T's FTTH service in parts of the Cupertino area.

While AT&T did not outline what areas of these cities will get GigaPower, the telco indicated it plans to triple service availability by the end of the year.

Today, the service is available in nearly 30 apartment complexes in the Bay Area, such as at LUMINA, also known as 201 Folsom Street, a 655-unit luxury waterfront condominium in the Rincon Hill neighborhood.

In total, AT&T GigaPower is available in over 1.6 million locations across 22 of the nation's largest metro areas, with plans to expand in parts of 34 additional metros. 

The launch of these new markets follows the debut of its 1 Gbps over AT&T Business Fiber in the San Francisco market, as well as in Chicago, Miami and Dallas last week.

AT&T said it plans to "expand to additional markets this summer."

While these latest launches have a focus on serving residential customers, AT&T has been touting a multi-purpose plan for its fiber network rollouts. As the telco identifies new markets that it wants to deliver FTTH services, this method enables it to simultaneously address other potential uses such as wireless backhaul and business services.

What's more, AT&T continues to look for opportunities to extend its fiber into areas outside of its traditional wireline footprint to resolve backhaul issues while satisfy its multi-site business customers' desire for fiber-based cloud and Ethernet services.

For more:
- see the release

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