AT&T (NYSE: T) is bringing new heat to Comcast in the Houston market by serving up its 75 Mbps U-verse tier for residential and small to medium business (SMB) customers.
Following a recent drive to bring the 75 Mbps tier to an additional six markets earlier this month, the new speed tier is now available in a total of 18 cities in its service footprint.
Similar to the earlier releases of this product, eligible consumers can get the service at as low as $39.95 when bundled with U-verse TV and voice services.
Besides Houston, AT&T's 75 Mbps service is also available in Augusta, Ga.; Baton Rouge and New Orleans, La.; Charleston, S.C.; Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Fla.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Mobile, Ala.; Monterey and Sacramento, Calif.; South Bend, Ind.; and St. Louis, Mo.
Initially, the service provider began offering the 75/8 Mbps service option in four markets: parts of Monterey and Sacramento, Calif.; Toledo, Ohio; and El Paso, Texas.
Expanding the 75 Mbps tier into new markets is part of AT&T's multibillion Project VIP effort that was launched in the fall of 2012 for its existing copper-based broadband U-verse network.
While service availability will depend on the customer's proximity to the nearest remote terminal or CO where it has enabled equipment to deliver the 75 Mbps speeds, it's clear that AT&T needs to up the speed ante so it can start to come closer to what cable operators like Comcast can offer today, particularly in markets where it has not launched its 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service yet.
For more:
- see this blog post
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