Tennessee approves $45 Million for Broadband, but no Gigabit Fiber? Why?

Home to one of the most successful experiments in municipal funded broadband, Tennessee is working diligently to prevent that experiment from improving data and energy infrastructure throughout the rest of the state. Now a new bill will fund ISP’s through tax payer funds, instead of expanding on city funded fiber? Why?

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Continue reading “Tennessee approves $45 Million for Broadband, but no Gigabit Fiber? Why?”

AT&T to Launch Gigabit Internet Service in Los Angeles

GigaPowerCompetition folks. I want more competition. AT&T is pushing forward with their GigaPower fiber internet roll out, and it looks like a major ISP finally has their sights on the Los Angeles Metro area.

“Fast, affordable Internet is essential for today’s cities,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Having high-speed digital communications infrastructure is as important as ensuring that we can efficiently deliver electricity, transportation, clean water, and lighted streets to Angelenos. The ultra-fast AT&T Gigapower service will help L.A.’s students, entrepreneurs, and families succeed and help our city’s economy grow.”

Starting with West Palm Beach, Big Blue will be expanding their gigabit footprint over 2016 for businesses and residential areas. This expansion follows their merger with DirectTV which U-Verse customer can subscribe to for multimedia content.

It’s exciting news for those of us in Southern California. Hopefully soon we’ll have more competition for faster broadband services. You can read the full press release below. Continue reading “AT&T to Launch Gigabit Internet Service in Los Angeles”

Chattanooga Increases Fiber Internet Speeds to 10Gbps

In covering the state of broadband internet access in the United States, we’ve been seeing pockets of incredible speed increases. Usually built on projects like Google Fiber, or communities coming together to fund their own fiber roll out paid for by taxes and grants.

Chattanooga Tennessee was the first city in the United States to offer up true gigabit fiber internet to consumers and businesses. Today they become the third city in America to offer a 10 Gigabit per second data speed, following  Springfield Vermont and Salisbury North Carolina. None of these offerings are supplied by traditional cable or fiber providers like Comcast or Verizon. Continue reading “Chattanooga Increases Fiber Internet Speeds to 10Gbps”

AT&T to Match Google Fiber Speeds and Pricing in Kansas City

ATT logoI’ve said it before. I’ll say it again.

The fastest way to improve an industry’s service or pricing is to introduce more competition. For the broadband industry, we’ve been watching traditional cable and DSL providers scramble to improve their offerings in areas where Google or publicly funded efforts are rolling out fiber to home internet.

AT&T has announced plans to match Google’s price and performance in areas around Kansas City. Gigabit broadband will cost $70, and combined with a basic TV package will increase that rate to $120.

It’s interesting to note that AT&T will also be courting businesses as Google currently only offers their fiber solution to residential areas. AT&T is already operating their “Gigapower” version of U-Verse in Austin, and there has been talk of expanding to more areas around the country this year. Moving to Kansas City is a clear shot at the area Google started their fiber roll out.

With Google announcing more cities on their list for gigabit internet, it would seem the broadband market might be heating up a bit, especially as cable providers like Time Warner and Comcast seem ill-equipped to offer competitive speeds and pricing compared to fiber providers.

You can read AT&T’s full press release below.

Continue reading “AT&T to Match Google Fiber Speeds and Pricing in Kansas City”

Communities in Kansas and Colorado Look to Build Their Own Public Broadband Internet

server rack front panelsThe problem companies face when communities lack competition for services like Internet? The community might try to roll their own.

There are laws on the books in twenty states preventing communities from building out their own public high speed and fiber broadband, but communities in Kansas and Colorado are looking to move forward on their own local offerings.

Seven cities and counties in Colorado voted during the last election to exercise an escape clause in their anti-competition legislation. All that was required was allowing a community to take a vote on the matter, and every community that put it up for a vote had it pass by a large margin. Boulder Colorado passed their measure with 84% of the voter turnout supporting it.

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Google Fiber Begins Signing Up Residents in Austin

austin_fiber_vanIt’s a happy week for High Speed Internet junkies in Austin!

Google Fiber is getting the ball rolling in the south and southeast areas of the city for homes, apartments, and small businesses. Full Gigabit broadband will start at $70 a month, $130 a month will land you over 150 TV channels, and the fantastic free option remains for customers who pay a one time $300 construction fee, with speeds topping out at 5Mbps.

If you’re in the area and want to sign up, make sure you check out Google’s deadlines as they focus on building out the fiber in small pieces of each city.  Congrats Austin! Hopefully someday, in my lifetime, the rest of us can join you in having truly fast internet access… Sigh… Someday…

AT&T Announces Chicago and Atlanta Next Two Cities to Get Gigabit U-Verse

Progress people! Big Blue is rolling out more gigabit fiber, and the next two cities on their list will be Chicago and Atlanta.

Gigapower U-Verse is currently available in the Austin, Dallas, and Fort Worth areas, and will also be launched soon in Atlanta, Charlotte, Cupertino, Greensboro, Houston, Jacksonville, Fla., Miami, Nashville, Overland Park, Kan., Raleigh-Durham, San Antonio, St. Louis and Winston-Salem markets.

1000Mbps broadband folks. ONE THOUSAND! Remember that every time you see a cable or DSL ad…

AT&T PR below. Continue reading “AT&T Announces Chicago and Atlanta Next Two Cities to Get Gigabit U-Verse”

Cupertino Will Be First City In California to Get Gigabit AT&T U-Verse

Fiber roll outs are starting to spread!

AT&T is announcing plans to introduce their “Gigapower” U-Verse service to more areas. The first city in California to receive full duplex gigabit broadband?

Cupertino!

Yes Apple’s home town will be getting data speeds 10 times faster than the beefiest cable offerings around these parts. Specific locations and dates will be announced soon, and San Jose, CA is also in consideration for a future fiber roll out.

Any company want to light up Los Angeles? Any one?  Full AT&T PR below.

Continue reading “Cupertino Will Be First City In California to Get Gigabit AT&T U-Verse”