AT&T this week expanded the reach of its home broadband services with a combination of new fiber deployment and leveraging G.fast to improve data speeds in multiple-dwelling units using existing coaxial cabling.
Residents in Biloxi, Miss., and Savannah, Ga., now have access to AT&T’s fiber internet service. In addition to the new cities, AT&T also expanded its fiber plant in 20 of the 57 metros where it offers the service including new locations in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
According to the carrier, AT&T’s fiber service is available at 5.5 million locations in 57 metro areas in 21 states, and has more than 2 million subscribers. The company says it will continue building out its fiber plant to cover an additional 1.5 million locations by the end of the year.
While its not quite fiber, AT&T is also bolstering its copper-based home internet service with a focus on supporting apartment and condo complexes. Building on a trial in Minneapolis, Minn., the service provider is leveraging G.fast technology to speed up connections in Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle and Tampa.
G.fast (fast access to subscriber terminals) uses discrete multi-tone modulation, time division duplexing and other technologies to deliver speeds between 150 Mbps and 1 Gbps depending on the length of the copper run.
Nokia, previously Alcatel-Lucent, has been a major proponent of G.fast deployments, announcing with Taiwanese telecom operator Chunghwa Telecom a plan to launch the world’s first commercial deployment of G.fast technology, allowing the acceleration of “last mile” connectivity to deliver broadband to households across Taiwan.
The company has tested G.fast with more than 30 operators worldwide. G.fast allows service providers to provide broadband access to locations where fiber deployment is difficult, using the final length of copper infrastructure extending into premises to deliver ultra-high speeds. G.fast is designed to largely eliminate the need to rewire entire buildings and homes.
