AT&T expands FTTH network in Florida, Georgia and Texas, reaches parts of 15 major U.S. markets

AT&T is extending its U-verse with GigaPower service to over two dozen new cities in seven major metro areas where it has made its 1 Gbps FTTH service available to consumers and businesses.

In its latest network deployment push, the telco launched service concentrating on Tier 1 and Tier 2 markets in Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Among the new market areas are Atlanta, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Kansas City, Houston, and Dallas-Ft. Worth. 

Some of its next targets will include Jacksonville, Fla., St. Louis and San Antonio. 

While the 1 Gbps service is offered at $70 a month in markets like Austin and Raleigh where it is facing a competitive threat from Google Fiber, promotional pricing in other markets costs from $110 to $120 a month. Users that don't want to have their Internet activity tracked have to pay an additional $30 a month.

In tandem with this latest market push, AT&T is giving current and potential 1 Gbps customers a sense of where the service provider has deployed 1 Gbps and where it may go next with a new interactive map at att.com/gigapowermap to track the telco's progress as it adds new cities.  

Since launching the service in Austin in 2013, U-verse with GigaPower is now available in 15 major markets, with plans to expand residential fiber to portions of 25 overall markets.

AT&T has set an aggressive rollout plan for its 1 Gbps service. As a provision of its DirecTV acquisition, the telco said the 1 Gbps service will be expanded to "reach" 14 million residential and commercial locations.

Stopping short of calling out specific subscriber numbers, AT&T's CFO John Stephens told investors during the second quarter earnings call that it was happy with the subscriber take rates it is seeing thus far in the markets where it is delivering the service.