AT&T, Google launch new 1Gbps FTTP networks in US

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news US technology giants AT&T and Google this week launched new Fibre to the Premises networks in several US cities, with the flagship feature of the networks being their ability to offer gigabit speeds (1Gbps) to residents and businesses in the areas they cover.

In a media release issued yesterday in the US, giant telco AT&T noted that it was launching its ‘GigaPower’ FTTP network in the city of Los Angeles.

The telco noted that it had first launched its FTTP network in Austin, Texas, two years ago. Since that time, the network has expanded to multiple US metro areas. By 2015, AT&T had deployed its FTTP network to more than 1 million locations, and the telco expects to double that figure by the end of 2016.

“AT&T GigaPower is available in 20 of the nation’s largest metros areas, and we’ve announced plans to expand our ultra-fast Internet service in parts of 36 additional metro areas – which will total at least 56 metros served,” the telco said.

“We plan to continue to roll out our fastest Internet services over a 100% fiber network to reach more than 14 million residential and commercial locations.”

The news comes as Google, too, has this week launched new FTTP infrastructure. An article in the Salt Lake Tribune — a major newspaper serving the Salt Lake City area — noted that Google had been laying FTTP cables in the city for the past year, and was now finally ready to start selling gigabit broadband in the area.

Google had purchased iProvo, an existing fibre network in the area, with the Salt Lake City rollout representing an expansion of its operations in the area. It has now launched a storefront in Salt Lake City where residents can sign up to the Google Fiber service.

The news come as the chief executive of Australia’s own NBN company, Bill Morrow, stated last week that a trip to the US, where NBN executives visited a number of telcos including AT&T and Google, illustrated that there was not sufficient demand for gigabit broadband services to justify rolling out a Fibre to the Premises network in Australia.

The moves by both Google and AT&T appear to have come in response to demand from consumer and businesses in the US for very high-speed broadband services, up to 1Gbps.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that a Wall Street Journal survey had found that more than 50 percent of upper-income households in Kansas City, where Google has already deployed infrastructure, opted for Google’s gigabit broadband package (US$70 per month), although the figure was substantially lower in lower-income neighbourhoods.

In its own media release, AT&T stated that demand driving its rollout.

“Demand for AT&T GigaPower and sales have exceeded expectations since arriving in the Los Angeles area at the end of last year,” said Eric Boyer, senior vice president of AT&T wireless and wired product marketing. “The faster speeds offered through AT&T GigaPower keep people and small businesses connected as they are accessing more content on more devices. This improves a customer’s experience when they are connecting to the cloud, hosting a videoconference, streaming videos and music, playing online games and more.”

“High-speed Internet has become as essential of a utility as water, power and gas, for education, economic development, entertainment and day to day life in Los Angeles,” said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield. Blumenfield who has been a leader in the City’s efforts to expand Internet service.

“I’m very happy to see this expanded AT&T service to help support job growth in small business and provide fast connections for families and students at home.”

58 COMMENTS

  1. I suppose Bill is off the hook, it’s not like the MSM will cover this at all, not even the ABC :/

      • It makes me very sad to see the current level of ignorance in Australia, on a whole range of subjects, and that mostly comes down to papers crusading against subjects like anti-bullying programs in schools and the like.

        • Speaking of which TM…

          Apparently, because I questioned using (wait for it… actual facts and evidence) the complete baseless lies being perpetrated by a few minions here, I was called a bully twice, by two of them…

          So it’s ok for the far right, flat earther, fringe element to lie, contradict and talk complete fucking shit, but it’s not ok for us to question their BS and if you do so, BULLY…? Really

          Them, as supporters of the least politically correct, err, political organisation, that’s odd… to say the least.

          Perhaps they’d be happier to contact Dutton and have me deported for daring to question their “authoritah” …lol

          WTF are we becoming… oh of course we are becoming the USA.

          • Is it sad that I read “authoritah” in Cartman’s voice…?

            If anyone was to mention these plans from Google and AT&T to Bill, I’m sure he would ignore it as either lies, or misrepresentations from the media… Bill et al seem to know what’s best for us… (bull**** he does…)

          • Cartman indeed it was Chris…

            As for Bill, well Bill is doing as Bill is told.

            Does Bill believe the BS Bill is peddling?

            Who knows…

            I’d suggest perhaps Bill’s $2m a year may make Bill believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the even more ludicrously fucked up and out there MTM?

          • So it’s ok for the far right, flat earther, fringe element to lie, contradict and talk complete fucking shit, but it’s not ok for us to question their BS and if you do so, BULLY…? Really

            It’s a common tactic these days to silence dissent (The idiocy comes from the far right and far left) Why bother coming up with a valid argument when you can just label your opponents bullies to dismiss what they say. The words (including troll) have lost all meaning. Back in my day a bully was an actual bully, not this watered down bullshit “bu bububu, the words on the internet hurt my feelings, that person came up with a better argument and called me an idiot when I presented a totally retarded rebuttal. THEY MUST BE A BULLY!!!”

          • The idiocy comes from the far right and far left

            Indeed it does…unfortunately we don’t really hear from the left unless Scott L says something :/

          • I’d suggest perhaps Bill’s $2m a year may make Bill believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the even more ludicrously fucked up and out there MTM?

            Three times more than the PM can ease a lot of conscience, yeah? And make folks do things they wouldn’t normally do.

            I don’t personally know Bill, so I wouldn’t make a call on his personality, but I’d hope he wouldn’t abuse his position like some of the high ranking Liberal MP’s have done.

        • I agree – the level of ignorance inside Australia is quite bad. We are well on the way (if not there) to being that country the other countries make fun of.

          What worries me though is the lack of understanding ‘technical’ people claim about what the nbn is, what it’s obligations are and how it compares to the Google & AT&Ts of the world. People who use hyperbole, omissions and outright lies when there is really no need to.

          • We are well on the way (if not there) to being that country the other countries make fun of.

            That’s part of the problem though, it’s not just Australians that aren’t thinking things through, we’re seeing it in spades in the US at the moment :/

        • My apologies to Bill apparently his salary is $3m per year not the pittance $2m I suggested…

          I think it was Quigley who was on $2m and of course was attacked mercilessly for it by a few subservient imbecilic posters here (even though he donated a large chunk, iirc the complete $2m for his first year).

          Yet, you guessed it, the same attackers who jumped up and down about MQ’s $2m, are quite ok with the new guy’s $3m…

          :/

  2. Turnbull have to stop them becuase they are doing it wrong as we only need 15Mbos by 2023

  3. “Demand for AT&T GigaPower and sales have exceeded expectations since arriving in the Los Angeles area at the end of last year”

    Says it all really. Build it and they will come.

    But Morrow tells us we don’t need it.

      • Exactly, and by then we will have H.399 which does 8k video in just 1mbps of bandwidth!!!

        /s

    • Taking onboard your logic – why aren’t ISPs selling 1000/400 services from nbn? It is available for them to sell. If there is such a demand why is no-one (I’m not aware of any ISPs offering it) selling it?

      • Probably because the CVC system is ridiculous and not at all conducive to delivering broadband, and is essentially, a remnant of the ADSL era.

        Also, lol, I forgot to change my name back.

        • Yeah, that’s what I’ve settled on after thinking about it. The CVC system means it’d just be too damned expensive for an RSP to offer.

      • While NBN Co geared up to offer that Tier shortly before and after the 2013 elections, can you find any place on the nbn website where it says it could even be an option? All I can find is a pdf from early 2013 and I know for a fact one or two RSPs took it up, but none such now exist. AFAIcan tell the Tier has been quietly taken off the market altogether.

        • Yeah, I think you might be right.

          http://www.nbnco.com.au/content/dam/nbnco/documents/Integrated-Product-Roadmap.pdf

          That (Integrated Product Roadmap) only mentions:

          CVC speed tiers 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 Mbps to 1 Gbps (in
          100 Mbps increments) AVC speed tiers 10, 20, 40, and 100 Mbps.

          And thats a Medium Business product due “2018+”

          The only other mention is:

          Symmetrical AVC and CVC from 50 to 1000 Mbps.
          nbn’s Enterprise Ethernet Service is intended to support the needs of large, more complex enterprises and government customers, by providing very high capacity, transparency and redundancy.
          nbn’s Enterprise Ethernet Service is intended to be delivered via a dedicated point-to-point Access Fibre from the end-user’s premises to the Fibre Access Node using a business-grade Network Termination Device, with symmetrical speeds from 50 Megabits per second to in excess of one Gigabit per second.

          And thats Enterprise only, once again, post 2018+

          Seems they may have dropped gigabit as as a domestic service?

          It’s not listed on their wholesale plans and the only mention I found prior was Ziggy at a senate select committee where he said they’d released it, but hadn’t told anyone or announced it. It was $150 for the AVC + whatever CVC would cost to service it.

    • In Australia sales of 100Mbps on FTTP is well below Labor’s plan and falling further behind, dropping 3% in the last 12 months.

      When Google Fibre was announced, Labor’s response prior to the 2010 election was to announce the NBN would offer 1Gbps plans, but didn’t broadcast their prediction that in 2026 less than 1% would connect at 1Gbps. NBNCo finally made the plans available in December 2013 after the Liberals were elected, more than 2 years later RSPs are still not selling plans faster than 100Mbps.

      My suggestion back in 2010 was that Labor should abandon their plan that was already behind schedule and over budget and instead offer Google $20 billion to build FTTP in Australia. We would have ended up with a faster network (1/1Gbps for 93%) and most likely Loon instead of satellite.

      Did I mention that Google fibre is direct symmetric fibre, not the inferior GPON solution?

      • In Australia sales of 100Mbps on FTTP is well below Labor’s plan and falling further behind, dropping 3% in the last 12 months.

        Labor is no longer running the NBN.

        When Google Fibre was announced, Labor’s response prior to the 2010 election was to announce the NBN would offer 1Gbps plans, but didn’t broadcast their prediction that in 2026 less than 1% would connect at 1Gbps. NBNCo finally made the plans available in December 2013 after the Liberals were elected, more than 2 years later RSPs are still not selling plans faster than 100Mbps.

        Labor is no longer running the NBN.

        My suggestion back in 2010 was that Labor should abandon their plan that was already behind schedule and over budget and instead offer Google $20 billion to build FTTP in Australia. We would have ended up with a faster network (1/1Gbps for 93%) and most likely Loon instead of satellite.

        Labor is no longer running the NBN.

        Did I mention that Google fibre is direct symmetric fibre, not the inferior GPON solution?

        No, and you didn’t mention that FttN is crap for pretty well everyone, now and into the future either.

        Build yourself a bridge, and get over it. The NBN for the last three years has nothing to do with Labor.

        • We are still living with the consequence of Labor’s decisions. The Liberals have changed very little in terms of actual outcomes.

          > No, and you didn’t mention that FttN is crap for pretty well everyone, now and into the future either.

          For the 79% who have decided that 25Mbps is adequate the performance is more than adequate. If NBNCo removed the speed tiers on FTTN those people would experience a significant jump in speed (as much as 7x faster). I’d hardly call that crap.

          For those people who can afford 1Gbps, fibre on demand install costs won’t be an issue, especially as it will be tax deductable.

          > Build yourself a bridge, and get over it. The NBN for the last three years has nothing to do with Labor.

          Actually the last three years have mostly been about the policies Labor put in place. We are only this year starting to see FTTN connections in meaningful numbers. If Labor resumed on the NBN, they would attempt to continue their failed policy that delivers speeds lower than 25Mbps to 79% with the aim of delivering 1Gbps to an elite 1% in 2026.

          • So let’s see labor FTTP had 20% at 100Mbos by 2026

            MTM has 30% at 100Mbps who is more wrong ?

          • Actually the last three years have mostly been about the policies Labor put in place.

            Bullshit :o)

            Malcolm changed the fundamental technology the NBN was using, if Malcolm has a problem with speed tiers, that would have been vastly more simple to change. But he didn’t. Because speed tiers are a good way for a capitalist country to make money and Australia thinks it’s “Little USA”.

            I’d prefer to see us being more like Denmark:

            http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Denmark-Fixed-Broadband-Market-Statistics-and-Analyses.html

            Where you can get a 100/30 unlimited plan for around $35.00 AUD or a 300/60 plan for $63 AUD.

            Unfortunately, we are a social democracy in name only, and sliding quickly towards a more US model. Vote Greens and you may get your wish ;o)

          • Thanks Mathew got it.

            50/12 is gospel, is gospel, is gospel repeat ad infinitum (oh wait)

            1/1 2026 is now gospel, repeat ad infinitum (we have to wait)

            We don’t need speed tiers – blame the last gov/NBN plan for these.

            Never mention MTM is fucked – but when pushed, blame the last gov/NBN for that.

            Wow that’s almost as obvious a crusade as one or two others here!

            You’re welcome

      • @ Mathew,

        “In Australia sales of 100Mbps on FTTP is well below Labor’s plan…”

        So what was NBNCo’s (see what I did there, I eliminated your silly political bias) estimated percentage, regarding 100mbps usage in 2016, Mathew?

  4. Oh dear, more news to upset the copper fanboy knuckle draggers. Hasn’t been a good week for the inferior node nerds so far and it’s only Wednesday…

    • This is no different to any other week is it HC?

      MTM = complete FAIL… just like last week, the week before and I’d guess next week and the following and every other fucking week.

      As they say you can’t make silk out of a sows ear, or you can’t make 3rd millennium tech out of pre 1900’s copper..

      MTM/fraudband/Nodafail™ SNAFU… exactly as we said it would be years ago :)

      • Indeed Rizz, of course it is no different to any other week and the disaster is exactly what we expected but these recent developments have the inferior node nerds in complete disarray lately. One apparently committed suicide because he was so embarrassed. One is running around with it’s head cut off like a chicken (business as usual) and the rest are in the fetal position just praying it doesn’t get any worse.

        But it does get worse. Every single day it gets worse, it’s not even about the countdown (275 days to go btw). Every day is just another day closer to the copper expiry date, they know it’s coming but must advocate for it regardless. Expect some to pin their hopes on FttDp and if it actually does eventuate the backpedaling and hypocrisy will be simply stunning.

  5. The current government’s position is crumbling by the day.

    The buck stops with the Statement of Expectations.

    • No, no, the buck definitely stops with Malcolm! $539,338 of them each year actually…

      • Yeah but that’s cheap compared to $29Bn of capped funding! Because for normal people, even $1Bn is a lot of money….. Despite it NOT being a lot of money when discussing a country…

    • But pink batts, but the boats, but debt and deficit…think of the children… ;)

      Go MTM the only truly sound policy this government has…

      Oh wait…

      *jokes*

  6. Looks like Morrow is wrong about people not needing gigabit speeds. Why is it that we always hear about some other country making sensible decisions to upgrade their broadband? When will these luddites come to their senses? There is only one option if you are building a national network in 2016 and it is obvious to most people what it is and should be. Such an embarrassing bunch we have running this country.

    • Yep, it’s embarrassing that the US is showing us up on two things:

      1. Multiple companies there are building 1Gbps fibre and we aren’t.

      and

      2. Google is giving it to unemployed/underprivileged for free.

    • If Morrow is wrong then:
      Why are zero RSPs in Australia offering 1Gbps plans that NBNCo made available in December 2013?
      Why did the number of people on 100Mbps fibre connections drop from 19% to 16% in the last twelve months?
      Why did Labor predict that in 2026 less than 1% would connect to the NBN at 1Gbps?

  7. A nice service to be sure. However, a private Telco cherry-picking markets can’t really be compared to a Govt funded NBN with a mandate to increase minimum service levels to 93% of the population.

    • Why is it that, when it comes to broadband, nothing can ever be compared to Australia except the UK?

      • Unless it’s a bit that didn’t work out in some other country…Reality loves trying that on…”Why do you all try to compare country X when it’s nothing like us?!” and then in a post further down he’ll be like “But that won’t work because it didn’t in country Y”.

        If you follow all his posts after most NBN articles, he’ll have more positions than the Kamasutra :o)

        • “If you follow all his posts after most NBN articles, he’ll have more positions than the Kamasutra”

          And everyone of his positions are just as – – – – – –

          ;)

Comments are closed.