AT&T brings 500Mbps home Internet to cities outside its territory

AT&T's G.fast available to apartment buildings in 8 major cities.

Major home Internet providers in the US don't typically expand into each other's territory, but this week, AT&T said it is launching high-speed Internet in parts of New York City and other major metro areas outside of its traditional wireline footprint.

The new service is for apartment and condominium buildings, so don't expect to get it if you live in a single-family house. It's also only available in cases where AT&T has gotten access into buildings, which is often a problem for competing ISPs because of exclusive arrangements between providers and landlords. But for some consumers, the new AT&T launch could provide some much-needed competition.

AT&T's new deployment uses G.fast, a technology that relies on fiber deployments into neighborhoods and copper wires to make the connection inside each building. But instead of old phone lines, AT&T said it is using coaxial cables to make the final connection to consumers.

"G.fast provides Internet access to apartment and condo units over existing coaxial cables," AT&T said in yesterday's announcement. "This can minimize disruption for current residents because there's no need to place new wiring in each residence."

When contacted by Ars, AT&T declined to say how many customers the service is available to.

Competing against Verizon and CenturyLink

AT&T's G.fast is now live in parts of eight metro areas, namely Boston, Denver, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Seattle, and Tampa.

Of those, only Tampa, Florida, is in a state already served by AT&T, although Tampa apparently didn't have AT&T home Internet service according to this list. AT&T's wireline phone and Internet footprint is 21 states, mostly in the southeastern and western parts of the US.

The service was launched first as a trial in Minneapolis months ago, while the other seven deployed cities are just getting G.fast now. AT&T said it will bring G.fast into 14 other markets soon.

"AT&T is moving into the territories of several other major carriers with its G.fast launch," a Telecompetitor story said yesterday. "In announced northeastern markets such as Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and others, Verizon is the incumbent. And in midwestern and western markets such as Minneapolis, Colorado Springs and Omaha, AT&T will be up against CenturyLink. AT&T also will be moving into some Frontier territory. Incumbent cable companies including Comcast, Charter and others will soon see new competition from AT&T in these markets."

Standalone Internet pricing will be $40 for 50Mbps download speeds, $60 for 100Mbps, and $80 for 500Mbps, AT&T said. Customers in these properties will also be able to buy DirecTV "without installing a dish at their individual units." Customers can also get bundles with mobile phone service, although landline phone isn't an option.

AT&T needs agreements from property owners

AT&T is using its own fiber. "Much of it is our backbone that’s long been made available to enterprise customers or used for our wireless network," AT&T told Ars.

But the coaxial lines AT&T is using were installed either by other providers or building owners. Getting access to wires inside each building requires some negotiation on AT&T's part.

"Inside the buildings, we’re able to tap into the coax where we’ve come to an agreement with the property owner," AT&T told Ars. "The coax in the building could have been installed by another provider who no longer owns that infrastructure or owned by the building owner."

Besides the eight cities where it is already deployed, AT&T said G.fast is coming "in the near future" to Albany, New York; Baltimore; Buffalo, New York; Cincinnati; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Hartford, Connecticut; Omaha, Nebraska; Pittsburgh; Portland, Oregon; Providence, Rhode Island; Richmond, Virginia; Rochester, New York; Washington, D.C.; and Salt Lake City.

"Each of these metros is located outside of our traditional 21-state home Internet service-area," AT&T said.

AT&T has also been testing a high-speed wireless home Internet technology and is deploying a more basic fixed wireless service in rural areas.

"While fiber to the unit remains the best broadband solution for most properties where possible, G.fast and fixed millimeter-wave provide connectivity to properties that aren't able to support fiber," AT&T said in this week's announcement.

Unfortunately, many people in AT&T's traditional territory are still stuck with DSL Internet measured in the kilobits per second or no Internet at all.

Many customers in Verizon territory also haven't gotten modern Internet service. Verizon recently said that it won't deploy G.fast and will instead stick to its strategy of deploying fiber all the way to homes. The problem is that Verizon isn't deploying fiber throughout its wireline footprint despite a recent expansion of FiOS to Boston.