Comcast, AT&T and Google all deploying fiber-to-the-home networks
North Carolina’s Research Triangle is among the latest battlegrounds as network operators compete to offer ultra-high-speed, fiber-based Internet service to consumers.
The Research Triangle includes Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary, which similarly includes numerous academic and scientific institutions like Duke University, North Carolina State and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Carrier AT&T Mobility is working to go live with its GigaPower service, which provides throughput of 1 Gbps.
Frontier Communications already has a similar service in that market and, back in January, Google Fiber announced it would bring comparable speeds to that market as well as in Atlanta; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charlotte, N.C.
Google Fiber is currently available in Austin, Texas; Provo, Utah; and Kansas City, Mo.
AT&T Mobility is also taking the fight to Google’s backyard with a planned deployment announced for Cupertino, Calif., as well as a list of soon-to-be GigaPower markets containing significant overlap with cities that currently or will soon have access to Google Fiber, a competitive high-speed Internet service.
Comcast’s offering, called Gigabit Pro, offers speeds up to 2 Gbps, and is available in some California markets as well as in Atlanta. The Atlanta deployment puts Comcast in direct competition for fiber customers as both Google Fiber and AT&T Mobility are moving into that market.
Comcast has a fiber network in Atlanta, more than 145,000 route miles, in fact, and potential customers will be “within close proximity” to the core.
The company has been offering enterprise Internet up to 10 Gbps since 2010. Comcast also has a partnership with Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves. In that case, Comcast will wire the new mixed-use stadium development with multigigabit speeds.
In Chattanooga, Tenn., Comcast is going up against a public utility fiber-to-the-home service provided by the area’s Electric Power Board.
