AT&T is expanding its fiber internet network to several more metropolitan areas across the South, the Midwest, and California, delivering speeds of up to one gigabit per second.
The expansion will bring fiber internet service to Dayton, Ohio, Monterey, Calif., Madison, Wis., Savannah, Ga., South Bend, Ind., Springfield, Mo., and much of western Michigan. AT&T didn't offer an exact timeline for when subscribers in each of those cities can expect to be offered fiber access, but it said that it plans to add two million additional fiber locations by the end of the year.
The eight new expansion cities will join 15 existing ones, in addition to 52 metropolitan areas where AT&T's fiber service is now available. (Check here for a full list). The most recent addition is Oakland, Calif., where AT&T started delivering fiber service this week. Oakland residents can expect to pay an all-inclusive rate of $80 per month, with a $10 per month discount if they also subscribe to an AT&T phone or TV plan.
AT&T can offer those steep rates in part because it faces waning competition from Google and Verizon, its chief rivals for home fiber service. Both competitors have suffered recent setbacks: last fall, Google announced that it would suspend new fiber rollouts, and New York City sued Verizon last month over its stalled efforts to bring Fios service to the city.
"While other providers have slowed deployment, we'll continue to expand access to our ultra-fast internet to more customers, so they can more quickly connect to the things they love online," AT&T VP Eric Boyer said in a statement.
In February 2016, before Google ended its fiber expansion plans, AT&T sued the city of Louisville, Kentucky to prevent Google's fiber network from piggybacking on existing utility poles.