AT&T announced it has begun deployment of a 100 percent fiber Internet broadband network in Austin that will deliver speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second.  AT&T plans to begin delivering AT&T U-verse® with GigaPowerSM, the city’s fastest Internet available to consumers, along with more advanced TV services and features, in December.

In addition to extremely fast Internet connections, GigaPower will enable advanced U-verse TV services and features such as AT&T’s most advanced Total Home DVR with more HD TV streams to record and watch multiple shows simultaneously, plus greater DVR storage capacity.

AT&T expects to launch similar services in other markets in the future. Austin residents can influence where U-verse GigaPower is available in Austin in the future by going to a special web portal, www.att.com/austinfiber, to vote for their neighborhood.

According to Parks Associates analyst Brett Sappington, "This is part of the Google Fiber effect. By entering these markets with Google Fiber, Google is forcing competitors to match, driving up broadband speeds for everyone in the market. Why would Google do this? Ultimately, to sell more ads. If Google can force higher broadband speeds, Google can offer more content (and ads) in more places online. Apparently, their strategy is working."