AT&T names St. Louis as latest 1 Gbps fiber broadband market

AT&T (NYSE: T) has named St. Louis, Mo., as the next destination for its 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband GigaPower service for local consumers and businesses, continuing a string of new cities where it plans to deliver the new product.

Similar to earlier cities it announced in recent months, AT&T will deploy additional fiber and electronics to its existing wireline network in St. Louis to deliver the FTTH service. 

What helped make St. Louis a more desirable city for a new FTTH buildout was streamlining the permitting process to get access to the city's rights-of-way (ROW) and other necessary infrastructure.  

"This effort would not be possible without the cooperation and support of Mayor Slay and his administration," said John Sondag, president of AT&T Missouri, in a release. "By creating a climate that attracts infrastructure investment and reduces deployment barriers, city leaders and smart public policies play a key role in driving investments like the AT&T GigaPower network."

When AT&T does eventually light up the 1 Gbps network in St. Louis, it will pose a larger threat to local cable incumbent Charter Communications, which today provides speeds of 50-100 Mbps.  

AT&T has begun offering the GigaPower service in its Austin, Dallas and Fort Worth markets. It has also announced that it would bring the service to Charlotte, Greensboro, Raleigh-Durham and Winston-Salem, N.C.; Houston; Miami; Nashville, Tenn.; Overland Park, Kan.; and San Antonio.

If AT&T gets approval for its proposed acquisition of DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV), the company will expand GigaPower to an additional 2 million customer locations.

For more:
- see the release

Related articles:
AT&T will deliver 1-Gbps GigaPower service to Miami
AT&T begins upgrading Austin customers to 1 Gbps service
AT&T deepens U-verse presence in California, names Greensboro as next 1 Gig stop
AT&T promises to bring 1 Gig to Overland Park, Kan., Houston
AT&T extends 1 Gig service to Charlotte, N.C.