Following a commercial launch in August that saw AT&T deploy its nascent 5G fixed wireless access service to around 20 U.S. cities, the company just announced that it has expanded its Internet Air product to 13 additional markets.
The new deployments include:
- Albany and Rochester in New York
- Bakersfield and the Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto area in California
- Charleston, West Virginia
- Columbus and Youngstown in Ohio
- Houston, Texas
- Kansas City and St. Louis in Missouri
- Miami, Florida
- Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News in Virginia.
AT&T, which soft-launched its 5G cellular home internet service in April, said during its Q3 earnings call that it has 25,000 users for the service — which means it lags quite a bit behind the 4.24 million 5G FWA users just reported by T-Mobile, and the 2.68 million customers touted by Verizon during its Q3 call two weeks ago.
AT&T has priced Internet Air at $55 a month, but it’s discounting the service to $35 a month for its unlimited wireless subscribers.
“We view this service as yet another tool in our connectivity toolbox,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said during his company's Q3 call with equity analysts back on Oct. 19. "While it will primarily act as a targeted catch product, we've been pleased with the positive early reception and have already added about 25,000 subscribers pushing us back into positive territory for overall net broadband growth of 15,000 subscribers in the quarter. Meanwhile, we're only in the very early stages of really reaping the long-term benefits from the inevitable convergence of 5G and fiber. Where we've deployed fiber, we're seeing an uptick in mobility growth.”
