Taking aim at some markets served by MSOs such as Cox Communications, Comcast and Time Warner Cable, AT&T U-verse said it has expanded its 75 Mbps (downstream) offering to six more markets: Baton Rouge and New Orleans, La.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Mobile, Ala.; and South Bend, Ind.
Those launches, which also cover nearby areas served by U-verse in Florida and Mississippi, follow an expansion of the 75-Meg offering last month to cities such as Augusta, Ga.; Cleveland, Ohio; Miami, Fla.; and St. Louis, Mo.
Update: The latest launches close out the markets where AT&T has previously announced plans to deliver service. Last year, the telco said it would expand availably across the 21 states where U-verse is available by sometime in 2015. AT&T competes with Cox in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Comcast in Grand Rapids, Mobile and South Bend, and with TWC in Milwaukee.
Bob Bickerstaff, vice president of voice and data products for AT&T, blogged about the latest batch of launches today (March 9), noting that the 75 Mbps service, offered in “select areas” within those markets, starts at $39.95 when bundled with other U-verse services. The 75-meg tier, which is paired with an 8 Mbps upstream, has been selling for $74.95 per month as a stand-alone service in other markets.
Coincidentally, AT&T is expanding the reach of its faster U-verse tier after the FCC voted to raise the definition of high-speed broadband from 4 Mbps down/1 Mbps up, to 25 Mbps down/3 Mbps up.
AT&T introduced the 75-meg option in December 2014 in select areas of Monterey and Sacramento, Calif.; Toledo, Ohio; and El Paso, Texas, noting then that the speed upgrades are being enabled by a new 17 MHz signal, twice the original 8.5 MHz that was used.
Other U-verse tiers deliver downstream speeds of 6 Mbps, 12 Mbps, 18 Mbps, 24 Mbps, and 45 Mbps. AT&T also offers 100 Mbps and 1-Gig options in areas where it has begun to roll out its fiber-based GigaPower platform.
AT&T ended 2014 with 12.2 million U-verse broadband customers.
