A growing AT&T fixed wireless footprint added 8 states beyond the launch state of Georgia, now reaching 70K locations in 9 states. This fixed wireless service is funded in part by the FCC’s Connect America Fund, and is used across AT&T’s rural footprint.
The new states include Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Eighteen additional states are planned to join this AT&T fixed wireless footprint by then end of 2017, according to the company.
“We’re committed to connect hard-to-reach locations to the internet,” said Cheryl Choy, vice president, wired voice and internet products at AT&T in a press release. “We’re excited to bring this service to even more underserved locations.”
AT&T Fixed Wireless Details
AT&T is using licensed WCS (Band 30) 2.3 GHz spectrum for the fixed wireless service. It delivers download speeds of at least 10 Mbps and upload speeds of at least 1 Mbps, according to the company, just meeting FCC requirements for price cap carrier participation in the CAF.
“Although we are using a largely separate network from our current Mobility infrastructure for this service, the service is running off of existing LTE cell towers,” an AT&T spokesperson tells Telecompetitor. “The fixed wireless antenna on the subscriber’s house is pointed directly at that cell tower.”
The spokesperson declined to offer current subscriber counts for the service. Service just launched in April of this year in Georgia.
AT&T offers a variety of pricing schemes for this service, with stand-alone service priced at $60 per month with a one year contract, and $70 month thereafter. If bundled with either Directv or AT&T wireless, the contracted monthly price drops to $50 (or $60 without a contract).
There are no equipment fees, but there is a $99 installation fee. That fee is waived if purchased with Directv. In that situation, our assumption is both services are installed at the same time.
There are also monthly caps for broadband usage. Each plan starts with a monthly allowance for 160 GBs. Additional 50 GB buckets are charged at $10 per month with a $200/month maximum.
AT&T eventually plans to reach 400,000 locations by the end of 2017 and 1.1 million locations by 2020.
