AT&T tapped actress, author and producer Mindy Kaling, famed entrepreneur Mark Cuban and other luminaries for the company’s announcement today that it plans to make multigigabit broadband available to its entire fiber footprint covering 30 million locations by year-end 2025. As of today, 2 Gbps and 5 Gbps symmetrical services are available to 5.2 million residences and small businesses in more than 70 metro markets.
The 2 Gbps service, to be known as AT&T Fiber 2 GIG, will sell for $110 a month plus taxes to residential customers. AT&T Business Fiber 2 GIG will sell for $225 monthly plus taxes.
AT&T Fiber 5 GIG will sell for $180 a month plus taxes to residential customers and for $395 a month plus taxes for business customers.
Kaling on Home Connectivity
A webcast targeting the media today was focused, in large part, on applications for multigigabit service.
In an interview with an AT&T exec, Kaling offered an endorsement of the service she gets from the company, describing how heavily she relies on fast, reliable, jitter-free and secure internet. During the COVID-19 pandemic, her work has moved almost entirely online.
“Comedy is all about timing,” she said. “If you miss one second of somebody talking, it ruins comedy.”
She also noted that content is developed in secrecy, making security extremely important.
“Shows demand complete privacy,” she said. If a show is leaked, she said, that “shows a total lack of professionalism.”
Cuban on Business Connectivity
Mark Cuban provided a similar endorsement for small business customers.
Agility is critical to success for small businesses, he said, adding that “you don’t want any limits” on your internet service.
He also noted that as a small business, “you don’t want to have to stress about all the things you don’t know” but instead should hand off responsibility for internet and security to a company such as AT&T.
In a press release, AT&T now claims to be the nation’s “fastest major internet provider.”
The company offers gigabit service quite broadly, an offering that is possible with the GPON technology that has been widely deployed by providers nationwide. Broadly supporting multigigabit broadband requires an upgrade to either XGS-PON or NG-PON2. AT&T has said previously that its multigigabit plans are focused on XGS-PON.
The company also noted on the webcast that it has achieved 10 Gbps speeds in a lab environment.
