
AT&T announced that the University of Houston will be installing 1,000 U-Verse connections at a new student housing facility being built near their campus. The new facility, Calhoun Lofts, is part of a major expansion by the university and will contain more than 700 one- and two-bedroom apartments. While not a huge deployment in the context of AT&T’s national rollout plans, this development has to be seen as positive by AT&T in the light of competitive positioning. The multi-dwelling unit (MDU) market has historically been the domain of cable MSOs, and more recently DBS providers. It represents a great business development opportunity for any service provider, even with the regulatory scrutiny it has been receiving of late. Acceptance by a high profile customer like the University of Houston will help AT&T make headway into the competitive and lucrative MDU sector.