Gig service offered in metro Atlanta

Chattanooga may have been first in the Western Hemisphere to offer citywide, high-speed gigabit-per-second broadband service, courtesy of EPB. But the Gig City will soon lose its distinctiveness to its metro neighbor to the South.

AT&T announced this week it will begin selling super-fast home Internet speeds in metro Atlanta. The announcement came after Comcast just announced plans to begin offering 2 gigabit-per-second broadband service in Atlanta in May. Google also has announced plans to offer gig service in Georgia’s capital.

AT&T said the initial markets for the 1 gigabit- per- second connections are parts of the cities of Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Decatur and Newnan.

AT&T will charge residents and small businesses $120 a month for the gigabit service, which is roughly 22 times speedier than the 45 megabitsper- second that had been its fastest residential offering locally. But that price comes with a condition: Users must let AT&T track their web use so advertisers can target them. The price jumps to $150 a month if they don’t agree to that.

AT&T also will offer bundled gigabit service with voice and TV connections.

The base gigabit prices are roughly double the $70 monthly fee Google has said will be its ballpark price once it launches similar service in parts of metro Atlanta. But Google, which charges that amount in areas where it’s already offering the service, hasn’t set a date for a metro Atlanta rollout.

Comcast, the metro area’s dominant cable TV provider, announced earlier this month that starting in May it will offer even faster residential speeds than those promised by either AT&T or Google.

It committed to a broad rollout of 2 gigabit-per-second speeds to most metro residential customers, as long as the homes are within one-third of a mile of the company’s existing fiber network. But Comcast has yet to set pricing.

Because Comcast has in place a broad fiber network, it is likely to have an advantage in quickly offering

the super-fast speeds across much of the metro area.

Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul, who attended AT&T’s announcement of its new Gig broadband service, has pushed for faster speeds in his community.

“This is something that puts us even more indelibly on the map” for technology innovations, he said.

Americans have become increasingly data hungry as they stream more high-definition movies, play online games and rely on a growing array of connected devices. That has fueled interest in gigabit-per-second speeds that are 100 times faster than what most U.S. homes have.

EPB pioneered America’s first citywide gigabit Internet service in the fall of 2010. So far, more than 5,200 Chattanooga homes and businesses have signed up for the highest- speed service.

EPB spokesman John Pless welcomed the addition of gig service to Atlanta, even if it may lessen some of Chattanooga’s bragging rights.

“EPB believes that highspeed broadband is a priority for everyone in the United States,” Pless said Tuesday. “We are glad that other Internet service providers are embracing the value of gigabit technology.”

Atlanta area consumers will face the question of how much the faster speeds are worth to them. Proponents of the gigabit say its greatest value is not in what consumers want to do with it now, but how it might be used with future applications.

“Technology is all about who can deliver the fastest, the first,” said Beth Shiroishi, president of AT&T Georgia. “It’s all for the good of greater technology and better lives.”

Last year, AT& T announced that it would provide gigabit speeds inside the cities of Atlanta, Sandy Springs, Decatur and Newnan and would continue to consider other cities as well. As of Monday the company said it is providing the service in some parts of those first four cities and has begun to roll out the speeds in parts throughout the broader metro area. The full process could take a year and a half and, in some cases, involve hanging new fiber on poles or burying it underground in neighborhoods.

“Thousands” of local homes are currently ready for the service, AT&T’s Shiroishi said.

Asked about whether AT&T’s prices will drop if Google comes in as expected with lower fees, she said, “We will continue to watch the market and make changes as needed.”

Several carriers have announced gigabit speeds in other markets nationally. Atlanta-based Cox Communications, one of the largest U.S. cable TV providers, has said it will bring residential gigabit to all the states where it operates by the end of 2016. Its only Georgia market is in the Macon area. The company is part of Cox Enterprises, which also operates The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Metro Atlanta got extra attention after Google announced last year that it was considering the region and several other U.S. metro areas for its latest wave of fiber services. Metro Atlanta is the largest market where Google has now committed to provide the gigabit speeds. The online company’s moves have put pressure on other carriers.

Times Free Press Business Editor Dave Flessner contributed to this report.