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 megabits-per-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.