AT&T today announced that the company is expanding availability of the company's new fixed wireless broadband service. Announced last April, AT&T's creatively-named "Fixed Wireless Internet" service features a 10 Mbps LTE connection with a 160 GB monthly cap. From there, users pay $10 per each 50GB of additional data consumed -- up to a maximum of $200 per month. The service costs $60 per month with a one-year contract, or $70 per month without a contract (and after the contract period expires).
Users that sign a contract and bundle the service with AT&T wireless or DirecTV will pay $50 per month, or $60 per month without a contract.
Originally only available in Atlanta and select portions of Georgia, the company today announced it's expanding availability of the offering into eight additional states: Alabam; Florida; Kentucky; Mississippi; North Carolina; South Carolina; Tennessee and Louisiana. Like other fixed-wireless efforts, the service requires an outdoor antenna mounted on the consumer or business' roof, and an inside residential gateway.
AT&T says availability will expand to include 67,000 locations by 2020.
The service's primary function? To provide something vaguely-resembling next-generation connectivity to some of the millions of DSL users nobody (including AT&T) wants to upgrade. The company has been lobbying, state by state, to eliminate rules requiring they maintain their older copper network (much of which taxpayers paid for and is still very much in use) so the company can make the transition to more profitable wireless services just like this one.
“We’re committed to connect hard-to-reach locations to the internet. This changes lives and creates economic growth for these areas," said Cheryl Choy, vice president, wired voice and internet products at AT&T. "We’re excited to bring this service to even more underserved locations."
The company's
press release has a little more detail on this new fixed wireless offering.