AT&T has yet to offer a single customer 1 Gbps service, but that didn't stop AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson today from hinting at additional 1 Gbps market launches that may or may not happen. To counter media excitement created by Google Fiber's move into Austin last April, AT&T issued an ambiguous announcement one day later proclaiming they were "prepared to build" networks with "advanced fiber optic infrastructure" under select circumstances.

AT&T's CEO has now expanded on their vague plans with another layer of ambiguity, hinting there could be an undetermined number of additional 1 Gbps deployments down the road.

Maybe.

"The cost dynamics look good, the revenue implications look good, the market implications look good, so you're going to see more of this over time and I fully expect you'll see us doing markets like this over the next few years," Stephenson told attendees of the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference in New York today.

AT&T users shouldn't get too excited. What Stephenson's hinting at are highly selective greenfield deployments to only the easiest and most profitable developments (like this recent AT&T agreement with Camden Property Trust). AT&T currently caps these development users at slower U-Verse speeds despite being on fiber, in order to offer a "consistent user experience."

AT&T likes how Google has been allowed to cherry pick certain neighborhoods for deployment, something regulators, municipalities and franchise agreements used to frown upon because it left countless lower income and minority communities unserved. Google Fiber has also scored some sweetheart deals in negotiations with cities desperate for advanced infrastructure, and AT&T wants in.

AT&T has long been criticized for its decision to deploy fiber to the node instead of following Verizon's lead with fiber to the home. That decision, while lauded by investors for its cost savings, is a big reason why AT&T has struggled to match faster cable broadband speeds, even with their latest, selectively-available 45 Mbps U-Verse upgrades. Keep in mind AT&T also imposes caps as low as 150 GB.

Despite purportedly being a broadband company, AT&T executives and investors have never had the stomach for any meaningful next-gen broadband deployment, a big reason for Google Fiber's ascension in the first place. AT&T's 1 Gbps announcement was, much like a similar announcement by CenturyLink last May, more about saving face in the Google Fiber age than actual deployment.

It appears that it's all the rage to announce an ambiguous 1 Gbps deployment to a building or two, advertise yourself as a cutting edge broadband provider on par with Google Fiber (even though tens of millions of your users can't get 6 Mbps, much less 1 Gbps), then make incredibly vague hints of future, indeterminate 1 Gbps deployments. Who needs the cost and hassle of fiber to the home when you've got fiber to the press release?