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AT&T to add GigaPower Internet service to the area.
(Courtesy of AT&T)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- AT&T today is unveiling its ultra high-speed GigaPower and AT&T Business Fiber Network in downtown and in certain other parts of Cleveland such as Bedford, Bedford Heights, Shaker Heights and nearby neighborhoods.
Barberton, Bay Village, Canton, Cleveland Heights, Mentor and surrounding areas will be added soon. To find out if your neighborhood is GigaPower ready, the company advises checking its website.
The all-fiber GigaPower network is capable of download speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second. That's 1 billion bits per second, or 1,000 megabits per second. Most cable networks can now offer higher speeds of 50 up to 100 megabits per second, though most homes and many businesses put up with much slower speeds.
How fast is GigaPower? (Hint: No more buffering, spinning wheels, streaming video that freezes or other infuriating delays.)
Here are a few examples from the company to show how fast ultra-fast GigaPower is:
AT&T chose Cleveland as its first Ohio market for GigaPower, said Adam Grzybicki, president of AT&T Ohio. He said the company has spent more than $300 million in the past three years upgrading its Cleveland fiber network in preparation for the ultra high-speed service, as well as for the Republican National Convention.
"This is our best foot forward that I think you will be seeing throughout the metro and suburban area. We are moving fiber closer and closer to the [home] doorstep," said Grzybicki, who described the new service as "leapfrogging" speeds currently offered by the company and its competitors.
The residential service will start at $90 per month. Lower speeds and prices will continue as well, the company said in a press release.
One detail that already has some consumer advocates upset -- an "Internet Preferences" agreement that allows AT&T to monitor a GigaPower user's Internet searches and sites selected. Opting out of the program will add $29 a month to the bill.
It's not that AT&T is snooping, said spokeswoman Holly Hollingsworth. The focus is tailoring advertising.
"AT&T Internet Preferences offers customers our best pricing on AT&T GigaPower because we can provide tailored ads and offers to a customer's interests. These are based on their commonly used individual web browsing information, like the search terms," she said in an email response. "We will not collect information from secure (https) or otherwise encrypted sites, such as when a customer enters a credit card to buy something online or do online banking on a secure site."
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Grzybicki said the ultra high-speed service will become necessary as more homes move into "the Internet of Things," allowing consumers to control their home appliances remotely.
AT&T's Business Fiber Network already offers the blazing speeds to some businesses here and in other Ohio metropolitan areas. Grzybicki said the company is committed to extending the service throughout the state.
AT&T will also introduce GigaPower in Sacramento, California, today. Sacramento will be the 29th metropolitan area where AT&T is featuring the network.
AT&T's roll-out comes at a time when Google is slowing down on the continued roll out of its ultra high-speed Internet service because of the cost and, according to wire reports, considering using wireless technologies in areas without a fiber optic network.
Grzybicki said AT&T would have a "mobility product" in rural areas where the company is not the primary incumbent provider and therefore does not have a wire network on which to build.
In an early version of this article, I confused bits and bytes. Bits describe downloading and uploading speeds. Bytes are a measurement of the size of a file or storage capacity.