AT&T to roll out fibre-to-the-premise to 21 US cities

US telco AT&T will expand its fibre network to up to 21 new major metropolitan areas by next year, it announced today.

AT&T said it would provide broadband internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second, and its U-verse television service, to new cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta and Kansas City.

The project will bring AT&T's fibre footprint to 25 metro areas, encompassing 100 municipalities.

The U-verse service - which launched in 2006 and currently has 10.7 million combined internet and TV customers - is already available in most of the new identified cities.

That service uses fibre to the node and copper for the final leg into the premise. AT&T will replace existing copper lines while laying new fibre to the node as part of the rollout.

Many of the areas targeted by AT&T are also covered by competitors Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

AT&T also faces competition from Google and the search giant's smaller rollout of gigabit-speed fibre in Austin, Texas and Kansas City, Kansas. Google has also previously signalled a significant expansion of its rollout.