AT&T drives ultra-high-speed broadband into competitive markets in Texas and North Carolina

The digital divide is opening up once again. This time, though, the gap is between those with ultra-high-speed 1 Gbps broadband service and those with more conventional service.

AT&T (NYSE: T) has announced high-speed service coming to Austin, Tex., where it's competing with Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). In North Carolina, AT&T, Google and Time Warner Cable are all planning ultrafast service.

AT&T said it has reached an agreement with developer PulteGroup to deliver 300 Mbps (with expansion to 1 Gbps) U-verse GigaPower service over fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks feeding four communities still in the process of being built and five already existing in the Austin area. About 3,000 homes will be involved when the developments are completed.

"Austinites have a real appetite for speed and advanced TV features and we're so pleased to have the opportunity to drive these services into more neighborhoods," Dahna Hull, vice president and general manager of AT&T Services, said in a press release. "Residents in these [PulteGroup] developments will have the most advanced everyday technology at their fingertips."

The PulteGroup deal is part of an initiative by AT&T to cut agreements with national and regional single family builders, developers, real estate investment trusts, apartment ownership/management groups and homeowners associations, the carrier said in the press release.

In North Carolina, AT&T is targeting 3,000 homes, 100 businesses and 100 public sites in Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh and Winston-Salem. Google and Time Warner are also targeting Raleigh and Durham.

For more:
- see this press release
- and this Bloomberg Businessweek story

Related articles:
AT&T bundles TV, Internet and HBO to attract cord cutters
AT&T, CenturyLink, Frontier see utility with copper but want flexibility in technology transition
What cord cutters? AT&T reaction shows there's still demand for wires
AT&T invests over $3.85B to enhance Dallas, Houston networks, increases U-verse reach
Rural South Jersey communities: Verizon reneging on FiOS promise