AT&T announced the completion of a first wave of fixed wireless Internet availability for rural and underserved locations in Georgia as part of the company’s involvement with the FCC Connect America Fund (CAF), through which it has committed to connect over 400,000 locations by the end of 2017 and over 1.1 million locations by 2020.
AT&T noted that the work in Georgia will be expanded to a further 17 states during 2017, namely: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
The fixed wireless Internet offering provides a home Internet connection delivering a minimum download speed of 10 Mbit/s. Connectivity is provided via a wireless tower to a fixed antenna on the customer’s home or business, which is designed to offer a cost-effective means of delivering quality, high-speed Internet to customers in rural and underserved areas.
AT&T plans to reach a total of more than 67,000 locations across Georgia using the fixed wireless technology by 2020.
http://about.att.com/story/first_wave_of_fixed_wireless_internet.html
- In January, AT&T announced that, following trials of fixed wireless Internet (FWI) service in 2016 in a number of states as part of efforts to expand access to primarily rural locations with slow or no Internet connectivity through its participation in the FCC CAF II, it planned to launch FWI in areas where it had accepted CAF support.
At that time, AT&T noted it was trialing point-to-point millimetre-wave wireless technology that utilised in-building wiring to deliver a 100 Mbit/s connection accessible to each unit. The initial trial was using wired and wireless technologies to provide high speed Internet to multiple apartment complexes in Minneapolis, outside of its traditional 21 state wireline service area. AT&T added that it was aiming to offer speeds of up to 500 Mbit/s in trial properties using the fixed-wireless solution.
