AT&T GigaPower comes to California – and speed is just the beginning

By Ken McNeely, President of AT&T California

When it comes to technology, we always want the next, new thing. At AT&T, we feel the same way.

That’s why earlier this year AT&T announced we are looking at 25 metropolitan areas across the country for building out our new AT&T GigaPower fiber network. For our customers, U-verse with AT&T GigaPower service means symmetrical upload and download broadband speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. That’s really fast.

Today, I’m proud to announce that we’re bringing this ultra-high-speed service to residents and small businesses in Cupertino — the first city in California and on the West Coast to receive the AT&T GigaPower network. As a representative of AT&T, I’m excited. But as a Californian who loves technology, I’m thrilled. I know that AT&T GigaPower is much more than super-fast speeds for our customers. I think it’s the start of a whole new Internet user experience.

I’ve worked at AT&T long enough to see some major changes in our technology and how we use it. When smartphones debuted on our network, most of us were still flipping our phones open. Today, the smartphone and the mobile apps it enabled have changed the way we do almost everything. But none of that would be possible without a fast, reliable wireless network. That’s where we come in.

Now, AT&T is bringing blazing speeds to our fiber network, too. We know that speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second will let our customers download 25 songs per second, or an entire HD movie in just 36 seconds. And that’s pretty cool. But personally, I’m much more excited about the things that AT&T GigaPower will let us do that we don’t even know yet. Just like we couldn’t imagine what the smartphone would unleash in terms of mobile apps and innovation, I know that we’ll look back on services like AT&T GigaPower as the turning point for all sorts of new technologies and services. And there’s no better place to start than the heart of Silicon Valley.

California has always been a place where innovation flourishes, where we show the rest of the country and the world what’s possible. That doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a lot of work and forethought and strong partnerships between our state government, our local governments and the private sector. AT&T has been doing business in California for over a hundred years — and we’ve been a part of California communities just as long. We’re proud to have invested billions of dollars in California by building out infrastructure that supports our network and services like AT&T GigaPower. We’re proud to employ over 35,000 Californians. And we’re proud to work with cities like Cupertino to make sure that we’re building the backbone of an ecosystem that supports and encourages innovation.

Who knows what groundbreaking new product or service will be possible when consumers and small businesses can get reliable AT&T GigaPower? I don’t. But I bet there’s someone out there — a developer or an entrepreneur, or just a person with an idea, who does know. And that’s what AT&T is all about – making sure that person has access to a network that enables the next, new thing.

Get ready… the AT&T GigaPower network is coming to town and speed is just the beginning.