In sum – what to know:
Technique validated – AT&T stated Ookla’s first-ever Finest Residence Web award confirms its current fiber growth strategy moderately than signaling any strategic shift.
Fiber-led development – The operator is accelerating deployment via natural buildouts alongside partnerships like Gigapower and the Lumen acquisition.
Fiber + wi-fi convergence – AT&T emphasised that fiber underpins each broadband and cell efficiency, enabling extra dependable 5G networks.
New information from Ookla earlier this month confirmed that AT&T Fiber delivers each the “greatest” and quickest fiber efficiency within the U.S., posting a median obtain velocity of 369.39 Mbps, add speeds of 309.28 Mbps and latency of 18 ms. Now, AT&T Fiber has additionally acquired Ookla’s first-ever Finest Residence Web award in america.
Regardless of the popularity, AT&T says the respect doesn’t sign any shift in technique. Talking with RCR Wi-fi Information, AT&T VP of Broadband and Converged Product Administration Josh Goodell stated the award merely reinforces the operator’s current fiber growth plans. “It simply validates our technique is working,” he stated, including that the popularity helps construct consciousness and join the corporate with “the fitting prospects” in the fitting markets.
The technique is an aggressive one. Highlights embrace Gigapower, a wholesale fiber service it established with funding agency BlackRock, and the newer $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen’s Mass Markets Fiber enterprise. “We anticipate our annual construct tempo to develop in 2026 in our core footprint. We additionally anticipate to increase sooner exterior our conventional areas as we add extra construct capability, together with Gigapower and the fiber property and capabilities we’ve acquired from Lumen,” stated Goodell. Wanting even additional forward, he shared that the corporate plans to succeed in greater than 60 million places by the top of 2030.
Goodell was clear, although, that natural buildouts stay the main focus, whilst acquisitions like Lumen assist the corporate scale sooner in precedence markets. “The actual profit is that it provides extra households and companies the prospect to get fiber and wi-fi from one trusted supplier — one thing many haven’t had out there earlier than,” he stated. “And the place we now have fiber, we win in wi-fi.”
In response to Goodell, the aim is straightforward: “Ship an awesome, dependable connection to as many individuals as doable.” Doing that, he continued, requires combining AT&T-owned fiber and wi-fi infrastructure, whereas rising relationships with open-access fiber builders. “Fiber is the spine of the 5G community, and cell websites with fiber connectivity ship higher reliability and scalability,” he stated. “It helps us push functionality nearer to customers — whether or not that’s extra capability on the edge or extra environment friendly routing of visitors — so we are able to ship a extra constant, always-on connectivity expertise.”
