AT&T is no longer acting like it’s content to let T-Mobile and Verizon run away with the fixed-wireless market. The carrier today took its "Internet Air" service out of the quasi-stealth mode it’s been in since AT&T started deploying this home-broadband offering earlier this year.
“We’ve already rolled out AT&T Internet Air to existing copper-based customers with great success,” AT&T says (the copper reference being a nod to the old, slow, phone-line-based DSL service that AT&T stopped selling in 2020). “As we begin to scale, we are hyper-focused on selecting locations with enough wireless coverage and capacity to deliver not only a great in-home experience, but also maintain a top-notch wireless service for our existing mobile users.”
Erin Scarborough, president of broadband and connectivity initiatives, touts simple, cheap pricing akin to what T-Mobile and Verizon offer: $55 a month without equipment fees or a data cap. It does not throw out any download or upload speed estimates for this LTE- and 5G-based service, but an AT&T support note lists “expected” downloads of 40 to 140Mbps and uploads of 5 to 25Mbps.
Tuesday’s post also advertises a simple self-install routine that includes an app to help a customer find the spot in their home with the best reception and a router with “a sleek and modern look that seamlessly blends into any design aesthetic.” From photos, the router resembles a sideways Apple HomePod or Google Nest Audio–in distinct contrast to the cybernetic-tarantula appearance of many wireless routers.
AT&T also offers a $10/month “Extended Wi-Fi Coverage” upsell option that covers as many additional Wi-Fi nodes as a larger house might need, but you should look into buying a Wi-Fi mesh network for those use cases.
AT&T says it’s now selling Internet Air in 16 markets: parts of Phoenix; Los Angeles; Hartford/New Haven, Conn.; Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.; Chicago; Las Vegas; Cincinnati, Ohio; Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon, Penn.; Detroit and Flint-Saginaw-Bay City, Mich.; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; Portland, Ore.; Salt Lake City; and Seattle-Tacoma, Wash.
AT&T’s site did not yield much more information about the performance a subscriber might get in spot checks at addresses in those markets: While it reported service available at two Chicago-area locations and one in Las Vegas, it did not say if those abodes would get LTE or 5G speeds.
Until Tuesday’s announcement, AT&T had been leaning publicly into building out its fiber broadband, to the point that company executives brushed off FWA’s potential on earnings calls. Its rivals T-Mobile and Verizon, however, have now signed up millions of subscribers–many poached from cable operators that previously had a monopoly on effective broadband in those homes–and made FWA the fastest-growing broadband in the US last year.