AT&T slams brakes on GigaPower rollout

AT&T is putting the brakes on its plan to invest in its super-fast GigaPower Internet connections in 100 U.S. cities, the company announced.

AT&T had announced plans this summer to expand and upgrade its fiber network in San Antonio to accommodate its U-verse network with GigaPower speeds. The all-fiber network, once in place, will be capable of providing upload and download speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second to consumers and businesses.

Specific locations of availability and pricing for the San Antonio market were to be announced at a later date.

The AT&T announcement to put its expansion plans on hold comes two days after President Barack Obama called on the Federal Communication Commission, an independent body, to "implement the strongest possible rules to protect net neutrality."

Specifically, the president said the FCC should prohibit Internet service providers from blocking legal content or slowing down or speeding up content based on the ISP's preferences. This would include an "explicit ban on paid prioritization," through which some providers could pay ISPs more in order to provide their users with faster downloads.

At a conference Wednesday, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, "We can't go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed."

According to Reuters, Stephenson said, "We think it is prudent to just pause and make sure we have line of sight and understanding as to what those rules would look like."

Mike W. Thomas covers technology/telecom, military, finance, regulatory issues as well as nonprofits/education.