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AT&T plans to begin building out its 1 Gbit/s broadband service in parts of North Carolina, in the next few week, marking its second deployment of the fiber service, after Austin, Texas. AT&T introduced GigaPower in Austin after Google Fiber announced its intention to enter that market. It’s the same deal with North Carolina, reports the News Observer.

AT&T plans to bring U-verse with GigaPower to six North Carolina cities — Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem. It will work with the North Carolina Next Generation Network (NCNGN), a regional group spearheading network deployments. AT&T says it will begin the build-out as soon as the NCNGN’s six member communities ratify an agreement.

The telco will add public WiFi hotspots, and free AT&T U-Verse at up to 100 public sites, with fiber links to up to 100 local businesses, and free 3 Mbit/s AT&T U-verse broadband for 10 affordable housing complexes.

The AT&T Wi-Fi Basic plan is available free for AT&T Wireless and U-verse customers.

AT&T charges as low as $70 a month for the service in Austin. In Kansas City, the first market that Google Fiber entered, the company is also charging $70 a month for 1 Gbps service.

Google Fiber is targeting 34 municipalities within nine metro areas, including Charlotte, Atlanta, Nashville, San Antonio, San Jose, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Portland, Ore. Seven communities are in the Research Triangle – Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Garner, Morrisville and Raleigh.

Some observers believe the coming WiFi duopoly of Comcast and AT&T will grab the lower 5 GHz band and set prices artificially high (unless you’re a subscriber).

Related Fiber Optic articles on Dailywireless include; Google Fiber Expands to More Cities, Comcast: WiFi in Merger Mix with TWC , Comcast Creates Hotspot 2.0 National Network , Google Fiber Launches in Kansas City , Google Blasts Kansas Bill to Limit Fiber Competition, It’s Official: Austin Gets Google Fiber, Kansas City Wins Google Fiber, Gigabit Seattle: Late Paying Bills, RUS Awards $1.2B for Broadband, City Fiber Strategies, US Broadband Sub Count, Hawaii Plans Broadband Initiative, Unlicensed Muni Broadband: Take Two?, Ten Largest Data Centers, The Fiber Utility, 1 Gbps Fiber Comes Home,