AT&T launching GigaPower in Kansas City, exactly matching Google Fiber speed and price

Google Fiber has been instigating the growth of fiber Internet in the United States for a few years, and now AT&T is feeling the heat more than ever. Announced at midnight last night, AT&T said it’s finally ready to start selling fiber Internet services in Kansas City and its surrounding areas (via The Kansas City Star). The company finished the rollout of 1Gbps “GigaPower” service in Austin late last year, and now it seems it’s finally time for AT&T to live up to its promise to bring the service to other cities around the country…

The company is definitely doing its best to compete with Google’s initiative, expanding not just to Kansas City itself, but to surrounding areas including Leawood, Lenexa, Olathe and Overland Park. Later, service will be coming to both Independence and Shawnee as well:

AT&T announced at midnight Sunday that it’s ready to sell Internet service over skinny fiberoptic wires with a hefty capacity to move data directly to homes and small businesses in parts of Kansas City, Leawood, Lenexa, Olathe and Overland Park. The company said it plans to expand later to Independence and Shawnee.

Amazingly, the packages that AT&T is offering match exactly that of Google (right at $70 per month for a gigabit connection), with one exception. AT&T is going to charge customers who opt out of its “Internet Preferences” program an additional $29 per month. The service tracks “the webpages you visit, the time you spend on each, the links or ads you see and follow, and the search terms you enter” according to AT&T’s website.

This is in contrast to Google’s service, which the Mountain View company says doesn’t track your history at all. There is a trade-off to be made here, though, as Google very deeply tracks users of most of its services regardless of whether or not they use Fiber.

Those interested in going with AT&T’s upcoming offering, which the company says will be rolling out over the coming weeks and months, can head over to AT&T’s GigaPower site to check availability.