AT&T revealed plans to expand the reach of its fibre joint venture with private equity firm BlackRock Alternatives beyond the initial 1.5 million locations announced in late 2022, as well as unveiling four new agreements with commercial open access providers.

The operator stated the Gigapower expansion could include growth in its existing geographies as well as new locations. AT&T executives initially pitched the JV as a way to compete outside of its traditional 21-state footprint.

While rivals Verizon and T-Mobile US have both recently announced deals to expand their fibre holdings, AT&T claims to be the largest provider in the US based on the number of fibre-to-the-home households.

The company serves more than 8.8 million AT&T Fibre customers and passes more than 28 million total consumer and business locations.

AT&T CEO John Stankey is a big proponent of converged mobile and fibre-based services.

To reach more locations with AT&T Fibre in geographies not served by its network or Gigapower, the operator announced four new agreements with commercial open-access providers: Boldyn Networks, Digital Infrastructure Group, PRIME FiBER and Ubiquity.

It stated those agreements allow it to offer fibre and 5G services to more customers in service areas that do not have existing fibre options.