AT&T’s latest home broadband service isn’t DSL or fiber. It’s LTE

AT&T has found another use for its LTE and HSPA networks besides connecting iPhones and Android devices to the internet. It’s connecting homes. Ma Bell has started offering a residential broadband and voice service that relies on a 3G/4G modem for its link back to the network rather than traditional wireline access technologies.

The service is available in Delaware; Maryland; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Virginia; West Virginia, Washington, D.C.; and parts of eastern Kentucky on the West Virginia border. If those locations sound a bit odd, that’s because they’re all — with the exception of Kentucky — outside of AT&T’s traditional wireline operating territory. In fact, they’re squarely in the middle in of Verizon Communications’ turf. This home router is clearly the tool AT&T plans to use to expand beyond its wireline footprint, giving it a means to sell residential broadband and phone services to its mobile customers nationally as well as an access component to its Digital Life connected home platform. The question is whether customers will pay. This service isn’t cheap and would likely appeal to customers with few other broadband options.