AT&T boosts top broadband speed to 24 mbps in 3 markets, will spread

AT&T boosts top broadband speed in 3 markets

NEW YORK — AT&T Inc. is boosting its top available broadband speeds in Austin, Texas, San Antonio and St. Louis in preparation for a wider rollout.

The new U-verse High Speed Internet Max Turbo tier will provide downloads at up to 24 megabits per second and uploads at up to 3 megabits per second, the company said Wednesday.

The new tier will be available where AT&T has upgraded its phone lines to carry its U-Verse TV and data service. Max Turbo will cost residential customers $65 per month when bundled with TV.

Previously, the top download speed available on U-Verse was 18 megabits per second. Among the major phone companies, Qwest Communications International Inc. has the highest download speeds over phone lines, at 40 megabits per second in a few markets.

Phone companies are ramping their speeds to compete with cable companies, which are upgrading their modems to support download speeds of around 50 megabits per second.