AT&T is set to launch its GigaPower fiber to the home service in Austin, Texas, any day now but other than wondering if and when my neighborhood would get it, I’ve also wanted to understand how AT&T(s t) is rolling out the service. I spoke with Eric Small, VP, fiber broadband planning at AT&T on Tuesday to get the scoop.

First, Austin isn’t a pilot market for AT&T’s fiber to the home effort just because Google has picked the area for its own fiber-to-the-home project (although the government concessions for Google should also help Ma Bell). Small said Austin residents consume 15 percent to 20 percent more broadband than the average AT&T U-verse customer making it a good place to test demand for higher speed services. More Austin residents also have subscribed to AT&T’s fiber-to-the-node U-verse service than currently subscribe to the older DSL technology. The city’s residents are…