Google Fiber and AT&T GigaPower coming to LA

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Faster and cheaper Internet service is coming to Los Angeles after two major announcements.

Google Fiber and AT&T GigaPower will be coming to Southern California by next year, according to L.A. officials. Those services will offer blistering speeds to residents.

"Speeds that are up to 200 times what we enjoy today. An HD movie in 36 seconds, 25 songs in a second," Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said.

Garcetti said L.A. will be the largest city in which Google is looking to deploy its Google Fiber services.

He said AT&T has already committed to building its GigaPower services in L.A.

AT&T is expected to roll the service out in L.A. before August 2016.

L.A. is the company's largest subscriber city.

"These little wires may not look very expensive, but when you have to dig them, put them in the ground and run throughout the city, you're talking about billions of dollars," Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield said.

Garcetti's office said the investment is necessary for economic growth as companies and entrepreneurs who don't get the Internet speeds they need will leave L.A., taking billions of dollars with them.

That's why Garcetti said the city offers free Wi-Fi through its CityLinkLA program and is working to offer it on buses and subway trains.

"You need to be connected to the Internet if you're an entrepreneur, if you're a student, if you're a teacher, if you're somebody working in manufacturing, if you're doing retail," City of Los Angeles Chief Technology Officer Peter Marx said.

Garcetti's office is boasting that Los Angeles County already has more tech jobs than any other county in the country and that the announcements should only help that number grow.

"L.A. isn't riding any wave of tech, we are leading it," Garcetti said.