AT&T will deploy its ultra high-speed Internet service in Austin, Texas in December - a direct shot at Google, which announced earlier this year that it would bring gigabit broadband Internet service to Austin in mid-2014. AT&T said its service "will initially reach tens of thousands of customer locations" in and around Austin. Service will reach more households in 2014, AT&T said.

Google says its Fiber service is about 100 times faster than most American users' current Internet speeds.

AT&T will also not actually offer 1 gigabit Internet speeds until mid-2014, which is the same time frame Google has set for its launch in Austin. At launch in December, AT&T's service will provide speeds up to only 300 megabits per second.