AT&T nabbed venture capital firm BlackRock to help propel its fiber ambitions outside of the carrier’s traditional 21-state wireline footprint and move on AT&T’s long-simmering fiber expansion plans.

The duo’s work will be through the newly formed Gigapower joint venture that will operate the commercial fiber service. That service – not to be confused with AT&T’s previous “GigaPower” broadband offering – will be targeted at internet service providers (ISPs) and enterprises.

BlackRock’s work in the venture will be through its Alternatives division and through a fund managed by its Diversified Infrastructure business. That business recently raised $4.5 billion in initial investor commitments. AT&T executive veteran Bill Hogg was named CEO of Gigapower.

The venture's initial plans are to deploy a multi-gigabit fiber network to 1.5 million customer locations using a commercial open access platform. This will be additional to AT&T’s own fiber deployment plans targeted at reaching more than 30 million locations within its 21-state wireline footprint by the end of 2025.

The JV will tap into AT&T’s nationwide 5G wireless service to support sales outside of its traditional wireline footprint. This will allow it to take advantage of AT&T’s already established enterprise arrangements and more quickly get a sales channel up and running.

AT&T will also act as Gigapower’s first tenant, according to a report from GlobalData Principal Analyst Tammy Parker, noting “AT&T will be able to sell fiber service in more wireline markets, complement its nationwide mobile service footprint, and enable the carrier to market fixed-mobile service bundles in those markets.”

Parker explained that the move could also prove tempting to AT&T competitors.

“The AT&T and BlackRock JV poses a competitive challenge to cable providers and regional fiber providers, whose broadband reaches are geographically restricted, though those carriers could possibly become tenants on the open access Gigapower platform to extend their own footprints,” she wrote.

The fiber plans flesh out AT&T’s long-gestating expansion plans. The carrier has been touting fiber and 5G as cornerstones of its operational re-birth following the shedding of its DirecTV and WarnerMedia assets.

AT&T executives have repeatedly stated a strong desire to boost the carrier’s investment into its hardwired assets to better position itself in the mobile and broadband space.

“When we take a look at the data traffic that we serve over our wireless and our fiber networks, our network itself, we’re calling for a 5x increase in net traffic,” AT&T COO Jeff McElfresh said during a Bank of America investor event earlier this year. “And no matter what your last mile serving architecture is, that’s going to require a lot of fiber. We’ve made that point pretty clear.”

AT&T earlier this year signed a long-term deal with fiber builder Corning, which is using that deal as the basis to build a new cable manufacturing facility in Gilbert, Arizona. AT&T also formed a “Fiber Optic Training Program” with Corning targeted at training 50,000 people to design, install, and maintain fiber networks.

“This investment is a significant step forward for our country and building world-class broadband networks that will help narrow the nation’s digital divide,” AT&T CEO John Stankey noted in a statement tied to the Corning deal. “This new facility will provide additional optical cable capacity to meet the record demand the industry is seeing for fast, reliable connectivity.”

GlobalData’s Parker added that the Gigapower venture could boost AT&T’s ability to compete against rivals like Verizon and T-Mobile US that have witnessed rapid uptake of their 5G-based fixed-wireless access (FWA) broadband services. AT&T executives have for the most part dismissed the ability of 5G FWA to financially scale, though have hinted the technology could work for certain use cases.

“However, unlike FWA services, which can ride on top of existing mobile network coverage and are often self-installable, fiber requires the deployment of new infrastructure and truck rolls to the premises to be served, impacting time to market for AT&T and BlackRock’s ambitious plan,” Parker explained. “Additionally, Gigapower’s initial footprint will cover only 1.5 million customer locations, and it is unclear what the deployment timeline will be.”