This is what a competitive broadband market looks like

When Google said it was going to bring its high-speed fiber optic service to Austin, it probably didn't expect to touch off a race to switch on the cheapest, fastest Internet service around. But within a year of announcing the move, AT&T followed suit. And now a third company has beaten them both.

Grande Communications, a 10-year-old provider based a half hour away in San Marcos (TX), is rolling out full gigabit fiber to seven neighborhoods in west Austin. Gigabit service customers will benefit from speeds up to 100 times the national average. The company's service won't require a contract, doesn't impose data caps and vows to obey net neutrality principles. At $65 a month, it'll be more affordable than either Google or AT&T's offerings -- and it'll come with fewer strings attached. Even though its gigabit service isn't ready yet, AT&T is encouraging Austinites to commit early for speeds of up to 300 Mbps (still pretty zippy). Those GigaPower subscribers will be automatically upgraded to gigabit speeds once AT&T has completed its construction later in 2014. It'll cost $99 a month for plain, vanilla service, or $70 a month if you agree to let AT&T monitor your Web behavior so it can send you targeted advertising.