Google Fiber Inc. has been very vocal about its plans to expand into several new cities, including big ones like Chicago and Los Angeles. But actual network deployments have been slow to follow. So far, the company only has gigabit service up and running in Kansas City; Austin; and Provo, Utah. Likewise, AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has advertised a slew of new market launches for its GigaPower service, but critics point out that many of those deployments only reach a handful of neighborhoods. (See Gigabites: AT&T & Google Battle It Out.)

Now financial analysts are trying to cut through the hype. When it comes to concrete numbers, analyst Paul de Sa of Bernstein Research predicts that Google Fiber will reach roughly 2.4 million homes by the end of 2017. In contrast, MoffettNathanson predicts that AT&T will reach 5 million "customer locations" in the same time period. If accurate, that puts AT&T at more than double Google's gigabit reach in less than two years.

The only problem? AT&T's gigabit momentum may peter out before the end of the decade once it satisfies the requirements imposed by regulators as part of the company's deal to acquire DirecTV. After that, it's anyone's game.

For many reasons -- including deployments by AT&T and Google Fiber -- it looks like 2016 will be the year gigabit broadband service really takes off. Deloitte predicts there will be a tenfold increase in gigabit network connections globally this year, with 70% of those connections coming from the residential sector. The company's analysts cite rising demand and falling prices as primary factors in the gigabit rise.