Slashdot Mirror
AT&T Building Massive Fiber Network That Barely Exists (techdirt.com)
An anonymous reader writes: An article at TechDirt points out that AT&T's big fiber deployment project isn't yet adding up to much. They posted a press release last week saying how they've launched fiber internet in Los Angeles and West Palm Beach, and how they also plan to bring it to 38 other metro areas. But TechDirt notes a few parts they left out: "Nowhere does the company state when these connections will be delivered. Similarly nowhere does the company make clear that it's targeting mostly high-end housing developments where fiber is already in the ground, making costs negligible (the only way you could technically accomplish a deployment of this kind and magically have your CAPEX consistently drop). And while AT&T claims these improvements will reach 14 million residential and commercial locations, AT&T gives no timeline for this accomplishment. That means it could cherry pick a few hundred thousand University condos and housing developments per year and be wrapping up this not-so-epic fiber deployment by 2040 or so. "
... they bumped me to 50/5, which is now 200/20, all at less than $40/month. Competition rocks.
For anyone who wants some perspective on internet pricing in other parts of the US. I'm in Western New York (Buffalo), paying the same company, Time Warner, $65 a month for 25/10 (burst) with the only form of competition being Verizon ADSL which although it is in my area, it is not actually available where I live, nor is it adequate for my needs. My office was paying about $150 a month for 35/10 (burst) and one static IP in a slightly more rural area until we switched to nearly $400 month for 10/10 (dedicated) fiber. All of this is with the same company that the user I am responding to uses. To top things off, our Mayor was publically in favor of the Time Warner Comcast merger, so I don't expect our government to put any effort into actually making anything better.
Tl;dr: Monopolies suck