AT&T Brings Fiber To Rich Areas While the Rest Are Stuck On DSL, Study Finds (arstechnica.com)

According to a new study from UC Berkeley's Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, AT&T has been focused on deploying fiber-to-the-home in the higher-income neighborhoods of California, giving wealthy people access to gigabit internet while others are stuck with DSL internet that doesn't even meet state and federal broadband standards. Ars Technica reports: California households with access to AT&T's fiber service have a median income of $94,208, according to "AT&T's Digital Divide in California," in which the Haas Institute analyzed Federal Communications Commission data from June 2016. The study was funded by the Communications Workers of America, an AT&T workers' union that's been involved in contentious negotiations with the company. By contrast, the median household income is $53,186 in California neighborhoods where AT&T provides only DSL, with download speeds typically ranging from 768kbps to 6Mbps. At the low end, that's less than 1 percent of the gigabit speeds offered by AT&T's fiber service. The median income in areas with U-verse VDSL, which ranges from 12Mbps to 75Mbps, is $67,021. In 4.1 million California households, representing 42.8 percent of AT&T's California service area, AT&T's fastest speeds fell short of the federal broadband definition of 25Mbps downloads and 3Mbps uploads, the report said.

Comments

They already made money

[rsilvergun]

they got billions (with a 'b') in subsidies while _also_ being allowed to charge extra fees to bring fiber to those poor neighborhoods. They pocketed the money and told us to go fuck ourselves. Just nationalize broadband already. It costs them $9/mo (customer service included, though with AT&T I'm using the term loosely). Why the hell Americans are so obsessed with the "free" market that they let rich assholes profit off critical infrastructure is beyond me. Really, truly beyond me. I just don't understand why so many people can be so ignorant for so long in the face of so much evidence to the contrary...

Re: But $90k per year is poor in California

[stdarg]

GPON is well established technology. Costs are not likely to drop very much.

Don't be ridiculous! Costs are dropping and will continue to drop as the technology is deployed more to residential customers. The cost of fiber optic cable itself is going down. The cost of fiber network equipment is going down. The labor costs of installing are going down. I mean for example, when AT&T installed fiber in my neighborhood they sent a guy out to fuse the cables. Last time I talked to a tech doing an install, he told me they stopped doing that and use pre-terminated cables. It's cheaper. It's faster. Putting the cable in the ground is also getting cheaper, easier, and less labor intensive.

Upcoming Tech

[nehumanuscrede]

I'll probably be labeled a shill for this, but it explains why AT&T isn't pushing very hard on FTTH deployment.

In the works is a wireless solution that will provide gigabit speeds to homes that will be MUCH cheaper to deploy than fiber can ever be. It's called Project AirGig.

The designs I've seen sit atop telephone poles and are inductive powered via the power lines.

I want to say they operate in the 39 ghz range.

It is being prepped for 5g deployment so, IF they get the design down, expect to see it in the not too distant future.

Is why they're pushing for regulation changes that would allow them to install these units atop the poles with a minimum of red tape.

Also explains why they don't want to pour billions of dollars into fiber if this is a potential solution instead.

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