Back in July you might remember that we reported on rumors that AT&T was busy cooking up a faster U-Verse tier that was supposed to drop before the end of August. A little behind the rumored schedule, AT&T directed our attention this morning to an announcement that the company is launching a 24 Mbps tier. Known as "AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet Max Turbo" to its friends, the new 24 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream (higher than rumors suggested) tier is launching today in Austin, San Antonio and St. Louis markets. The pricing of the new tier, straight from the horse's mouth:The faster speeds come with a new 32Mbps/5Mbps gateway profile that supports the higher speed and supposedly three simultaneous HD streams. Of course as we've explored far more frequently than AT&T would like, AT&T's decision to milk copper instead of moving to fiber means that distance limitations remain a thorn in AT&T's side.

Given they're in bankruptcy because of their botched deal with Verizon, it's not particularly surprising that Fairpoint Communications is working with a bit of a tight purse. Still, while they've not been able to pay their bills, they've still been able to recently hire two new top tier PR firms to shore up their sagging brand image.

Last month we noted how Verizon has increasingly been under fire from regulators in West Virginia, Florida and New York for slacking when it comes to maintenance and customer service for their aging DSL networks. With so much money to be made on getting into the TV business via FiOS TV, workers, customers and regulators say the telco is cutting corners in markets it's less interested in (when they're not busy just selling these markets outright).

In 2008, UK telco British Telecom announced a widely lauded plan to invest in "fiber" (to the node), though the specifics weren't particularly impressive when you looked a little closer, and the "fiber to the press release" announcement was more about getting a regulatory back rub from the British Government and lots of taxpayer subsidies. Upon inspection, British Telecom's plan still left a lot of potential customers out of reach of broadband.

Fairpoint Communications is currently in bankruptcy after a year of offering sub-par service to customers, missing deployment deadlines, being delisted by the NYSE, and angering regulators, customers, unions and investors. They haven't had enough money to pay what they owe small business customers, but they have had enough money to still engage in anti-competitive lobbying.

Earlier this year we noted how companies like Verizon are very clearly turning away from rural America, creating a new niche for smaller "rural super telcos" to thrive. The merger of CenturyTel and Embarq creates one such company, but Windstream Communications is also picking up speed in this sector as well. Windstream recently acquired NuVox Communications, and was also rumored to be sniffing around the assets of bankrupt Fairpoint Communications. Windstream continues the trend today by announcing they're acquiring Iowa Telecom (and its 256,000 access lines, 95,000 broadband and 26,000 digital TV customers) for about $1.1 billion. Interestingly, the company has had money for acquisitions, but not for employees: the erosion of landline revenues recently resulted in a 3% workforce reduction.

Frontier users have been receiving notices that the company is bumping the cost of their monthly model rental fee for all DSL customers. According to a notice being sent to customers, the company has officially bumped the monthly modem rental fee from $3.99 to $6.99 per month. The new price point means users will now shell out $168 for a modem they won't own over the length of a two-year contract. Somebody has to pay for all the legal fees and ad campaigns focused on getting their Verizon deal approved, and it's apparently you. As our users note, some users can get Frontier to waive the rental fee if they get a modem elsewhere, but your mileage on this front may vary.

Consumer advocates, unions and state regulators are worried that Verizon's plan to sell a massive chunk of their DSL and landline networks to Frontier Communications won't go very well. The $8.5 billion deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees.

Ask and ye shall receive. Windstream has confirmed to Broadband Reports that the company has raised the upstream speed of their DSL tiers. Windstream says they're responding to a request in our forums by users who found 386 kbps to be a little dated for 2009. Both the company's 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps tiers have seen the upstream side of the equation nudged from 384 kbps to 768 kbps -- at no additional price. The upgrades apparently started in early November and will be ongoing through December -- so if you haven't seen them yet, Broadband Reports readers can apparently nudge Windstream to get the upgrade now.

With the problems faced by Fairpoint and Hawaii Telcom after integrating Verizon's unwanted DSL networks, Verizon's even more ambitious plan to offload an even bigger chunk of rural customers to Fairpoint is getting added scrutiny. The $8.5 billion deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier (which currently has 2.3 million customers) with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees.

The unions employees who warned regulators that Fairpoint wasn't equipped to handle the acquisition of Verizon's New England DSL and landline networks last year are rightfully saying "we told you so." As Fairpoint teeters toward possible bankruptcy, union officials tell Vermont locals that they can thank Verizon for all the fun everyone's having. Instead of simply selling to the highest bidder, Verizon used a Reverse Morris Trust to incur huge tax savings while dumping a huge debt load on Fairpoint.

Oregon Live has the interesting tale of 83-year-old Dennis Streed, who only wanted to pay $77.99 a month for broadband, TV and phone service. So Streed drew up his own contract that ensured this was as much as he'd ever have to pay. More interesting perhaps is that Verizon agreed -- though as Verizon sometimes has a tendency to do -- a billing mixup wound up with Verizon charging him consistently twice the amount that was agreed to. While they've issued a refund, Verizon now seems like they're waffling on the agreement moving forward, and the article explores whether Streed will have any luck getting the massive operator to adhere to a non-routine customer created contract.

Back in June, Sprint, Covad, T-Mobile, Clearwire and several other smaller carriers and consumer groups joined forces to create something known as the No Choke Points Coalition. Collectively, the group has been arguing that AT&T and Verizon have abused their dominant position as gatekeepers of massive backhaul and core networks, imposing unreasonable special access charges on smaller operators requiring cross connectivity. The age-old debate over these charges has heated up lately with discussions over whether special access reform should be included in the broadband stimulus plan. In a win for the group, the FCC yesterday announced they'd be taking a look at special access pricing.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has announced that his office has reached an agreement with Frontier Communications, who'll have to pay consumers $50,000 for failing to properly inform them about early termination fees (ETFs). In a statement, the AG says they've been investigating the telco since early 2009 after fielding consumer complaints.

One person's collapsing telecom empire is another person's expansion opportunity. According to the New York Post, some "big name players" are watching Fairpoint Communication's flirtations with bankruptcy with great interest. Citing a "source with direct knowledge of the process," the Post says Windstream Communications may be buying up debt with an eye on acquiring the company's assets. Fairpoint CEO David Hauser last week talked rather casually about the very real possibility for a Fairpoint bankruptcy, after the company continues to struggle with the debt acquired from Verizon. Windstream meanwhile announced last week they'd be laying off 3% of their workforce to offset continued landline losses.

According to an announcement by DSL provider Windstream Communications (see our user reviews here), the company will be laying off roughly 5% of their workforce (350 out of 7,100 jobs) in order to "offset revenue pressure in the residential voice business." In other words Windstream, like larger telco Verizon, is making cuts to help counter the continuing death of the copper landline. The company, originally spun off from Alltel Communications (now part of Verizon), passed the one million broadband subscriber mark last Spring.

Earlier this month we noted how Fairpoint Communications would miss most of their New England broadband expansion goals as the carrier continues to deal with fleeing customers and a high debt load. Over the weekend Fairpoint CEO David Hauser talked with the New Hampshire Union Leader.

If you've paid attention, you know the modern "network neutrality" debate took off in 2005, when then AT&T CEO Ed Whitacre proudly, though dumbly, proclaimed that Google got a "free ride" on his network. According to Ed, this unfairness could only be rectified by charging companies who already pay for bandwidth money to ensure their traffic reaches AT&T consumers quickly.

Saul Hansell over at the New York Times has picked up that paper's telecom beat, and offers an interesting piece from a recent Goldman Sachs investors conference. While AT&T Boss Randall Stephenson and Qwest boss Ed Mueller are keeping their heads buried in the sand telling investors that the landline defections will eventually stop, Verizon boss Ivan Seidenberg has basically admitted the obvious: the landline, as we know it, is dead.

Back in May, Verizon announced that they'd be selling a laundry list of rural DSL markets in a deal worth around $8.5 billion. The deal, if approved, would infuse Frontier (which currently has 2.3 million customers) with 4.8 million new residential and small-business phone lines across 14 states, 1 million broadband connections, and 11,000 former Verizon employees.