AT&T West → ATT Fiber Optic San Jose

A guy just came to our door telling us that they have run fiber optic and would like to know if we would like to have this hooked up. I currently have phone and dsl through att and asked if there is any additional cost. He said no its part of the cost.

Does anyone know if fiber optic is actually being run in san jose. Is this guy a joke, what is this all about? I havn't heard anything regarding this. Please let me know

Tom

Did he give you flyer's, anything???

Where was he from?

He is from ATT supposedly. He is going to come back as we were just about to eat. I'll try to find out more but with the major wires running across my back fence I havn't seen any work going on.

I am just wondering if this is some sort of sales ploy.

what zip code in san jose?

Fiber, yes. Fiber to the node. It's Ewe-Verse. Not fiber to the home.

What does that mean to a newbie? Good stuff to the pole crap from pole to the house and inside? I am in zip 95118

Fiber goes all the way to a neighborhood 'node'. Then its the same old copper phone wire to your home. Kind of amazing, but limited capacity, both in video and Internet. It's no FIOS or even cable.

Sometimes they oversell and find out you are too far from the node and switch you to a hybrid mash-up of DSL and Satellite.

Ok not sure I understand all of that but he told me that I would be charged less for my dsl and get a faster speed. Is that BS? Plus he said that the hook up is vial coaxil cable nothing to do with phone lines. Am I missing something?

Probably. You can start by checking the AT&T UVerse forum.

Fiber To The Node (FTTN) is the system being deployed in San Jose. The install an electrically powered box, called a VRAD (Video Ready Access Device) adjacent to the cross-connect (B-Box). Fiber is run to the VRAD, but the run from the VRAD to the premises is the same copper used for voice.

I believe that they use VDSL. And, if you are not already on the Elite plan, yes, Internet will be faster. VDSL can support up to 25Mbps from the VRAD to the premises over copper (with 3,128 feet); but AT&T is reserving 19mbps of that for IPTV. So 6Mbps is as fast as Internet gets with UVerse.

Although they installed a VRAD nearby, they have not been by to drum up business, and I don't show up in their database as qualified. I suspect that I am closer to 3,156 feet from the VRAD, and, thus, beyond their current UVerse reach.

I have found out more on this forum than I have _all day_ trying to get through to ATT (no exaggeration-8 different 800 numbers, several websites-all unhelpful). I am in Altadena, CA, but it looks to be the same deal. No one seems to have all the info, however, so you are stuck trying to make a decision with incomplete info (e.g. what happens with current non-ATT pop3 accounts? what about home networking? what are the real speeds? what are the real costs? can one get internet only-no tv, or internet and phone service? and so on). I will follow the link to uverse, but this is the tv service I think.

Which "non-ATT" POP3 accounts are you speaking of? I expect that UVerse Internet is the same as DSL Internet on the TCP/IP side of things. If you mean your 'aol.com', 'gmail.com', 'hotmail.com', etc. accounts nothing will change. If you mean your 'pacbell.net', 'sbcglobal.net', 'swbell.net', etc. accounts, I have seen it posted that you have the option to activate a UVerse Internet account with an existing legacy domain.Why would that change? You would just slip a router in the Ethernet chain between the UVerse Internet CPE and the computer.Do you mean without the PPP overhead?I haven't tried to read the plans/prices on the site. I expect that they are on the site, though.I have seen no indication that there will be "Internet only" UVerse, just an Internet/TV package. I was told that VOIP is not a part of the package, as yet, so if you have POTS over copper, you need to keep that.

I have Earthlink now, and just need some time to switch over if I get new pop3 names. I think ATT will do that for me. Networking looks like it will work out also-but some companies make you pay big-time if they have to help you set it up (I'll do it myself, but this CAN be an issue). As to speed, I get around 2.3MBs in on-line tests while I am rated at 3.0 with Earthlink. Of course real-world speeds vary, but with dsl there is not as much variation as cable (I assume in this regard fiber will be more like dsl?). Finally, a neighbor just told me she rejected the tv part of the offer and will get internet fiber only for around $40 ($45 after taxes and fees?) a month for 6.0MBs. I would go for that (and go back to ATT for phone as well, sine Earthlink phone and dsl are bundled), but will wait for her to tell me how it turns out.