AT&T Launching New 24 Mbps U-Verse Tier > Consider yourself Lucky

Consider yourself Lucky

Don't feel too alone. My parents live outside of Birmingham, in a fast growing residential area. They are in that situation, despite the fact a lot of the homes close around them can get DSL. The phone lines in their immediate neighborhood, possibly 50 - 100 lines, are provisioned off of subscriber loop carriers (SLCs) and they still don't have a DSLAM to service them and their immediate neighbors. Its funny, they have built a bunch of new houses in the area near them, but AT&T has not made a move to service them. The cable company that serves the Birmingham area at large is Charter. I guess they have spent so much time being bankrupt that they haven't expanded their footprint into some newer neighborhoods in several years, so they are no help or option. There are some new subdivisions in my parents area with 200+ homes that still can't get cable. I guess my point is this: don't feel too alone. My aunt who lives near my parents has an AT&T air card, and others are stuck with Hughes Net. It just amazed me at the hop scotch availability in a fast growing, wealthy Birmingham suburban county (Shelby County). I have heard that AT&T asked one of my parents nighbors for a right of way for equipment, maybe that is a sign for them.

Depending on the type of SLC (96 or 96series5) DSL can be offered straight out of the channel bank, via Catena. If it's SLC96 they're out of luck.

In SLC5 they replace a card, I believe the CTU, with a Catena controller. If it's DS1 fed they can offer up to 48 subscribers DSL. If it's DS3 fed, which would require fiber in the first place, the entire channel bank can get DSL (both blue and white sides).

This is a very common scenario in Florida, in the hard to reach areas.

Thanks for the info. I didn't realize they could provision DSL from the channel bank, I though for sure a separate DSLAM had to be in place. Their SLC hardware is old, hasn't been replaced since the 70s from the looks of it! I think they are fed by a DS1. However, some of the other SLCs in the area have been completely replaced in the last few years. The old one across the street from my grandparents old house (3 miles from my parents) was moved across the street and now fed with fiber. AT&T now offers DSL for that area and even has a VRAD in place for U-verse. I hold some hope for them since AT&T has spent money in the area and asked for new right of way for "hardware" from a neighbor. It just seems that their little corner area of homes had fallen by the wayside.