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AT&T Fiber to the Press Release Hits Charlotte

AT&T has been on a bit of a tear the last week or so, announcing that they're deploying their faster 1 Gbps "Gigapower" service to customers in Dallas, Nashville and San Antonio. Now AT&T is announcing that Charlotte too will be getting the faster service:

quote:
AT&T today confirmed it will expand its ultra-fast AT&T GigaPower network to the City of Charlotte. The all-fiber network will provide services featuring symmetrical upload and download broadband speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second, and AT&T's most advanced TV services to consumers and businesses. AT&T is deploying additional fiber and electronics to the existing network in Charlotte to meet the growing demand for ultra-fast broadband. The network enhancements will enable customers to have access to AT&T's fastest Internet speeds available to consumers.
All of the announcements promise customers 1 Gbps, but none offer specific details about how many customers will see the upgrades, when, and at what price. "Specific locations of availability and pricing for the Charlotte market will be announced at a later date," is all AT&T has to say in that regard.

That's because, as I've discussed in great detail, AT&T's "Gigapower" effort is more public relations than actual broadband deployment. AT&T has publicly proclaimed they're deploying the service to up to 100 cities, at the same time they're telling investors the effort will cost the company little to nothing. How? AT&T's simply offering 1 Gbps to very select high-end developments (usually where fiber is already in the ground), then pretending it's a much larger offering in order to counter Google Fiber buzz.

If you're an AT&T customer holding your breath in anticipation of getting 1 Gbps anytime soon, I'd advise you to find something healthier to do.
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PhoenixDown
FIOS is Awesome
Premium Member
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY

PhoenixDown

Premium Member

The tech behind the 1 Gbps?

How is ATT providing 1 Gbps behind the scenes? I believe they are mostly using fiber to remote terminals where the last segment is delivered via copper pairs for current uverse customers.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Re: The tech behind the 1 Gbps?

said by PhoenixDown:

How is ATT providing 1 Gbps behind the scenes? I believe they are mostly using fiber to remote terminals where the last segment is delivered via copper pairs for current uverse customers.

For speeds up to 45 Mbps, they are using FTTN with ADSL/ADSL2/VDSL/VDSL2 over copper twisted-pair lines to the home.

For their "GigaPower" service, they use FTTH, currently at a 300/300 Mbps rate, to be upgraded later on to 1 Gbps.

See: »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT ··· _U-verse

LTDUNN86
@206.135.75.x

LTDUNN86

Anon

Re: The tech behind the 1 Gbps?

So basically they are advertising 1Gbps service that only runs at 300Mbps. This is all a pr stunt simple as that. They need to focus on upgrading old dsl customers and expanding the service all together before worrying about faster speed tiers!

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

1 edit

maartena

Premium Member

Re: The tech behind the 1 Gbps?

said by LTDUNN86 :

So basically they are advertising 1Gbps service that only runs at 300Mbps. This is all a pr stunt simple as that. They need to focus on upgrading old dsl customers and expanding the service all together before worrying about faster speed tiers!

No, they are using a BRANDNAME called "Gigapower". They are not advertising speeds of 1 Gbps, they are advertising speeds of 300 Mbps, with a future upgrade to 1 Gbps. Key word is of course "up to 1 Gbps".

Think of it as CheezWhiz. The name makes you THINK you get something with Cheese in it. In reality, you get GMO-corn-infused chemical crap that tastes sorta like cheese.

As far as old DSL customers go, there is a reason they haven't upgraded those to U-verse, and that is because the investment of U-Verse is greater then the potential reward. They have to make a profit, and if there is 200 DSL customers in a town of 3000, with 800 customers being on cable or something, (counting an average of 3 people per home), it may simply not be worth it to upgrade that town to U-Verse.

In some cities (Irvine, CA comes to mind) the local HOA's are so powerful they own all the land outside the paved roads, the neighborhoods are completely planned and manicured, with perfectly cut grass, and AT&T is simply not allowed to place U-Verse VRADs. San Francisco is a whole city like that, because in large sections of SF the sidewalks are not very wide, and VRAD's would block foot traffic and/or would need to be in people's yards, and the city just says no. Fiber probably does not have the VRAD requirement (FIOS only has small pole mounted cases for instance, I would imagine Gigapower is based on very similar technology) so they can more easily install in cities like the ones named above.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: The tech behind the 1 Gbps?

What's running behind the scenes? Is it a 32:1 GPON split? That's OK for gig, but then what's running upstream of the VRAD? How many GPON lines are multiplexed into a 10-gig line? Or is there more backhaul?
biochemistry
Premium Member
join:2003-05-09
92361

1 recommendation

biochemistry

Premium Member

Press Release

Maybe if they were more than just press releases, Verizon would consider some expansions as well. I haven't heard any realistic mention of FiOS customers getting 1 Gbps other than what Karl considered a "hint" from McWireless. Of course, if you mainly use FiOS for Netflix, that still won't help you.
etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

1 recommendation

etaadmin

Member

Want to increase your chances

of at&t installing fiber in your home? Switch to cable DOCSIS3.0 offerings, right now Comcast and TWC offer much faster internet speeds than at&t's FTTN uverse.

When they start bleeding subscribers that will force their hand and accelerate FTTH deployments.
jm101
join:2011-07-17
Oakland, CA
ARRIS BGW210-700
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-PRO

jm101

Member

Re: Want to increase your chances

said by etaadmin:

of at&t installing fiber in your home? Switch to cable DOCSIS3.0 offerings, right now Comcast and TWC offer much faster internet speeds than at&t's FTTN uverse.

When they start bleeding subscribers that will force their hand and accelerate FTTH deployments.

I wonder if Cable Internet prices will go down quite a bit once U-verse FTTH becomes more widespread.

Maybe DOCSIS 3.1 will help.
etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

etaadmin

Member

Re: Want to increase your chances

said by jm101:

I wonder if Cable Internet prices will go down quite a bit once U-verse FTTH becomes more widespread.

Maybe DOCSIS 3.1 will help.

If and if gigapower is deployed in significant numbers cable companies will have the advantage of competing in price for the same speeds1. I don't see at&t digging and replacing copper in 'old' subdivisions.

Gigapower will come to subdivisions already wired with fiber nothing else.

Note 1. »www.latimes.com/entertai ··· ory.html
jm101
join:2011-07-17
Oakland, CA
ARRIS BGW210-700
Ubiquiti UDM-Pro
Ubiquiti UniFi UAP-AC-PRO

jm101

Member

Re: Want to increase your chances

said by etaadmin:

said by jm101:

I wonder if Cable Internet prices will go down quite a bit once U-verse FTTH becomes more widespread.

Maybe DOCSIS 3.1 will help.

If and if gigapower is deployed in significant numbers cable companies will have the advantage of competing in price for the same speeds1. I don't see at&t digging and replacing copper in 'old' subdivisions.

Gigapower will come to subdivisions already wired with fiber nothing else.

Note 1. »www.latimes.com/entertai ··· ory.html

I don't see that happening as well.

catchingup
@135.23.225.x

catchingup to jm101

Anon

to jm101
said by jm101:

Maybe DOCSIS 3.1 will help.

DOCSIS 3.1 is still 2-3 years away and for a lot of people it'll be longer than that.
Kearnstd
Space Elf
Premium Member
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ

1 recommendation

Kearnstd

Premium Member

Re: Want to increase your chances

However DOCSIS 3.0 already puts cable lightyears ahead of what U-Verse can ever do thanks to U-Verse sticking with antiquated DSL based technology.

But more importantly is the switch to new DOCSIS versions is easier for a cable company than what is needed for telco to keep pace. Cable companies in theory are on good standing too for FTTH in the future, Most neighborhoods already have fiber trunks for the nodes.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080 to etaadmin

Member

to etaadmin
Losing customers or "CHURN" as the industry puts it.. did NOTHING to change AT&T's mind on the last mile. What IS making a difference is Google fiber, and yes... with that comes some cracks in the fascade of the overturning of laws passed at the state & local level which protected these monopoly companies from doing anything they didn't want to do... which is either A. BUILD A NETWORK or B. COMPETE on services and price. Also, the terms upon which anybody else would were so disadvantageous as to make them meaningless. That is until it became economically viable for people to pick up and MOVE to places which have the broadband infrastructure.. and a higher quality of services offered. This is what is changing the calculus of companies such as ATT, blatent fincancial self interest/preservation. It will take somewhat longer for Verizon to get there, since they ALREADY have the crown jewels of the US geography (call it broadway & park place of the telecom geographies). Until these governments consider walking to the edge of the plank on this, Verizon will continue to call their bluff.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Latest GigaPower Service Map

Click for full size
AT&T GigaPower Service Map
Here is the latest GigaPower Service Map from: »www.att.com/att/gigapowercities/
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

Re: Latest GigaPower Service Map

Key word to note in that map? "May".

maartena
Elmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA

maartena

Premium Member

Re: Latest GigaPower Service Map

said by ke4pym:

Key word to note in that map? "May".

You do have to understand that from an official, legal point of view, they do have to secure permission from the city to start putting fiber cables on poles to peoples houses. They will have to get permits and whatnot. And although this is really just a formality (although in some cases U-Verse VRAD's have been refused by cities, such as San Francisco), they will have to say "may", simply because the permission may not be granted for some reason.
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

Re: Latest GigaPower Service Map

said by maartena:

said by ke4pym:

Key word to note in that map? "May".

You do have to understand that from an official, legal point of view, they do have to secure permission from the city to start putting fiber cables on poles to peoples houses. They will have to get permits and whatnot. And although this is really just a formality (although in some cases U-Verse VRAD's have been refused by cities, such as San Francisco), they will have to say "may", simply because the permission may not be granted for some reason.

That, they certainly do. But until they tell their investors that it is going to cost money, this is a dead horse.

n2jtx
join:2001-01-13
Glen Head, NY

n2jtx

Member

AT&T's FiOS?

So is this FTTH rollout, which is what they should have done in the first place, equivalent to Verizon's now stalled FiOS project? I have FiOS available at my home address but there is no price advantage whatsoever and I would lose access to the CableWiFi nodes that are everywhere. Appparently even home routers are now broadcasting that SSID as I am finding service available in many neighborhoods.

battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000

1 recommendation

battleop

Member

So let me get this straight....

For years you beat up on AT&T for not deploying fiber. Then when they start to make the move to deploy fiber you still beat up on them. I'm a little confused here. Just what exactly would make Karl happy? 100Gb SONET to every home in the next 6 months for just $2.99/mo with a free Cisco ASR 1006 plus enough servers to use 99% of that 100GB 24/7/365?
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

1 recommendation

ke4pym

Premium Member

Re: So let me get this straight....

said by battleop:

For years you beat up on AT&T for not deploying fiber. Then when they start to make the move to deploy fiber you still beat up on them. I'm a little confused here. Just what exactly would make Karl happy? 100Gb SONET to every home in the next 6 months for just $2.99/mo with a free Cisco ASR 1006 plus enough servers to use 99% of that 100GB 24/7/365?

Not to put words in Karl's keyboard, but I would suspect he'd "beat them up" a little less if they, you know, actually did something.

You can't roll out fiber to all of these cities and not expect to hit your CAPEX. And Unicorn farts won't install all the technology required to make this actually happen.

catchingup
@135.23.225.x

catchingup

Anon

Re: So let me get this straight....

said by ke4pym:

And Unicorn farts won't install all the technology required to make this actually happen.

But don't you know being promised unicorn farts is good enough? Companies actually doing what they say they're going to do? You're super crazy expecting that.
etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

etaadmin to battleop

Member

to battleop
said by battleop:

Just what exactly would make Karl happy?

I don't know what makes Karl happy but for the rest of us it would be nice to see gigapower built in our neighborhoods. Just deploy the darn thing and brag about it after the fact.

In America talk is cheap.

catchingup
@135.23.225.x

catchingup

Anon

Re: So let me get this straight....

said by etaadmin:

In America talk is cheap.

Which is why it's not surprising America does a whole lot of talking and not much else.

Curmugeon
@108.213.76.x

Curmugeon

Anon

Re: So let me get this straight....

Talk is cheap, and outright lies are a revenue source.

caseywor
join:2004-04-19
Mobile, AL
·Verizon Broadban..
·AT&T FTTP

caseywor to battleop

Member

to battleop
Exactly!
said by battleop:

For years you beat up on AT&T for not deploying fiber. Then when they start to make the move to deploy fiber you still beat up on them. I'm a little confused here. Just what exactly would make Karl happy? 100Gb SONET to every home in the next 6 months for just $2.99/mo with a free Cisco ASR 1006 plus enough servers to use 99% of that 100GB 24/7/365?


djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx to battleop

Premium Member

to battleop
I don't know about Karl, but what would make me happy is some evidence of AT&T rolling out new GigaPower/FTTH service to homes other than newer "greenfield" developments that were built with FTTH from the ground up.

When TWC announced 300mbps Maxx service to Los Angeles, the reports of people getting upgraded indicate that they meant entirety of Los Angeles County area and surrounding counties. A massive area. We continue to get steady reports of these upgrades actually happening, too. They seem to be on track to meet their promise of having it completed by year end.

** Initial availability limited to select areas. Expanding availability in 2014 and beyond.

These GigaPower press releases remind me of when AT&T and Verizon announced that Los Angeles had LTE wireless service. Both of them announced availability in "Los Angeles" but it took years before Los Angeles County was actually covered. These press releases are meaningless if they don't go into detail about how much of the city they plan to provide service to.

catchingup
@135.23.225.x

catchingup to battleop

Anon

to battleop
said by battleop:

For years you beat up on AT&T for not deploying fiber. Then when they start to make the move to deploy fiber you still beat up on them.

It is pretty simple. Actually doing what they say they are going to do and showing the results, not just issuing press releases to make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Merlin37
join:2012-06-08
Dallas, TX

Merlin37 to battleop

Member

to battleop
said by battleop:

For years you beat up on AT&T for not deploying fiber. Then when they start to make the move to deploy fiber you still beat up on them. I'm a little confused here. Just what exactly would make Karl happy? 100Gb SONET to every home in the next 6 months for just $2.99/mo with a free Cisco ASR 1006 plus enough servers to use 99% of that 100GB 24/7/365?

$2.99 is too high, $0.99 makes more sense.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

1 recommendation

tshirt

Premium Member

Overbuilt...

...Charlotte obviously has far TOO MUCH broadband to the press release with both Google and AT&T pretending they MAY deploy SOMETHING SOMEDAY.
I would imagine that the residents are drafting their own press release, pretending to be overjoy at the imaginary rollouts that don't require digging up streets and lawns, trimming trees, or paying for services not rendered.
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

ke4pym

Premium Member

Re: Overbuilt...

said by tshirt:

...Charlotte obviously has far TOO MUCH broadband to the press release with both Google and AT&T pretending they MAY deploy SOMETHING SOMEDAY.
I would imagine that the residents are drafting their own press release, pretending to be overjoy at the imaginary rollouts that don't require digging up streets and lawns, trimming trees, or paying for services not rendered.

Oddly enough, we actaully do.

»www.charlotteheartsgigabit.com/
xthepeoplesx
join:2013-10-21

2 recommendations

xthepeoplesx

Member

Re: Overbuilt...

hahahah omg. Best reply ever.

••••
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks to tshirt

Member

to tshirt
They are holding their breath on Google Fiber.

Kuro
@75.151.50.x

Kuro

Anon

Another day

Another day another news story of AT&T announcing a city from a previous announcement. Maybe because I am not an ad man but I can not fathom how this is getting them positive buzz or mind share more than Google Fiber and its announcement for possible city expansions.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: Another day

It's more of a buzz since it will be done in light years ahead of GF.

catchingup
@135.23.225.x

catchingup

Anon

Re: Another day

said by ITGeeks:

It's more of a buzz since it will be done in light years ahead of GF.

Light years ahead in crazy crazy land.

JP in NC
@74.122.16.x

JP in NC

Anon

Charlotte to Get Super Fast Internet from AT&T

Would be nice if AT&T or Charter would provide ANY internet to my neighborhood. Only live 45 miles from Charlotte and 10 miles from Hickory, NC. The Verizon Wireless USB modem internet is getting old !!
Albert71292
join:2004-10-31
West Monroe, LA

Albert71292

Member

Seeing Fiber Run Here

I've seen AT&T running fiber all over West Monroe,LA the past couple of months, but unfortunately I've been informed it's only going to be offered to public offices, libraries, and businesses... NOT residential. Guess I'll be stuck with this 6Mbps DSL for the foreseeable future.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Re: Seeing Fiber Run Here

said by Albert71292:

I've seen AT&T running fiber all over West Monroe, LA the past couple of months, but unfortunately I've been informed it's only going to be offered to public offices, libraries, and businesses... NOT residential.

Well maybe if you're a Robertson!
Chaldo
join:2008-03-18
West Bloomfield, MI

Chaldo

Member

Expand in Toledo, OH

Need that there, all the providers there's no good internet speeds at all there, and most of the town uses AT&T!!
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: Expand in Toledo, OH

TOL has actual providers that offer speeds well above ATT and what BEX offers. And half of TOL uses AT&T due to BEX capping their usage, and telling customers that they refuse to resign content contracts due to rate hikes- and then turn around and raise prices without the channels even being on the lineup.

tigerpaw509
join:2011-01-19

tigerpaw509

Member

Simple

Order a direct fiber and choose any speed you want,completely different than FTTP.Available everywhere here in Chicago land.
ITGeeks
join:2014-04-20
Cleveland, OH

ITGeeks

Member

Re: Simple

Available across the US from any provider.

catchingup
@135.23.225.x

catchingup

Anon

Re: Simple

said by ITGeeks:

Available across the US from any provider.

I can't help but laugh at the ridiculous crap you post. It is pathetic.