UVERSE Stops Rolling Out

[Scott Greczkowski]

AT&T: The U-Verse Build is Over

Like FiOS, If You Didn't Get it Already, You Probably Won't


In May of last year AT&T confirmed that at the end of 2011 they'd effectively be stopping their deployment of U-Verse upgrades, with 30 million homes passed (not necessarily served), leaving about 40-45% of their footprint on older, slower technologies. On their recent earnings call AT&T again confirmed that the U-Verse build is "largely complete," and the focus now is on ramping up adoption in deployed areas. As we recently noted, Verizon has also frozen any additional FiOS expansion outside of large city franchise agreements, leaving roughly 40% of their customers without upgrades.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson, who last year insisted that DSL was "obsolete" (a problem since that's all AT&T offers) also touched on the plight of the rural user during the recent call. In short, AT&T claims that despite consistent, healthly profits and recently having started charging data overages, they just can't find a financially appealing way to upgrade millions of users, and won't anytime soon:

Read the rest at AT&T: The U-Verse Build is Over - Like FiOS, If You Didn't Get it Already, You Probably Won't | DSLReports.com, ISP Information

 

[Juan]

monkey see monkey doo..stay tuned for wi-fios and wi-uverse (LTE versions of both services) ........................

 

[isaacmorseMI]

monkey see monkey doo..stay tuned for wi-fios and wi-uverse (LTE versions of both services) ........................

LTE can't match a fiber service yet, especially if they want to keep the great PQ, speed, and ping. But I could see AT&T doing an LTE based U-Verse since that uses much less bandwidth than FiOS does.

 

[dan188]

id love to have fiber internet speeds of 50mbs but at leas I get 15 mbs. at least cable is still upgrading areas to faster speeds

 

[Teehar]

I really don't like AT&T!

 

[navychop]

There's got to be more coming on these stories. They must see some technology and other changes coming. I still think Fios will start up again after the economy improves. Glad I got it. Maybe it will boost my homes value.

 

[cypherstream]

LTE can't match a fiber service yet, especially if they want to keep the great PQ, speed, and ping. But I could see AT&T doing an LTE based U-Verse since that uses much less bandwidth than FiOS does.

What if they use like a switched digital video multicast. If 10 people on your tower are all watching ESPN, join the same stream rather than sending out 10 copies of ESPN at 10 times the bandwidth...

 

[Juan]

LTE can't match a fiber service yet, especially if they want to keep the great PQ, speed, and ping. But I could see AT&T doing an LTE based U-Verse since that uses much less bandwidth than FiOS does.

thats not what Lowell McAdams believes..LTE will be for rural ares

 

[Juan]

There's got to be more coming on these stories. They must see some technology and other changes coming. I still think Fios will start up again after the economy improves. Glad I got it. Maybe it will boost my homes value.

nope..They laid off the installers

 

[StevenD]

LTE can't match a fiber service yet, especially if they want to keep the great PQ, speed, and ping. But I could see AT&T doing an LTE based U-Verse since that uses much less bandwidth than FiOS does.

I disagree. I didn't take a screenshot at the time, but I once got 47Mb down and 28Mb down.

 

[StevenD]

LTE can't match a fiber service yet, especially if they want to keep the great PQ, speed, and ping. But I could see AT&T doing an LTE based U-Verse since that uses much less bandwidth than FiOS does.

I disagree. I didn't take a screenshot at the time, but I once got 47Mb down and 28Mb down.

 

[mike123abc]

I think it is really DOSIS 3.0 that has killed both FIOS and Uverse. Yes FIOS could outperform anything cable does, but VZ does not want to provide the service. Uverse will never be able to match cable unless AT&T sinks in a lot of serious cash. What story does Uverse have now? You are limited on HD streams, your internet connection may have been considered fast 5 years ago, but now cable has a faster internet portion alone than Uverse can manage for the entire service. Whole home DVR? Now cable is offering the same. Uverse is a dead technology.

I still do not buy the whole LTE will replace everything in rural areas. Not at $10/GB. All the rural areas around me are running pretty nicely on wifi. They stick directional wifi antennas over towers and people have "dishes" on the roof that seem to point down. They get unlimited service starting at $40/month.

 

[StevenD]

I still do not buy the whole LTE will replace everything in rural areas. Not at $10/GB. All the rural areas around me are running pretty nicely on wifi. They stick directional wifi antennas over towers and people have "dishes" on the roof that seem to point down. They get unlimited service starting at $40/month.

They charge $10/GB because they can, not because that's what it costs them. I honestly don't know what it costs, but deploying LTE to rural areas has certainly got to be cheaper than running cables everywhere.

Wichita Falls is pretty flat, so WiFi might work great there. West of Fort Worth, the WiFi providers coverage is pretty spotty. My MIL lives in Azle and she tried to get service from a WiFi provider and couldn't get line of sight. We got her an LTE hotspot and she is happy as can be.

And this is a rather broad generalization, but folks who tend to live in more rural areas, probably aren't going to burn through as much bandwidth as the folks in suburbia, so a limited LTE plan might work out OK for them.

 

[Stargazer]

DOSIS 3.0 has taken over around here as both cable companies in this area is the dominating force for broadband. Frontier brought DSL in here last year which was a godsend and thank goodness that they offered 5-6 MB. Now a small cable company (although they been expanding and celebrating 35 year anniversary this year) has just announced that they are going from 15 MB to 50 MB internet as the largest broadband package and they ran new fiber and coax in my area with a node close within sight. Would that be them upgrading from DOSIS 2.0 to DOSIS 3.0? They are running this service to rural areas that serve less than a thousand people so the price must have dropped quite a bit on this technology along with fiber costs. Unfortunately the upload speeds are only going to be 2 MB.

 

[Juan]

I think it is really DOSIS 3.0 that has killed both FIOS and Uverse. Yes FIOS could outperform anything cable does, but VZ does not want to provide the service. Uverse will never be able to match cable unless AT&T sinks in a lot of serious cash. What story does Uverse have now? You are limited on HD streams, your internet connection may have been considered fast 5 years ago, but now cable has a faster internet portion alone than Uverse can manage for the entire service. Whole home DVR? Now cable is offering the same. Uverse is a dead technology.

I still do not buy the whole LTE will replace everything in rural areas. Not at $10/GB. All the rural areas around me are running pretty nicely on wifi. They stick directional wifi antennas over towers and people have "dishes" on the roof that seem to point down. They get unlimited service starting at $40/month.

Actually its non-union vs union that killed fios but thats a inappropriate story for this forum

 

[riffjim4069]

I disagree. I didn't take a screenshot at the time, but I once got 47Mb down and 28Mb down.

View attachment 74039

My neighbor (Verizon Exec) was getting 100Mb down/30Mb up using FiOS back in 2008. Verizon has already proven download speds nearing 1Gb using the existing infrustruture. Of course, Verizon isn't about to give away these speeds away until their business model supports it...and they certainly have no incentive to give-away bandwidth. If cable were providing customers with a 100Mb/30Mb base package, Verizon would most likely provide 200Mb/50Mb for the same price. So no, a one-time burst of 47Mb using a new LTE service, with few other subscribers, vice dedicated 100Mb+ does not equate to LTE matching fiber speed.

Verizon Successfully Field Tests FiOS Speeds Around 1GB Per Second - Technorati Technology

 

[rocket69]

About time ATT did the consumer a favor.

DSL2 Should have never been used this way. As an ISP it was DOA when it arrived 28mbs max ? Cable around us is 120-140 max with normal speeds of 85-100 for $10 less then uvers internet only.

 

[Foxbat]

Uverse never made it to my neighborhood, and now it seems it never will. We have a Metronet organization in our city, but I'd need to find 10-20 neighbors to help defray the monthly $1,000/Gbps connect fee (or, $1/Mbps). Xfinity doesn't appeal to me as I have dealt with Kabletown before.

 

[StevenD]

My neighbor (Verizon Exec) was getting 100Mb down/30Mb up using FiOS back in 2008. Verizon has already proven download speds nearing 1Gb using the existing infrustruture. Of course, Verizon isn't about to give away these speeds away until their business model supports it...and they certainly have no incentive to give-away bandwidth. If cable were providing customers with a 100Mb/30Mb base package, Verizon would most likely provide 200Mb/50Mb for the same price. So no, a one-time burst of 47Mb using a new LTE service, with few other subscribers, vice dedicated 100Mb+ does not equate to LTE matching fiber speed.

Verizon Successfully Field Tests FiOS Speeds Around 1GB Per Second - Technorati Technology

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98% of households probably dont need 100Mb internet. I have 35/35 FiOS and i host several servers, (including exchange), usenet, torrents, streaming video...all at the same time. i have never saturated my line.

 

[mike123abc]

Actually its non-union vs union that killed fios but thats a inappropriate story for this forum

True in some ways, but the real money is that it costs them about $1500 per home passed to wire in FIOS. The cable company already paid to go by the homes many years ago, and a DOSIS 3.0 upgrade from 2.0 is said to be in the neighborhood of $125 per household. It costs VZ a fortune to wire an area where the competitor can pay a minimal amount to upgrade enough to provide similar service. If there was a demand lets say for 100mbit up and down internet VZ would have a different business model. But, I would speculate few households pay to go much beyond 20mbit/sec, something cable can do and squeeze the competition.