Showing posts with label DSL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DSL. Show all posts

Sunday, February 25, 2024

AT&T’s two pronged fiber build out strategy

AT&T appears to be pursuing a two pronged strategy to build out fiber to the premises (FTTP) delivery infrastructure. The first is targeting densely built up metro areas with its Gigapower joint venture with BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Fund. The second using subsidies extended to the states from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s (IIJA) Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program to build FTTP infrastructure in less densely developed areas that meet the program’s funding eligibility requirements.

Last fall, AT&T urged states to award the BEAD subsidies for contiguous builds that qualify as unserved (where at least 80 percent of serviceable addresses in the project are not offered throughput of 25/3 Mbps or better) and underserved (where at least 80 percent of serviceable addresses are not offered throughput of 100/20 Mbps or better). However, under BEAD, states must first exhaust their funding allocations on subsidies for projects addressing unserved locations.

As noted in the above linked blog post, AT&T’s BEAD funding appears predicated on the two generations of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology that runs over its legacy copper voice telephone delivery infrastructure. The first, ADSL, will in many less densely developed areas qualify as unserved since it typically provides bandwidth lower than 25/3 Mbps. However, these areas are often adjacent to those served by its second generation VDSL technology. Those areas won’t qualify as unserved but could likely qualify as underserved.

Federal and state officials overseeing the award of BEAD funds will likely come under pressure from AT&T to liberally interpret the program rules to allow subsidization of contiguous FTTP projects spanning areas including both types of DSL technology. Expect AT&T to argue that this will provide the most efficient use of the funds and cover the greatest number of serviceable locations as well as meeting the BEAD program's preference for FTTP.

Thursday, November 09, 2023

California proposes to regard areas served by DSL and FWA as potentially eligible for BEAD subgrants

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has developed a framework to guide eligibility for the state’s $1.86 billion allocation under the federal government’s Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The framework would regard areas served by DSL and fixed wireless service as potentially eligible for BEAD subgrants. The framework is part of a proposed rulemaking issued November 7.

Under BEAD and its authorizing legislation, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the primary scope of proposed projects eligible for state subgrants is where at least 80 percent of serviceable addresses are not offered service with throughput greater than 25Mbs for downloads and 3Mbps for uploads at latency of less than 100ms, designated “unserved.” Those where at least 80 percent are not offered 100Mbps/20Mbps are deemed “underserved.” 

“The CPUC will treat locations that the National Broadband Map shows to have available qualifying broadband service (i.e., a location that is “served”) delivered via DSL as ‘underserved.’" The CPUC's proposed framework is consistent with BEAD program guidance that acknowledges that in some cases, DSL does not provide consistent access to advertised speeds. "To the extent a particular location is identified on the Broadband DATA Maps as served by DSL at speeds that warrant treatment of that location as 'served' or 'underserved' but is not in fact reliably served at such speeds, this would be a proper basis for challenging the relevant location’s service status during the challenge process created by the Eligible Entity," the guidance states.

The CPUC notes this "will better reflect the locations eligible for BEAD funding because it will facilitate the phase-out of legacy copper facilities and ensure the delivery of ‘future-proof’ broadband service, the proposed framework states. “This designation cannot be challenged or rebutted by the provider.”

Additionally, the CPUC will presume 5,829 locations the National Broadband Map shows “underserved” by DSL as “unserved” for reported speeds that are lower than 30/5, for which there is supporting evidence that speeds consistently deliver below 25/3 service. “Considering the low prospects of providers investing in maintenance of legacy copper plant, low speed DSL should be replaced as soon as feasible with more future-proof infrastructure. This modification will better reflect the locations eligible for BEAD funding because it will facilitate the phase-out of legacy copper facilities and ensure the delivery of ‘future-proof’ broadband service,” the CPUC concluded.

“Due to the possibility of California’s BEAD allocation being fully committed to deploying service to unserved locations, this modification will also ensure that locations served by low-speed DSL are not excluded from eligibility for this critical investment,” citing AT&T’s application for relief from its landline voice telephone service carrier of last resort obligation in rural areas of the Golden State under Title II of the federal Communications Act.

The proposed rulemaking would also regard 36,887 locations that the National Broadband Map shows as “underserved” delivered over Licensed Fixed Wireless (LFW) as “unserved” for reported speeds that are lower than or equal to 30/5 Mbps:

"As a technical matter, fixed wireless speeds fluctuate heavily,” the framework notes. “Given this, speeds that barely qualify as underserved will likely be below 25/3 service during peak usage times. This is especially true of older fixed wireless deployments that struggle to reach higher speeds and mitigate interference and line of sight issues. In fixed wireless networks, service performance can be affected by a customer’s proximity to a base station, the capacity of the cell site, the number of other users connected to the same cell site, the surrounding terrain, and radio frequency interference. Additionally, fixed wireless networks require a clear line-of-sight. Therefore, obstructions, such as trees, can block radio signals and impact the reliability of fixed wireless networks. Poor weather conditions, including rain, can affect the availability and quality of a customer’s fixed wireless service.”
Cellular fixed wireless will similarly undergo critical scrutiny when determining whether an area is deemed eligible as underserved:

“The CPUC has observed that some fixed wireless operators report 25/3 or 100/20 speeds on the National Broadband Map even where their networks frequently reach those speeds only under optimal circumstances and have not been replicated in other testing environments, such as the CPUC’s own CalSPEED process. User agreements for leading providers of cellular fixed wireless indicate that users will be deprioritized during periods of network congestion, decreasing the likelihood that service delivered to consumers will meet the claimed thresholds, especially in future years as network utilization increases.”

The CPUC explained its rationale as due to the possibility of California’s BEAD allocation being fully committed to deploying service to unserved locations. “This modification will also ensure that locations served by low-speed and unreliable cellular fixed wireless are not excluded from eligibility for this critical investment.”

The CPUC said it will treat locations that the National Broadband Map shows to be “underserved” or “served” as “unserved” if rigorous speed test methodologies show otherwise. “This modification will better reflect the locations eligible for BEAD funding because it will consider the actual speeds of locations, leveraging the extensive data collection already conducted by the CPUC and reducing the administrative burden on challengers, providers, and CPUC staff to process challenges for locations already successfully challenged using equivalent evidence to that required for BEAD challenges.”

Monday, September 18, 2023

Will Gigapower truly operate as open access network?

A cynical view of the investor owned open access fiber to the premises (FTTP) Gigapower build – AT&T’s joint venture with BlackRock – might hold that AT&T will end up as the sole service layer provider. AT&T will initially serve as the “anchor tenant” ISP riding on Gigapower glass.

That view is justified by the history of the unbundling of AT&T’s copper distribution network assets as well as those of other telephone companies mandated by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The Act required the telcos to providing access to ISPs to compete with its own services. Since these competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) were all selling the same thing – dialup access and later DSL over platforms like AOL, CompuServe and Netscape – it was difficult to for the CLECs to differentiate their service offerings from those of other ISPs and the incumbent telcos. That prompted a race to the bottom price war that AT&T and other telcos with their deep coffers would ultimately win, being able to hold out for the duration. In addition, a 2006 U.S. Court of Appeals decision held incumbent telcos were not obliged to provide CLECs access to fiber to the premises (FTTP) that was just beginning to replace the legacy copper in limited builds.

However, if AT&T were to monopolize Gigapower as the sole and not just the anchor tenant, the business model wouldn’t benefit from lease revenue paid by other ISPs leasing access to network assets Gigapower expects to defray capital and operating costs. But a cynical take there might be Gigapower will operate as a truly open access network for only the first seven to 10 years to help it finance capex and opex costs for fiber delivery infrastructure outside of its current service area that it couldn’t otherwise justify spending on its own. After which it would become exclusively AT&T’s with the Gigapower terminating and non renewing completing ISP service provider contracts.

Thursday, August 10, 2023

California, Vermont on the right path prioritizing FTTP

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) presented its draft 5-year plan to connect the state’s unserved with broadband using the $1.86 billion BEAD funding it received, and at the same time warned the total $4 billion available in state and federal funding won't be enough.

Critics of “the fiber-above all” approach have called the CPUC’s concerns “unsurprising.”

“The fiber lobby has done a great job of pitching itself as kind of the end-all, be-all, and it does have a lot of great case study for it. But there are other opportunities that can come along,” said the Wireless Internet Service Provider Association’s (WISPA) state advocacy manager for California, Steve Schwerbel.

Colorado BEAD plan is ‘agnostic’ to fiber versus fixed wireless

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) have been a valuable stopgap for widespread deficits in landline advanced telecommunications infrastructure, first coming on the scene about two decades ago when telephone companies instead of fiber deployed digital subscriber line (DSL) technology that couldn't reach many customer locations over their aging copper delivery infrastructure.

But federal policy should regard them as just that and not subsidize them going forward, particularly in any major federal infrastructure improvement initiative such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).

They grapple with a difficult business model in which they must purchase landline backhaul at high cost or use microwave. That forces them to offer service at high monthly rates in limited areas in order to profitably operate, hindering affordable access to even what the federal government deems basic access. They also face technical challenges of terrain and foliage growth that blocks wireless signals from reliably reaching end user premises, limiting their potential customer base and promoting churn off. And most importantly, limitations on bandwidth imposed by radio spectrum physics that does not allow them to feasibly accommodate growing bandwidth demand.

California and other states such as Vermont are demonstrating the correct, forward looking approach to set fiber to the premises (FTTP) as the standard for advanced telecommunications delivery infrastructure.

Thursday, June 22, 2023

AT&T apparently hoping for BEAD subsidies to replace DSL over copper with FTTP

AT&T is apparently hoping for BEAD subsidies to replace its legacy DSL services delivered over twisted pair copper with fiber to the premise (FTTP). States should take a flexible approach in subgranting the subsidies allocated by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program to afford “ISPs flexibility to identify project areas to include a mix of unserved and underserved locations will allow for the most efficient use of limited funds,” suggested Erin Scarborough, president, Broadband and Connectivity Initiatives in an April blog post. In a blog post this week, Scarborough stated that would allow providers to “identify project areas that combine unserved and underserved locations to enable the most effective and efficient deployments.” For AT&T, those would be locations served by legacy ADSL and VDSL, respectively.

That would comport with the BEAD program rules spelled out in the NTIA’s Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). It permits states to subgrant up to 75 percent of construction costs to builds “constituting a single unserved or underserved broadband-serviceable location, or a grouping of broadband-serviceable locations in which not less than 80 percent of broadband-serviceable locations served by the project are unserved locations or underserved locations.” The NOFO defines “unserved” locations as those not marketed connectivity with throughput of less than 25/3 Mbps and latency exceeding 100ms. “Underserved” locations are those not offered at least 100/20 Mbps. That would encompass premises served by AT&T’s legacy DSL offerings delivered over obsolete twisted pair copper initially designed to support voice telephone service.

Whether states will have sufficient BEAD funding to subgrant subsidies for underserved locations remains to be seen after the NTIA announces state allocations next week. The BEAD NOFO requires states to award subgrants “that ensures the deployment of service to all unserved locations within the Eligible Entity’s jurisdiction.” These unserved locations are likely to be in lower density areas lacking wireline connections, requiring higher capital construction costs and subsidization.

Friday, May 27, 2022

Advanced telecommunications fraught with heightened political peril with enactment of infrastructure bill

Due to excessive reliance on privatized advanced telecommunications infrastructure and weak regulatory and market incentives, the United States is many years behind where it should be when it comes to replacing ubiquitous copper telephone lines built for an era of voice telephone service with fiber for today’s Internet-protocol enabled services. That became painfully apparent with public health social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic that made households very reliant on advanced telecommunications for work, education, purchasing goods and services, virtual medical care and entertainment. Impatience with lack of reliable, affordable access -- present pre-pandemic -- reached a boiling point.

The enactment of advanced telecommunications infrastructure subsidies in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last November has raised expectations of rapid relief after years of dashed political promises by elected officials to address the issue. The billions in subsidies set aside for advanced telecommunications infrastructure has been characterized as a once in a lifetime investment to finally put it to rest.

But the legislative provisions of the subsidies to be granted states as well as recently issued rules governing the grants will likely introduce additional delay even before any infrastructure is built. Expect months if not years of delays as incumbent investor-owned telephone and cable companies battle states, smaller upstarts and publicly owned projects over eligibility rules governing the subsidies and how they can be used.

Unlike transportation infrastructure such as roads, highways and airports that are expected to take many years to plan and build, voters may well have far less patient expectations. They’ll want to see fast, tangible progress when it comes to advanced telecommunications infrastructure. Especially with neighbors just down the road or around the bend who have fiber connections, envious while they try to get by on DSL over aged copper and wireless workarounds. Or fiber on a nearby utility pole but no affordable residential service in the case of Vermonter Claudia Harris. They’ll naturally think since they’ve been waiting for years for fiber, all those billions in federal subsidies should easily bridge the gap to their homes in short order. When it doesn’t quickly materialize, elected officials at all levels of government could face angry blowback from voters. They are well aware of the high level of concern among their constituents, noting complaints about Internet access and affordability are among the top issues raised by them.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Verizon, AT&T look to wireless, C-band spectrum as cheaper alternative to building fiber to the home

That expanded opportunity is thanks to adding 4G fixed wireless access to the equation, as well as the addition of C-band spectrum to Verizon’s spectrum portfolio. C-band spectrum provides a broader reach. Initial 5G Home service was based on short range mmWave spectrum.

Verizon has suggested it will go on the offense with fixed wireless, hoping to take on cable company dominance in residential broadband access in major markets. Outside of its fiber footprint in the Northeast, Verizon has little wireline broadband assets to take on cable.

AT&T CEO John Stankey also shared some views on fixed wireless at the J.P Morgan conference yesterday. AT&T has not been a recent advocate of broad use of fixed wireless, but the company has a very limited fixed wireless offering for rural markets funded through the CAF program. It appears the company may try to build on that.

Stankey now says fixed wireless will play a larger role in the company’s future, although the strategy looks to be very different than Verizon’s take. AT&T appears to be looking to fixed wireless as a way to retire DSL in its non-fiber markets, rather than go on the offense in urban areas. The company has already stopped taking new orders for DSL.

 Verizon CEO: Verizon Fixed Wireless is Key to Monetizing 5G

Verizon sues Philipstown for permits to build new cell tower 

Both big telcos are apparently hoping to utilize C-band radio spectrum -- Verizon over its mobile wireless infrastructure -- to provide advanced telecommunications services to homes as a cheaper alternative to building fiber connections to them. For AT&T, it's a replacement strategy for its obsolete DSL over copper technology being discontinued.

Thursday, May 06, 2021

Biden administration’s American Jobs Plan: Reframing telecommunications as infrastructure policy

America’s hodge podge of unevenly deployed residential fiber optic connections that reach only about one third of all homes can be traced back to public policy expressed in the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

Although fiber optic technology was available when the law was enacted, the drafters of the statute instead charted a future course based on legacy twisted pair copper telephone lines for dialup and its irregularly deployed successor, DSL. That in turn created path dependency on twisted pair copper to deliver Internet-based services to homes even though it’s technically substantially inferior to fiber given it was designed to deliver analog voice and not digital services.

The fundamental problem with the Act is it viewed telecommunications as a market much like the hot 1990s personal computer market. Its basis is “light touch” market regulation, hoping to encourage market competition that would spur innovation, lifting all boats and creating relative parity in service availability and quality across the nation. PCs are a commodity market whereas telecommunications is not. It’s infrastructure and requires infrastructure policy.

The Biden administration’s infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan, is an opportunity to make a much overdue course correction and establish policy that treats telecommunications as the essential infrastructure it is.

Sunday, February 03, 2019

Generation into IP telecom era, AT&T still has no durable, scalable premise service delivery infrastructure

AT&T Does a Flip Flop on Fixed 5G, Now Sees It “Unequivocably” a Landline Broadband Replacement - Telecompetitor: “As we look at 5G will you have enough capacity to have a good broadband product that serves as a streaming service for all of your DIRECTV NOW, your Netflix, et cetera?” asked Stephenson in a SeekingAlpha transcript of today’s earnings call. “I absolutely am convinced that we will have that capacity, particularly as we turn up millimeter wave spectrum. That’s where the capacity and the performance comes from and that’s where you’ll begin to see a broad – a true replacement opportunity for fixed line broadband. So I have little doubt that in the three to five year time horizon you’ll start to see substitution of wireless for fixed line broadband.”

The concerns that Stephens expressed last year related primarily to the cost of backhaul to support 5G fixed wireless. Stephens apparently also was envisioning fixed 5G wireless being deployed in the millimeter wave spectrum band. Millimeter wave spectrum will support the highest broadband speeds, but over relatively short distances. Hence there is a need for dense backhaul infrastructure.

It is unclear what has caused the company to have a change of heart about the prospects for an AT&T fixed 5G wireless offering. Interestingly, however, the company recently released a policy paper touting the potential of using its AirGig fixed broadband technology in combination with 5G. Although the paper doesn’t provide details, perhaps AT&T is looking at the possibility of using AirGig to provide backhaul for fixed 5G.

A generation into IP telecom era, AT&T has no proven durable premise service delivery infrastructure easily scalable throughout its service area as its 1990s DSL over copper outside plant goes obsolete. AirGig remains an experimental technology. And the millimeter wave frequencies used by 5G can't penetrate objects.

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Purpose of AT&T's 4G LTE fixed premise service to mollify pols, not modernize telecom infrastructure

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Speedy internet delivery for rural DeSoto County | News | desototimes.com: Flint said as part of this commitment across 18 states, AT&T plans to reach more than 400,000 locations throughout 18 states by the end of 2017, and over 1.1 million locations by 2020. AT&T plans to reach over 130,000 locations with this technology across Mississippi by 2020. Flint said delivering broadband internet service to rural underdeserved areas has been AT&T's challenge.

According to Flint, AT&T's Fixed Wireless Internet Service delivers a home internet connection with speeds of at least 10Mbps. The connection comes from a wireless tower to a fixed antenna on customers' homes or businesses. "This is an efficient way to deliver high-quality internet to customers in rural and underserved areas," Flint said. "This will be capable of delivering a fixed wireless signal at a speed of 10 megabits per second, more than enough to do web browsing with plenty of speed and to stream your favorite movie or TV show. The telecommunications infrastructure was made possible through the FCC Connect America Fund.

The primary purpose of this rollout is to mollify politicians continually barraged with complaints from constituents about poor advanced telecommunications service options. Bolting on fixed premise service to existing 4G LTE mobile wireless towers is not a long term investment in modernizing telecommunications infrastructure. It's simply another on the cheap substitute for replacing decades-old twisted pair copper cable designed to support voice telephone service with fiber optic cable to support advanced services.

AT&T is deploying this fixed wireless service in areas where its copper cable plant cannot support digital subscriber line (DSL) service, some of which never even got first generation ADSL deployed more than a decade ago. AT&T's fixed premise wireless service will offer throughput that does not conform to U.S. Federal Communication Commission standards for delivering high quality high-quality voice, data, graphics and video. That shortcoming will be amplified in peak use periods given multiple connected devices used in households and small businesses and the fact that wireless bandwidth is by definition limited and connectivity slows as more users access it.

Wednesday, August 02, 2017

Outdated 1998 "going online" perceptions persist, hold back progress

Technology Is Improving, So Why Is Rural Broadband Access Still a Problem? | National News | US News: It is still worth noting, however, that even if rural broadband infrastructure were exactly the same as in urban areas, there would still be a "digital divide" in adoption rates, because rural populations are older, less educated and have lower income.
Had this been asserted in 1998-2000, it would have been mostly true since Americans were "going online" via dialup modem (and DSL for some fortunate households) to access email and websites. But it's badly outdated and uninformed in 2017. Fiber optic to the premise telecommunications infrastructure can deliver not only email and web content, but also voice communications via Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), videoconferencing (older folks love to see their grandkids), online education, telemedicine and of course streaming video content.

Monday, July 10, 2017

Microsoft dusts off TV white spaces wireless tech with "Rural Airband Initiative"

Microsoft proposing $10B program to bring broadband internet to rural America | The Seattle Times: Microsoft is set to propose a $10 billion program to bring broadband internet to the rural U.S., an economic-development program aimed at a core constituency of the Trump administration. The plan, which calls for corporate and government cash, relies on nascent television “white-space” technology, which sends internet data over unused broadcast frequencies set aside for television channels.In an event scheduled for Tuesday in Washington, D.C., Microsoft is to propose using the technology it helped develop as a cornerstone of an effort to connect the 23.4 million Americans in rural areas who lack high-speed internet access.
Ten years ago, Microsoft along with Dell, EarthLink, Google, HP, Intel, and Philips Electronics formed the White Spaces Coalition and submitted a prototype wireless Internet protocol-based telecom device to be tested by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. The White Spaces Coalition hoped have the device approved for use when analog TV broadcasts ceased in February 2009 in favor of digital transmission, using unused portions of the television broadcast spectrum, 2MHz to 698MHz. The technology never came into widespread use in the decade that followed. According to this story in the Seattle Times, Microsoft’s Rural Airband Initiative seeks to deploy the technology with telecommunications industry partners in a dozen states by 2018.
 
TV white spaces technology isn't being held out as a panacea for the many neighborhoods redlined by incumbent landline telephone and cable companies that are found immediately adjacent to neighborhoods that are served by them. It's specifically targeted to areas with between two and 200 people per square mile, according to a Microsoft blog post. Fixed terrestrial wireless and "limited" fiber to the premise should be deployed in communities with a density greater than 200 people per square mile, according to the post, and satellite should be used to provide service in very sparsely populated areas with a population density of less than two people per square mile. Currently, however, satellite is found in much more populated areas that lack landline infrastructure and provides a far inferior level of service than can be provided by landline infrastructure.

Microsoft's TV white spaces plan faces a number of obstacles mentioned in this New York Times story. They include the high cost of the devices to deliver it, longstanding opposition from the TV broadcast industry concerned about possible interference and limited bandwidth inherent in any advanced telecom technology based on spectrum. There's a larger downside as well: looking to technologies that have limited and unproven track records for delivering advanced, Internet protocol-based telecommunications. It's happened before with Broadband Over Power Lines (BPL), which was first touted in the mid-2000s (around the same time as TV white spaces), G-Fast (souped up DSL) and more recently, AT&T's experimental AirGig technology. None have proven to be lower cost replacements offering the same bandwidth capacity and reliability that fiber to the premise (FTTP) technology provides.

Coming on the heels of a Deloitte white paper declaring building out fiber a U.S. national infrastructure imperative, Microsoft's proposal underscores the poor public policy and planning that brought the nation to where it is today with widespread telecommunications infrastructure deficiencies and disparities. TV white spaces might have made sense as a planned transitional technology on the road to universal FTTP. That it's being hauled back out 10 years after it debuted reflects a desperate, on the cheap strategy borne out of the landline infrastructure deficiencies and disparities rather than a transitional strategy.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Growing bandwidth demand obsoletes Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Installed premise Internet product offering

Fellow blogger Doug Dawson has written extensively on burgeoning consumer bandwidth demand rendering obsolete DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) as an interim premise Internet service on the way to fiber to the premise (FTTP).

Now the trend is claiming Verizon Wireless's 4G LTE Installed service as its latest casualty. The service offers inadequate throughput to serve multiple devices. Plus its pricing is unworkable relative to current premise bandwidth needs.

The service is priced similar to Verizon's mobile service in monthly bandwidth consumption tiers. The more bandwidth used, the larger data plan a household will need. There are substantial overage charges for using more bandwidth than the contracted plan.

A single home office computer with daily business use and taking into account software updates would consume the bulk of the most generous plan offered -- 30 gigabits of data. That plan goes for an eye watering $120 a month -- leaving little left over for other devices.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Fat lady singing on AT&T residential landline service; big telco going out with a whimper

New AT&T Plans Guarantee Pricing for 2 Years; Customers Can Save More Than 40% on on TV, Home Internet and Voice | AT&T: Choose DIRECTV You’ll get our DIRECTV SELECT™ All Included package for $50 a month, guaranteed for two years when you add it to an eligible new or existing AT&T service, like wireless or home Internet. The monthly equipment fees for up to four TV receivers are now built into the cost and guaranteed for two years. Taxes are still separate, since those vary based on where you live.

Add in High-Speed Internet and Voice

When you have DIRECTV you can add home Internet service with speeds up to 6 megabits per second for an additional $30 a month. And you’ll get a Wi-Fi gateway included at no extra charge. All guaranteed for two years. Also, when you pay for both services on a single bill you’ll automatically receive unlimited home Internet data – a value worth $30 a month.



The above excerpt from an AT&T news release issued April 11, 2016 shows AT&T retreating from its VDSL-based U-Verse product that offered Internet throughput that could marginally -- with ample data compression -- support video offerings. It's now offloading its video TV programming to DBS via its recent acquisition of DirecTV and dialing back Internet to first generation ADSL with "up to" speed of 6 Mbs (A fine print footnote tamps that down further, noting "Actual speeds are not guaranteed.")

The fat lady is singing. This latest product bundle marks AT&T's final landline offering in the residential premise market. The big telco is going out with a whimper. Legacy class DSL service isn't going to be able to support growing consumer preference for OTT and on demand video delivered via Internet versus TV programming packages offered over AT&T's DirecTV holding. Nor does it even measure up what the U.S. Federal Communications Commission defines as minimum standard Internet service of 25 Mbs. Moreover, AT&T's announced plans in 2015 to deploy fixed "wireless local loop" Internet service to about 13 million residential premises in its service territory not offered landline Internet service appears to have been a head fake, with no reported deployments.

Monday, March 07, 2016

DSL faces obsolescence -- with no successor in place

Two Tales of DSL | POTs and PANs: But the problem for all DSL providers is that within a few years the demand for broadband speed is going to exceed their capabilities. The statistic that I always like to quote is that household demand for broadband speeds doubles about every three years. This has happened since the earliest days of dial-up. One doesn’t have to chart out too many years in the future when the speeds that can be delivered on DSL are not going to satisfy anybody.
Telecom consultant Doug Dawson lays out the disconcerting reality that is a major manifestation of America's telecommunications infrastructure crisis. Digital subscriber line (DSL) technology was put in place as a temporary method of enabling Internet protocol service over twisted pair copper cable that delivered voice service pre-Internet. The problem is there is no succession plan to replace the copper with modern fiber to the premise (FTTP) technology as I discuss in my recent eBook Service Unavailable: America's Telecommunications Infrastructure Crisis.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Aging legacy copper infrastructure isn't solely a regulatory issue

Regulatory Relief Would Speed FCC’s Broadband Deployment Goals | USTelecom: Removing barriers to investment is a concrete action the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) can take to accelerate broadband deployment, USTelecom said in recent comments responding to an inquiry on the state of broadband availability. To that end, the commission should approve USTelecom’s forbearance petition requesting Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (ILECs) be relieved of directing investment to legacy telephone networks and allowed to redirect that money to next-generation broadband networks. USTelecom said its member companies are required to invest in legacy networks that soon will become obsolete while other broadband providers- cable, wireless, and competitive fiber providers do not have this requirement, and that forbearance relief for ILECs would help the FCC achieve its goal of deploying broadband to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion.




This isn't a problem caused solely by regulatory requirements. Rather, it's a train wreck borne of poor policy and planning. Had an orderly plan to migrate from copper-based legacy telephone service to fiber-based Internet protocol-based telecommunications been put in place and executed starting two decades ago, the United States would not be in the current dire situation where legacy copper plant is literally rotting on the the poles. As it does, it grows increasingly less reliable to support voice telephone service -- and emergency call response -- in areas where the copper has not been replaced by fiber -- as well as copper-based DSL where it is offered.

Friday, August 28, 2015

AT&T to deploy "wireless local loop" fixed premise service in high cost areas

AT&T will apparently use wireless technology to provide fixed premise Internet telecommunications services using funding from the Connect America Fund (CAF) to subsidize infrastructure costs in high cost areas of the nation. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced this week that AT&T accepted $428 million in annual subsidies from the CAF to serve 2.2 million rural consumers in 18 states. Since the FCC requires CAF recipients to provide connectivity of "at least" 10Mbps for downloads and 1Mbps for uploads, the wireless gambit could potentially meet that standard. AT&T's wireless strategy was communicated to the FCC in a letter dated August 27, 2015 (H/T to California-based Steve Blum of Tellus Venture Associates):

We anticipate meeting our CAF Phase II obligations through a mix of network technologies, including through the deployment of advanced wireless technologies on new wireless towers that will be constructed in previously unserved areas. We will diligently pursue the necessary tower siting and permitting processes so that these new towers can be completed in a timely manner.

As previously mentioned in this space, the so-called "wireless local loop" (WLL) infrastructure strategy proffered in 2014 as part of AT&T's proposed takeover of DirecTV will also help AT&T meet its universal service obligations under the FCC's recently adopted Open Internet regulatory scheme classifying Internet as a common carrier telecommunications service. The strategy will also provide alternative premise service delivery infrastructure as AT&T retires its legacy copper cable outside plant.

The upshot for AT&T customers: Those that were never offered DSL service when AT&T rolled it out more than a decade ago might now see premise service roughly equivalent to DSL sometime in the next five years while those outside the very limited range of its U-Verse triple play DSL-based service could find themselves switched from legacy DSL to WLL.

An unresolved problem, however, is as Internet bandwidth demand continues its inexorable rapid rise, the WLL technology will be obsolete as soon as it's deployed and falls short of the FCC's current minimum benchmark for Internet service of 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up adopted earlier this year.

Monday, March 09, 2015

Tennesseans want fiber Internet service

More and more areas of the United States are recognizing they need to build fiber telecommunications infrastructure just as they built their own roads and highways. The excerpts below from this story explain why and the growing political sentiment that is reaching a tipping point.

Farm Bureau backs EPB expansions | Local News | Times Free Press: Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, said he backs Bowling's bill because his top priority is getting high-speed Internet to rural areas of south Bradley County that are in his district. Some 800 families would benefit, he said.

He said Charter, Comcast and AT&T told him "it's not profitable" to do it. In Gardenhire's view, "private enterprise has given up on taking care of the people."

Some south Bradley Countians are less than a mile from EPB's service area but can't get its broadband, leaving them with dial-up service and a slow connection speed. Joyce Coltrin, whose wholesale nursery is in southern Bradley County, relies on her cellphone to access the Internet.

"It's very hard to use an iPhone for business," said Coltrin, who heads a group of 160 households who call themselves "citizens striving to be part of the 21st century." They, too, have been pushing state legislators to change the law.

*  *  *
Wireless in particular "is capable of a tiny fraction of what fiber can deliver, with respect to speed, reliability, and capacity," she said. "Because of data caps and usage-based pricing, it's also very, very expensive for anyone who uses a lot of bandwidth, such as families who home-school and therefore require lots of online video." Saying that a community "doesn't need fiber because it has DSL or wireless is like saying that the nation doesn't need the Interstatehighway system because we have the Santa Fe trail," Hovis argued.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Trash bags and electrical tape: The train wreck of a botched transition to fiber

Over the course of the last three decades, legacy incumbent telephone companies totally botched any semblance of an orderly transition to fiber optic connections to customer premises to support modern Internet enabled services. The resulting train wreck of aging, decades old copper cable telecommunications infrastructure designed to provide analog voice telephone service referred to as POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) that cannot support even first generation DSL is painfully on display throughout much the telcos' service territories. It's literally being held together with trash bags and electrical tape.



Steve Blum's blog reports the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is seeking to determine if telcos are neglecting copper to the point where it is no longer reliably usable and what should be done with all the aging copper infrastructure that's been left to rot on the poles.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Connecticut consumers squawk over poor Internet service quality from Frontier



More than a decade ago, AT&T was looking to offer TV programming via Internet protocol (IPTV) as part of its U-verse branded triple play service offering. To deliver that bandwidth intensive service, rather than replace its decades old copper plant designed to deliver what's referred to as "plain old telephone service" or POTS with modern fiber to the premise infrastructure, AT&T instead opted to soup up its Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service to a more robust version, VDSL.

The initiative, dubbed by AT&T as Project Lightspeed, is a hybrid design that brings fiber to field distribution units. Customer premises are connected to those units using the existing POTS copper infrastructure. This is the proverbial weak link in the chain given the often deteriorated condition of the copper pairs in these cables.

That weak link may now be coming home to roost in Connecticut for Frontier Communications, which purchased AT&T's wireline operations in the state earlier this year. Arstechnica reports complaints about Frontier's service have gone through the roof and state regulators and officials are scheduling hearings.