AT&T against better internet for underserved Americans

[Fenixgoon]

It's Obama's fault. Because he let the FCC redefine highspeed data from 20Meg to 25Meg. Oh back around 2014-15.
That is why At&T bought DirecTV, they ere going to use the dishes to receive cellular HSD that was to max out at 20 Meg at that point in time. Then the FCC redefined High Speed Data as being 25 Meg. AT&T got pinched. Anyways, many, many miles of fiber got laid, or put up in the air in the late 90's early 2000's as is stated below. Problem is they never lit it up. Corps got their subsidies, contractors got their big chunk of change, and the sub-contractors, if they were lucky got what they were supposed to be paid to do. (there was alot of theft from workers back then)



Close but not quite the entire picture. They got ton's of free money. But did not invest that money into their infrastructure.
Competition IS ramping up. They need to shit or get off the pot. Because HFC networks are bringing symmetrical better than fiber speeds to market. Soon.
Google the Mediacom 10G symmetrical proof of concept house. It is in Alpha or Beta.

Don't blame government officials for a business' disastrous moves. Buying direct TV was a dumbass move that plenty of people saw ahead of time. what has ATT done since? Run it into the ground. Somehow they can't even figure out that higher rates mean fewer subscribers.

The new definition for broadband was a huge jump, even if it weren't as aggressive as lots of people would have liked. The major ISPs could absolutely dump more money into infrastructure and capex if they wanted. But they choose to "maximize shareholder value" and bitch about any new kind of regulation or requirement. They're rent-seekers at a national level who are only doing the bare minimum.

And I wouldn't rely on Google for anything outside of email these days. Unless you like projects that get cancelled after 2 years

 

[DaaQ]

Those poor households are likely not hosting 20+ kids all steaming 4k movies at the same time.
Practically none of those people need 100mb, let alone 1gb service.

Don't get me wrong, 100mb is a fine baseline to aim for, but 1 Gig service is what is largely being provided to schools to serve a heck of a lot more people.

I am sorry but your reply comes across as QUITE smug. The area I live and work in, there are two options. 60M thru 1000M down and 5m thru 50M up, VS 3-12M down and less than 1m up.
You do know that average families with lets say 3 children in VIRTUAL school, need more than DSL 12m in town and lucky to get 3m down in the county.
Maybe just take a step back and realize that not everyone is well off. There is also such a thing as "churn"

Smug man, just reminds me of the South Park episode with the electric cars. You know, where they all got off on smelling their own farts.

 

[DaaQ]

Don't blame government officials for a business' disastrous moves. Buying direct TV was a dumbass move that plenty of people saw ahead of time. what has ATT done since? Run it into the ground. Somehow they can't even figure out that higher rates mean fewer subscribers.

The new definition for broadband was a huge jump, even if it weren't as aggressive as lots of people would have liked. The major ISPs could absolutely dump more money into infrastructure and capex if they wanted. But they choose to "maximize shareholder value" and bitch about any new kind of regulation or requirement. They're rent-seekers at a national level who are only doing the bare minimum.

And I wouldn't rely on Google for anything outside of email these days. Unless you like projects that get cancelled after 2 years

You very squarely missed the /S in my post.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles of fiber were laid in the 90's that never got turned on. I was involved with pulling it.

 

[dawp]

The 25/2 VDSL I have suits my needs.

not me, for one i'm paying 90 bucks a month for 15m down and when you get multiple people streaming it really slows everything down.

my other option is spectrum at 50 down. att internet isn't available where I live. hell, I work for att and my phone is through metro pcs/t-mobile if that tells you anything.