Why AT&T's Promise To Bring 1 Gbps to Austin is Mostly Empty
Company Tries Damage Control With Carefully-Worded Press Release
by Karl Bode
DSL Reports
April 10, 2013
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Why-ATTs-Promise-To-Bring-1-Gbps-to-Austin-is-Mostly-Empty-123807
In the apparent hopes of reducing the PR impact of today's Google Fiber
in Austin announcement, AT&T has decided their best tactic is to play a
little make believe. In traditional AT&T fashion, a company press
release picks its words very carefully, insisting that AT&T is
"prepared" to offer "an advanced fiber optic infrastructure" capable of
1 Gbps, which is like totally the same thing as offering 1 Gbps
residential lines for $70 a month, right?
Like Time Warner Cable, AT&T's press release very much wants the press
and public to conflate their ability to offer 1 Gbps over the core
network (and to businesses for a small fortune) with offering 1 Gbps
lines inexpensively to consumers and businesses alike.
However, the phrase "prepared to build" to those of us fluent in AT&T
speak can be translated to "you sir, are very nicely dressed and I would
be more than happy to hold your wallet while you visit the restroom."
Here on planet Earth, AT&T's current residential broadband offerings
have struggled to keep pace with cable, much less fiber. Particularly
upstream, where AT&T struggles to deliver 5 mbps to the vast majority of
its customers. Remind me, what's the difference between 1 Gbps and 5
Mbps again?
Despite the very obvious reality on the ground, AT&T would have you
believe that they're right there nipping at the heels of Google's 1 Gbps
service, implying that the only thing that has kept Americans from
seeing cheap 1 Gbps AT&T connections so far is -- the mean old government:
"Today, AT&T announced that in conjunction with its previously announced
Project VIP expansion of broadband access, it is prepared to build an
advanced fiber optic infrastructure in Austin, Texas, capable of
delivering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second. AT&T's expanded fiber
plans in Austin anticipate it will be granted the same terms and
conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings,
rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives.
This expanded investment is not expected to materially alter AT&T's
anticipated 2013 capital expenditures....Our potential capital
investment will depend on the extent we can reach satisfactory agreements."
While Google Fiber certainly has seen some sweetheart regulatory
arrangements, AT&T too has spent the last decade being deregulated state
by state, and the result hasn't been magic 1 Gbps blossoms and
price-slashing fairies, it has almost uniformly been higher prices and
worse service. That is courtesy of limited competition and regulatory
capture, two things that Google Fiber will at least chip away at on a
small, local scale.
Still, even with the added pressure of Google Fiber in one of their
markets, and with added regulatory perks, AT&T's promises may not be
reliable. While AT&T has promised to expand U-Verse as part of their
above-mentioned "Project VIP" upgrades, that promised expansion is
mostly smoke and mirrors. AT&T's focus is primarily on wireless and big
investor returns (the exact thing a large-scale Austin FTTH build won't
provide). The days of meaningful landline broadband expansion at AT&T
are over, and most expansions moving forward will be theatrical in nature.
AT&T certainly could afford to offer a few FTTH lines to a select number
of users to save face; the company does offer some users actual fiber to
the home lines in upscale developments, though they historically cap
those lines at fiber to the node speeds. Still, the press release claims
these upgrades are "not expected to materially alter AT&T's anticipated
2013 capital expenditures." What kind of network expansion doesn't cost
you much of anything? One that either doesn't exist, or is only deployed
in a very narrow number of cherry-picked locations.
All of this could provide some weird and entertaining theatrics in
Austin, but it doesn't do much for the tens of millions of AT&T DSL
customers stuck on ultra-slow speeds the company has shown absolutely no
interest in upgrading.
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