AT&T is discontinuing its DSL service, just as a new report indicates that AT&T has only deployed its fiber-to-the-home to less than 30 percent of the households in its 21-state territory. The company intends to target wealthy, non-rural areas in its fiber upgrades.
Quoting from Ars Technica:
“Across the predominantly rural counties in AT&T’s national footprint, only 5 percent of households (217,284 out of 4,442,675) have access to fiber,” the report said. In urban areas, the situation is better but not problem-free. “Seventy percent of households in urban counties still lack access to fiber from AT&T because the company has made fiber available to only 14.7 million households out of 48.4 million total households in these counties,” the report said.
“AT&T prioritizes network upgrades to wealthier areas, leaving lower-income communities with outdated technologies—households with fiber available have median income 34 percent higher than those with DSL only,” today’s report said.
“For 28 percent of the households in its network footprint, AT&T’s Internet service does not meet the FCC’s 25/3Mbps benchmark to be considered broadband,” the CWA/NDIA report said.
Why do we care?
I’m going to keep observing this – the telcos are limiting your market. Rural customers? Less affluent communities? All being blocked out from being your customer if they are bandwidth constrained.
The FCC hasn’t even updated the 25/3 benchmark – which many of us would likely challenge is outdated – and they can’t hit that.
Now with work distributed, the data exposes the real discrepancy. Here’s where regulation matters because the free market isn’t solving it alone… and, remember, limiting your market.
And now you have less options than you did before, with that discontinuation of DSL.
Source: Ars Technica