Comments on: Here’s AT&T’s $14B plan to kill its copper network and leave rural America behind

By: Phillip Temple

Phillip Temple — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:59:22 +0000

The other thing that most folks are missing is: How will these new networks perform during a natural / man-made emergency? Sunspot activity? Satellite goes down/hit by debris?
I can tell you that during the Loma Prieta earthquake, ALL the cel nets went down.
ALL of them. They shut down- as everyone was trying to call everyone else at the same time. The only mode of person-to person communication was the telephone landline. Even that was taken over by emergency services, but calls could still come in to phones; long distance calls were out. Cel phones didnt come back until days afterwards. HAM radio ops had the only reliable comm during the emergency. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the “new” networks have any more flexibility/capability built into them, even now.
If anyone knows how the nets are to be used in an emergency, please speak. Most VOIP
providers tell you there are important differences between calling 911 on a landline and dialing 911 over VOIP. The time to consider the differences between a landline and celphone/wireless services performance during an emergency is now, and not in the middle of the emergency.
My 2 cents…

By: No wireless

No wireless — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:21:47 +0000

The latency on wireless is god awwwwwwwful. Do not want.

By: jose stucco

jose stucco — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:38:35 +0000

Finally somebody gets it. If you choose to live out in the boonies, don’t expect city amenities. You chose the benefit of wide open spaces. Some of us prefer the benefits that are only financially feasible where population densities are greater.

By: Matt Thomas

Matt Thomas — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:03:11 +0000

I’m no fan of AT&T but even as a resident of a rural area I don’t think many people will be hurting if they abandon their DSL business. In my area the local cable company offers 50mbps service; Verizon has 25mbps LTE. AT&T offers 1.5mbps DSL and some flavor of “4G” (not LTE). They’re barely competitive in rural areas as it is.

By: Squinch

Squinch — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:57:10 +0000

Sad that at&t could not find a buyer..

By: txpatriot

txpatriot — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 03:03:27 +0000

@NewDanger: so google can redline at will simply because they are new? How convenient . . .

By: theNewDanger

theNewDanger — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 07:24:45 +0000

@txpatriot

Google’s KC fiber isn’t replacing anything Google offered in the past. Where does that parallel?

By: txpatriot

txpatriot — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 23:37:33 +0000

Stacey: why is it that the whole “left behind” discussion is used as an anchor to keep the telcos firmly rooted in 19th century technology, but nobody ever worries if google’s KC fiber will leave anyone “behind”?

By: Aram

Aram — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 13:59:10 +0000

What about wired broadband data caps imposed on customers? I was hoping to see it disappear but seems like they have no plan for it yet. As customers we should do something about it.

By: John

John — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 23:21:42 +0000

See the following DSL Reports article on this:

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Announces-Awaited-Network-Investment-Plan-121950