Tag: u-verse

Archaic Telecom

AT&T 2Q2011 Results: Still Wired

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While AT&T may be boasting about the wireless side of the business in its 2Q results, Ma Bell 2.0 is still very dependent on its copper cables.

True, wireless revenue has been doing the growing, rising to $14.1 billion over the last three months and 7% ahead of last year’s numbers.

Other good news: AT&T claims over 3.5 million iPhone activations this past quarter, in spite of sharing this market with its cousin, Verizon.

Bottom line: AT&T’s operating income for wireless this past quarter was over $4 billion, compared to the wired side’s “mere” $2 billion.

As carriers and the FCC currently review pulling the plug on POTS,  it’s a good time to look again at all the revenue that remains in voice and POIS (Plain Old Internet Service). Continue reading

Archaic Telecom

Broadband Data Caps: Worldwide View

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With the announcement that AT&T will be ending its all you can eat broadband for DSL and U-Verse customers, I decided to take a look at how US broadband compares with the rest of the world.

And I mean beyond Canada.

I perused data  from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),  which tracks broadband metrics, among many other economic indicators, internationally.

The US now joins Iceland, Australia, Turkey, Ireland,  and the UK,  as a place where major ISPs market monthly pricing plans with overusage charges.

From a global perspective, it appears that AT&T’s plan is (gasp) generous: a ceiling of 150 GB  for DSL (250 GB for its fiber-based U-Verse) and $10 per 50 GB of additional usage.

Continue reading

Archaic Telecom

Twilight of POTS Regulation

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Telecom consultant Gary Audin has recently come out with a solid overview article on a question that has no doubt kept telecom wonks up at night: Can the PSTN be Shut Down?

I include myself in that geeky group who ponders whether the public switched telepone network (PSTN) can be unplugged. For those not familiar with the building blocks of our legacy telephone system —class five and four switching points, trunks, copper pairs—his article should be edifying.

Audin’s end-of-life discussion (available from webtorials.com) was triggered by an AT&T comment submitted to the FCC back in December 2009. The unthinkable is more than an academic exercise for our nation’s largest carrier. In their filing, AT&T asked the FCC to workout a “firm deadline for the phase out of POTS service and the PSTN.”

AT&T was writing in response to the FCC’s National Broadband Plan inquiry, and their suggestions and advocacy are framed as a way to achieve this agency’s call for universal  broadband: dropping support of the PSTN, they say, will allow it to focus on in its major IP initiative, U-verse (more on that later).

I suppose I’m impressed that AT&T is looking to the FCC for leadership in this area, considering their overall low opinion of our nation’s telecom regulators.

So you know they must want something.Continue reading