Anyone have an AT&T Connection?

[zippyfrog]

Is there anyone here who either works for AT&T or knows someone who works for AT&T? The past week there have been AT&T trucks all along the streets where I live, and I noticed today when I was driving that every 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile, they have added these black transformer things that are attached to the poles or laying on the ground next to the poles. Curious on what they are? Mainly curious if it allows for faster internet over the standard phone lines. Everyone in my area is limited to the 24 megs down package (but we get closer to 21 megs down). We don't have any cable access out here so AT&T over the phone lines is the only option. In retrospect I should have asked the guys what they were installing...

 

[NashGuy]

I don't work for AT&T and I can't give you a certain answer but my guess -- based both on your photos as well as my knowledge of what AT&T is doing these days -- is that they're running fiber through your neighborhood, meaning that several weeks from now, you should be able to sign up for AT&T Fiber (speed tiers ranging from 300 to 1000 Mbps).

They ran fiber through my neighborhood about 2.5 years ago. (Before that had only "Uverse" service from AT&T, which gave me about 50 Mbps.) They've been doing a lot of that the past few years and plan to continue for a few more, until fiber is expanded to roughly 60% of their customer footprint. Right now it's at just over 30%.

Here's a photo of an AT&T pole with a confirmed fiber installation if you want to compare:

AT&T Digital Resources & Answers - Community Forums has Sunset

The AT&T community forum has been sunset, we have compiled the list of new resources that you can use to find answers to any AT&T related question.

forums.att.com

 

[zippyfrog]

Thanks for the reply - next time I am driving down the road I am going to pull over to the side and take a look at what it is more closely. I took the pictures from my car as I was stopped at the various intersections so I didn't look really close at them. If they truly are running fiber that would be amazing.

 

[zippyfrog]

I have a general internet question, not specific to AT&T. AT&T was doing work and I asked one of the workers and he did say that they are pulling fiber over the next couple of weeks. I asked what it meant in terms of speed and he gave a vague answer "your internet will be better." (obviously didn't want to promise anything)

However, the fiber is not being pulled to the houses. The fiber is only being pulled up to specific poles along the subdivisions, then the last portion is going to be the same copper wire that is used for our phone connection. Doing some quick estimation, the fiber pull ends about 1/2 mile from my house, then the last 1/2 mile is over the copper.

How fast can internet go over copper wires? In the past AT&T has told me that I have only been able to get the 25 meg package due a distance limitation (not sure the terminology, but I am too far from something). I am wondering if even though the fiber has been pulled on the poles that I would be out of luck getting anything faster that 25 megs because of the copper lines for the last segment to my house.

 

[AZ.]

I have a general internet question, not specific to AT&T. AT&T was doing work and I asked one of the workers and he did say that they are pulling fiber over the next couple of weeks. I asked what it meant in terms of speed and he gave a vague answer "your internet will be better." (obviously didn't want to promise anything)

However, the fiber is not being pulled to the houses. The fiber is only being pulled up to specific poles along the subdivisions, then the last portion is going to be the same copper wire that is used for our phone connection. Doing some quick estimation, the fiber pull ends about 1/2 mile from my house, then the last 1/2 mile is over the copper.

How fast can internet go over copper wires? In the past AT&T has told me that I have only been able to get the 25 meg package due a distance limitation (not sure the terminology, but I am too far from something). I am wondering if even though the fiber has been pulled on the poles that I would be out of luck getting anything faster that 25 megs because of the copper lines for the last segment to my house.

My mom is in Chicago, she dropped her internet few years back(copper lines) when she went back to get internet, she had to wait as they installed a overhead fiber line to her home. she didnt have an option.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

In many areas they are planning of no longer supporting copper (pots) service.

So if you have an issue and need fixing they will move you over to fiber and in many cases not even telling you that you have been moved.

They want to shut down the old copper network.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[TheKrell]

So if you have an issue and need fixing they will move you over to fiber and in many cases not even telling you that you have been moved.

That is exactly what Verizon did to a friend of mine in northern VA. He had DSL from Cavalier (a CLEC in our area) at the time. Rather than rewarding their behavior, he went with Cox and now he has 200Mb/s down, along with his old phone number, for IIRC $80/mo.