U-verse DSL on Greenhorn Rd and in South County

11.26.11 | Category: Partners | Leave a comment

After a year of false starts — including mailings and phone calls to customers who really couldn’t get DSL (digital subscriber line) service — AT&T finally turned on U-verse DSL along parts of Greenhorn Road and in parts of South County, both in Grass Valley last week.

When the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was passed, it allowed for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) other than the “baby Bells” (at the time) to provision (the then new) DSL service over copper wires. This allowed for competition and more rapid adoption of the new technology.

The competition never really happened as intended. What we saw was merger after merger, until “voila!” — the new AT&T looked a lot like the old AT&T, but without the regulation.

That Act also allowed for one key provision:  if the telco were to roll-out a second generation digital phone service to replace “plain old telephone service” (POTS), then they would no longer have keep their network open.

That time has come. All new DSL build out in Nevada County will be U-verse, and existing circuits are starting to be switched over to the new technology. Unfortunately, this means that customer choice for Internet access over copper wires (DSL) is now down to only one — AT&T.

We applaud that broadband service is being extended into new areas in the county. That overall is a good thing. However, broadband over copper wire is a dead end. The kinds of synchronous speeds that will be needed in the near future, will not be available over DSL or cable for that matter. Within five years, having only DSL service available will start to feel much like having dial-up service a few years ago.

So customer be aware. If AT&T calls and wants to switch you to U-verse phone service, just know that any existing DSL service with another provider will just stop dead. They won’t tell you that, but you will of course call your ISP and ask why the DSL isn’t working. If you want to keep your current DSL service with your ISP, then just say “No” to U-verse. In the short term, saying “No” does the trick.

For those just getting U-verse DSL … sign on with AT&T. The speed is refreshing after dial-up or satellite.

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Why Calif. was never considered for Google’s Fiber to the Home

10.13.11 | Category: 95959google.com, Regulations | 2 comments

Richard Whitt, Director/Managing Counsel, Telecom and Media Policy at Google, Inc. on the closing keynote panel of the recent 10th Annual 2011 Fiber to the Home Conference in Florida, plainly revealed why any possible Fiber to the Home projects in California were summarily dismissed:

“Google prides itself in being a very green company and take steps to be environmentally sound… And yet we identified this issue in California where there is the statute called CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act].

It’s basically a multi agency process reviewing whether any construction project of a certain size has ‘any possibility of an environmental impact’. The basic terms around that are not defined and the process can take months and sometimes years.

Milo [ Milo Medlin, Google's VP of Access Services] identified this for the team early on and said ‘even if we are looking at some places in California that might be suitable properties for this business proposition — I can’t justify it. I have a P&L. We’re not just doing this out of the goodness in our hearts. We’re trying to make a business out of this, we want to prove that the model works. Given the current state of affairs in California, that’s not going to be the case.’

That has sparked some fruitful initial conversations with some of the policy makers in California to identify this. It’s not that we’re trying to avoid environmental standards, we’re trying to find ways to have more certainty and in the process have a process that a company can navigate successfully to move forward with a project.”

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Double Whammy – AT&T Starts Data Caps and Lock-in to U-verse DSL

05.05.11 | Category: Internet Service Providers, Spiral Internet | Leave a comment

Earlier this week, on Monday May 2, AT&T quietly started imposing data caps (or limits) on their DSL Internet customers who are offered low prices as incentives to switch to AT&T. Regular DSL is capped at 150Gb per month and U-Verse DSL (more on that later) is capped at 250Gb per month. You’ll pay $10 per 50Gb extra per month. So much for those “special introductory prices.”

Now, that may seem like a lot of data to consume. However, the increase of video being watched over the Internet using content providers such as Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Roku, etc. as well as online gaming, could easily make households surpass those limits. This is true especially in western Nevada County in homes that are using DSL service and shutting off satellite service to cut costs. Add in multiple members of the household using the Internet for multiple broadband services, then the bills will start to resemble cell service without plans.

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day. 150Gb of data would be gobbled up by just 3 hours of HD video watching daily alone. Factor in the number of Internet users in your household, plus multiple devices (iPad, smart phones, etc.) using the Internet for varied uses, and you could have the surprise of seeing a huge data bill each month.

Spiral Internet Has No Data Limits on DSL

The good news is that one local Internet Service Provider offers DSL without data limits. Spiral Internet‘s contract with a second-tier provider allows us to provide Spiral DSL service over the AT&T network, but without the limitations AT&T is imposing on its own customers. Spiral offers one competitive ongoing price (as low as $22.95 per month for 1.5 Mbps service), same quality & speed of access, no surprises, no data limits, and no waiting (and waiting) on the phone for AT&T technical support. Just note that AT&T requires non-customers to maintain, at minimum, Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) in order to have DSL with us. This runs about $12 per month with Federal taxes. But BEWARE, do not enable AT&T to switch your service to U-Verse, or you will never be able to switch.

Beware: Switch to U-verse and Have No Choices

AT&T has also quietly rolled out “U-verse” service locally. This is typically a “triple-play” (voice, Internet, TV) service in urban areas, but AT&T does not offer the TV portion here. In areas nearest to the AT&T central offices, the Internet speeds available can be faster, but the phone service is now the same as Vonage or Skype, referred to as VoIP (voice over Internet protocol).

U-verse DSL uses a different connection technology which locks out any other Internet Service Provider from offering customers their DSL service. Once a household switches to U-Verse, then their only DSL provider can be AT&T … forever. It is a closed network. So buyer beware.

AT&T sales staff is aggressively calling local households to switch to U-Verse. If you have a local provider or want to keep your options open, politely say “No, thank you.” You are not required to switch in the foreseeable future.

Spiral Internet actually pays AT&T thousands of dollars per month for the privilege of offering DSL service over their network. In any other line of business, we would be treated as respected partners. Somehow, AT&T sees other ISPs who offer their DSL service as competitors.

In some areas, U-Verse DSL may be the only wired broadband Internet service available. In our under-served rural community, it would be foolish to reject any kind of reliable high-speed Internet service. But AT&T’s U-verse will stifle competition moving forward.

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