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0 pointsjseliger12y ago0 comments

Good answer. I always post this: http://www.fiercetelecom.com/story/att-ordered-stop-u-verse-... when people ask why SF isn't at the top of the list. Existing telcos already can't easily roll out faster service!

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simoncion12y ago

ATT is now rolling out U-Verse in San Francisco:

http://www.noevalleyvoice.com/2013/May/Att.htm

The challenge to ATT's plans was manifold:

1) ATT refused to put their equipment underground. SF's sidewalks don't need more cabinets.

2) U-Verse is DSL service. Sonic.net already offers 40mbps DSL service in SF, so U-Verse is not that much faster. Why does SF need more cabinets to get pretty much the same data service from the incumbent telco?

3) ATT is putting cabinets on the sidewalks, and running fiber to those cabinets to serve ~45mbps connections to folks ~800 feet away. If ATT had planned to run fiber from those new cabinets into residences ~800 feet away and provide 100mbps or 1gbps service, folks would have welcomed their project.

4) Monkeybrains [0] and Sonic.net [1][2] have had (for several years) workable plans to eventually deliver 1gbps service to the whole city with (they say) far fewer aboveground boxes that ATT "requires" for U-Verse, and don't even need to dig up the street to lay the fiber. I'm not sure why they've been ignored by the Mayor's Office and the DPW.

[0] https://www.monkeybrains.net/DPW-MonkeyBrains-March-2011.pdf

[1] http://corp.sonic.net/ceo/2010/07/14/micro-trenching-at-soni...

[2] http://corp.sonic.net/ceo/2011/12/15/sonic-net-plans-gigabit...

freeasinfree12y ago

Sonic.net leases the lines from AT&T. 40mbps as far as I remember is a bonded ADSL+ service requiring two phone lines. Even then 20mbps is a theoretical maximum which falls off the further you are from Sonic's DSLAM. The U-Verse boxes brings the DSLAM much closer. In my apartment's case, I can only get 5mbps from Sonic.net while AT&T is able to deliver over 20mbps.

jseligerOP12y ago

Putting cabinets on sidewalks still seems like a very minor point and still part of the "People United Against Everything" syndrome affecting so much of America. Maybe U-Verse is not that much faster, but faster is still important!

If Sonic / Monkeybrains can deliver 1gbps, all the better.

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