AT&T has launched a very tangible piece of its Project Velocity IP (VIP) in Nevada and California, introducing a faster U-verse broadband tier that delivers theoretical download speeds of up to 45 M bits/sec and upstream speeds of 6 M bits/sec.
The new broadband tier, called U-verse High Speed Internet Power, will cost $50 a month as a promotional price to consumers who bundle it with TV and voice services on a two-year deal, after which the tier will cost $76 a month, AT&T said.
The U-verse speed increase was expected. Last week during AT&T’s second quarter earnings call, company SVP and CFO John Stephens said the telco would unleash the 45 Mbps service “in the next few months, noting that U-verse will eventually ramp up downstream speeds to 75 Mbps and 100 Mbps “in the near future.”
AT&T has not announced when it will make the new U-verse Power tier available elsewhere, but the telco “expects to roll it out in other U-verse markets on an ongoing basis,” the spokeswoman noted.
“This is our next step in our Project VIP investment plan, and we’re proud to bring customers faster speeds, for a great value,” said Mel Coker, chief marketing officer of AT&T Home Solutions, in a statement. “The vast majority of our customers bundle U-verse Internet and TV because it gives them a better experience, with faster speeds that fit their needs, at an affordable price. We look forward to bringing wired IP services and faster speeds to more customers in the future.”
More at: http://www.multichannel.com/distribution/att-rolls-u-verse-speed-upgrade-california-nevada/144640
At the June 12, 2013 IEEE ComSocSCV meeting, AT&T’s Shiyama Clunie presented the highlights and progress of AT&Ts Project Velocity IP. It’s a major effort to expand AT&T’s wireless and wireline broadband network. Under this initiative, which is underway now, AT&T expects to bring fiber to 1 million additional business customer locations, and its wireline IP network is expected to cover 57 million customer locations, by year-end 2015. These locations will have either U-Verse (video, Internet and voice) or U-Verse IP-DSLAM (high speed Internet and voice). AT&T also expects that its 4G LTE wireless network will cover 300 million people nationally by the end of 2014, and 99 percent of customer locations in AT&T’s wireline service area are expected to have high-speed Internet access through either IP wireline and/or 4G LTE wireless by year-end 2015.
During its earnings call, AT&T reported on U-Verse progress:
“Total U-verse subs reached 9.4 million, while video subs topped 5 million customers for the first time. Total U-verse revenues grew better than 30%, and U-verse now represents more than 50% of consumer revenues. And even with little help from the economy, business wireline showed sequential revenue improvement and strategic business services grew by more than 15%. All this resulted in improved revenue growth, continued EPS gains and strong free cash flow even while investing more in our customers and in our Project VIP.”
References:
1. AT&T Perspective on its most recent earnings report: http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=282
2. Transcript of AT&T Management Discussing most recent earnings:
3. Analysis of AT&T’s latest earnings report + much greater wireless competition ahead!
4. IEEE ComSocSCV website (free download of AT&T’s June 12, 2013 presentations)
3 replies on “AT&T Offers Faster U-Verse Internet in CA and NV”
Comcast still offers a more competitive price than AT&T on high speed Internet.
“Blast Plus™: Lightning-fast Internet.”
“XFINITY® has doubled the Internet speeds on two of its most popular plans. Get download speeds up to 50 Mbps so you can stream entire movies and shows in HD, share photos and play games. $50 for 1st 6 months + buy your own modem or lease from Comcast @ $7 per month.”
Note that AT&T charges $6 per month to rent their high speed U-Verse Internet modem & gateway. That equipment is not available for purchase, so customer gets ripped off if they have U-Verse service for many years!
Thanks Alan for reporting on this. AT&T’s statement about bringing fiber to 1 million business buildings has to make me think that they are feeling competitive pressure from alternative service providers. Business services are becoming a significant revenue opportunity for cable operators (MSOs) and the importance of that revenue stream was heard over and over again at this week’s Indy show.
To some extent, they are able to provide a lower $/bit than the traditional T-1 approach. So, I wonder if, from AT&T’s perspective, the reason for the fiber deployment is to better compete against the erosion from their competitors. By providing more bandwidth, perhaps AT&T can battle price erosion. I would suspect, they would try to go further up the food chain and offer value-add services (e.g. data services, cloud voice, commercial video, etc.) to increase revenues and maintain margins.
Still, they face some formidable competition.
A lot of folks in Sunnyvale and other South Bay SF Bay Area cities are complaining that neither U-Verse or IP-DSLAM is available in their area. AT&T Executive Office spokesman has told me not to refer those folks to AT&T cause they won’t disclose timing on when U-Verse might (or might never) be available. Check this website for current info: http://www.att.com/shop/availability.html
While AT&T continues to provide excellent triple play services, it’s customer service leaves a lot to be desired. If it continues to be so horrible, I suggest AT&T adopt this new slogan:
RETHINK IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!