AT&T announced today that it is boosting speeds for some of its AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet customers and offering AT&T broadband customers access to free Wi-Fi hotspots across the country. AT&T says that more than 10 million of its AT&T Broadband subscribers will soon have free unlimited access to its nationwide Wi-Fi network. AT&T figures that is a cost savings of $60 annually for its broadband customers and a savings of nearly $240 annually for customers who don’t have AT&T broadband. The free Wi-Fi offer will be available to both new and existing subscribers who have any of AT&T’s broadband services with downstream speeds of 1.5 Mbps, 3.0 Mbps, or 6 Mbps.
AT&T also announced that it was boosting bandwidth choices for its U-verse customers to 10 Mbps. Millions of AT&T subscribers will be able to upgrade to data plans with 10 Mbps downstream and 1.5 Mbps upstream. Customers who upgrade to the new U-verse 10 Mbps plan will also get the free Wi-Fi access in the U.S. as well. AT&T claims the largest broadband network in the United States with over 13.8 million broadband lines in service as of Q3 2007. AT&T says its U-Verse service is available in millions of homes in 12 different states right now. With the future of municipal Wi-Fi access questionable, this offer from AT&T may be the best chance of getting free Wi-Fi Internet users get.
News source: DailyTech
AT&T's U-Verse will have 10mbit for $55, which for the little extra is a no brainer for myself. Upload also goes up from 768k to 1.5mbit.
In addition, the U-Verse plans have more of a bang for the buck. In addition, Comcast charges $15/month now for a DVR in my area whereas it is just included with U-Verse.
Once my current promotions expire, my Comcast will be close to $150 per month. A similar U-Verse would be roughly $100. Granted there are some minor differences that may or may not be a deal breaker to some - HD Quality, only 1 HD stream at once - but it can at least be used for bargaining with Comcast to give a competitive rate.
Edit - Did some math and getting them as close as possible service wise, Comcast costs me $159.89 and AT&T $124.00 FWIW.
As you can see, the Wi-Fi isn't really as important to me (Detroit doesn't have the greatest coverage) as more bandwidth.
Last edited by Troll on 25 Jan 2008 - 12:06
I want to switch away from Roadrunner.
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