Study on AT&T’s fiber deployment: 1Gbps for the rich, 768kbps for the poor
Median incomes $41,000 higher where AT&T builds fiber in California.
JON BRODKIN - APR 25, 2017 8:01 PM UTC
Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock
AT&T's deployment of fiber-to-the-home in California has been heavily concentrated in higher-income neighborhoods, giving affluent people access to gigabit speeds while others are stuck with Internet service that doesn't even meet state and federal broadband standards, according to a new analysis.
"Because there is no regulatory oversight of AT&T’s fiber-to-the-home deployment, AT&T is free to choose the communities in which it builds its all-fiber GigaPower network," UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society wrote in a report released today. "Our analysis finds that AT&T has built its all-fiber network disproportionately in higher income communities. If this pattern continues, it has troubling consequences for low- and moderate-income Californians, leaving many without access to AT&T’s gold standard all-fiber network and exacerbating the digital divide."