Thread regarding AT&T layoffs

How much of this fiber is actually having service run through it. Always wondered how SS’s (in some instances) could roll customers into a existing fiber when a big copper would take a extremely long time to repair. You would think that it wouldn’t take emergency situations for this to happen.

Incredibly we in the Chicagoland area have seen massive penetration of Fiber. Fiber deployment for the neighborhood will be suspended in June as the Company shifts resources to 5G rollout. Expect a moderate investment back into the Fiber rollout next year. Copper won't ever be gone but it is dying off quickly. The 2020 target for ATT is still in sight.

If Google had any interest in copper they have not shown it. They called their initiative Google Fiber for a reason.

I agree w zok in that nobody in their right mind would buy a local exchange. I do think it will still be a long time before wireless becomes a fail sage replacement for copper. I believe the ILECS will become government subsidized to keep the bare minimum service afloat where fiber or wireless is not available.

Yes sir! 2 years ago they pumped 1 TERABIT p/s through regular old fiber in deployment now.. It was in a lab setting, but now you see the commercial benefits of that lab work. 400gbps folks!!

And the world keeps turning... with or without the CWA, CORE, or Wire Techs...

Telecommunications Act of 1996

@bxq

I believe First Net will incorporate 5G technology. Here's a short 4 min video on 5G

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLRcVeIuONM

The important thing to pay attention to is that new millimeter spectrum that only travels short distances. That is going to require antenna deployment.

And then there is work being done to quadruple the bandwidth on a single fiber from 100gbps to 400gbps.

https://about.att.com/innovationblog/2019/04/open_source_and_white_box.html

That network is fine for 4G, but needs work for 5G. Lots of work. As the copper door closes, the wireless door opens.

forget that nobody is buying the copper network...look what has happened to Frontier? Windstream in bad shape.

There is still money to be made they just choose not to make it relevant. Not sure if they would spin it off somehow ?

I believe at&t is planning to sell off their copper trunks/service to another company in the future. Theyve already done it before. Their biggest challenge is finding a buyer. Frontier is no longer a likely buyer as they are struggling to avoid bankruptcy. Would a company such as amazon or google buy the copper business ? Possibly but unlikely. Our saving grace may just be at&t struggling to find a buyer. Make no mistake , at&t wants to only be a wireless company. They dream of the day where they don’t need techs in the field. They look at Apple and amazon and Facebook and google , and they want to be that. No tech salaries to support , no copper service to maintain. Directv Now is just the latest example. No tech needed. And for enterprise customers , they are turning more and more to third party contracting.

True, unless T forces customers off the copper. Lots of customers w/ fiber running internet and still using copper T1 for voice. Still turning up new DDS(DS0) for power companies and railroads. Still lots of places that 99% of wireless doesn't cover.

So confused on the "massive build out" for First Net. If our wireless network is as good as every thing management and 80 billion TV commercials a day tells us, then there shouldn't be much to build out. I say the uppers have NFC how poor our wireless coverage actually is, and I have a strong feeling that it won't get much better even with all of the federal money for First Net. I still don't see us connecting EVERYONE where they live, work, and play.

All att states except Cali had passed legislation that we do not have to be provider of last resort. So there is nothing that says we have to serve that double wide anymore (other than cali). So at some point in future att will make those customers cut to fixed home wireless if they want to keep home home.