AT&T ups its FTTH speed to 24 Mbps

April 10, 2013 | By Sean Buckley

AT&T (NYSE: T) is increasing the speeds for customers that are on its fiber to the premises (FTTP) U-verse network to 24/3 Mbps, up from 18/1.5 Mbps, according to a Broadband DSL Reports article.

While the service provider has been an advocate of fiber to the node (FTTN), it does offer FTTP-based services in some select locations, particularly in Greenfield housing developments.

One of the users in Broadband Reports' forums said that they were only told about the speed boost when they notified AT&T they were going to switch to Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC).

"I called to cancel U-Verse because Time Warner offers Docsis 3.0 speeds for far cheaper in the Austin area," the user wrote. "Uverse told me that select FTTH customers can now get 24/3 instead of the previous cap of 18/1.5."

What's interesting about the new tier is that FTTP can offer much higher speeds. Besides Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) 300 Mbps Quantum offering, Google Fiber (Nasdaq: GOOG) and municipal providers such as Chattanooga, Tenn.-based EPB Fiber are providing 1 Gbps.

As part of its Project VIP initiative, AT&T said it plans to deliver 45 and later 75 Mbps to users that are close to a VRAD on their FTTN network, and possibly its FTTP infrastructure, later this year via VDSL2 with bonding and vectoring.

Following Google Fiber's announcement in Austin, Texas, on Tuesday, AT&T quickly said it would offer a 1 Gbps service in the city without offering any specific timeline.