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AT&T Won't Upgrade Millions Of DSL Users To Fiber Despite Billions In Subsidies
Four years years ago AT&T, a company that, for years, cheapened out on upgrading its broadband lines to fiber, effectively stopped selling DSL. While that’s understandable given the limitations…
While that’s understandable given the limitations of the dated copper-based tech, the problem is that thanks to concentrated telecom monopolization, many of these customers were left without any replacement options due to a lack of competition. They’re experts at something I affectionately call “fiber to the press release.” AT&T insists that less affordable, more expensive, and more capacity-constrained satellite or wireless will have to be “good enough” for users left just out of reach. So superficially you’ll see people say things like “of course AT&T doesn’t want to spend money to upgrade aging lines to fiber, it’s expensive!” But they ignore a very long history of the company endlessly defrauding taxpayers, ripping off subsidy programs, and just generally taking untold billions of dollars for networks that routinely, mysteriously, wind up half completed.
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