14 DAY TRIAL // AT&T has just announced a new speed plan for its subscribers to the U-Verse DSL service. The cable and Internet service provider will bring a new service, called AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Max, that will boost the network traffic up to 10Mbps down and 1.5Mbps up.
The new plan will be available since February, but only to the U-Verse cable TV providers. Summing up, the extra bandwidth will cost the average user between $99 to $154 per month, which would easily cover the costs of an optical fiber Internet access subscription.
"With our new Max tier, customers will get more available speed, at a great value, in addition to enhanced features that are integrated with AT&T U-verse TV," said Bob Bickerstaff, AT&T VP of data products. "We look forward to bringing our customers even more innovative services that leverage the strength of our U-verse network."
The speed increase was possible due to an improvement in the network hardware and architecture. According to AT&T spokesman Brad Mays, the company will continue improving its Internet-based services as well as the supplied bandwidth. "We're seeing higher bandwidth at customer homes than originally forecast, with a downstream speed minimum of 25Mbps on our longest loop lengths, and even greater speeds at shorter loop lengths," Mays said.
However, a great amount of data bandwidth will be dedicated to the TV sector, since it needs a constant data transfer rate of 6 Mbps in order to properly stream at least two HD video signals. Although AT&T has increased its data transfer rate with 67 percent, the provider is still one of the "slowest" providers in the area. The market is currently under Verizon's domination with their FiOS service, that offers speeds up to 30Mbps down and 15Mbps up at only $159.95 per month.
Another dangerous player is cable provider Comcast. The upcoming DOCSIS 3.0 Internet-over-Cable specifications will unleash speeds of up to 100Mbps in a two-year timeframe.