Last week, 90 years Aaron Epstein took a quarter page ad in the Wall Street Journal hoping to convince AT&T to update its systemhow-DSL Internet molasses for fiber. Supposedly, it cost Epstein $ 10,000 to withdraw that Ads, but apparently it worked. The North Hollywood, California resident is getting ultra-fast speeds today, and we love it for him.
According Ars Technica, after Epstein’s story went viral and landed interviews with TV networks and a brief mention of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, AT&T came to his home this week and installed fiber internet for him and his wife, Anne. The couple now reaches more than 300 Mbps speeds instead of 3 Mbps that they were receiving before.
It was not a simple task for the technicians, but they connected Epstein and his wife to a better internet in just two days. Epstein’s neighbors two or three blocks away was already AT&T Fiber, but for some reason Epstein’s house was not connected for that. Epstein told Ars Technica that AT&T said the installation of extra wiring was costing the company “Thousands and thousands of dollars.“According to Ars, there was some confusion about whether AT&T would completely connect the Epstein neighborhood. AT&T did not mention whether its immediate neighbors would receive fiber internet at some point in the future, now that the lines are installed on their street, which connects to the fiber lines in the same neighborhood, just a few blocks away.
Not everyone has $ 10,000 to place in a newspaper ad, nor should ISPs be required to provide equitable internet service. Even Epstein says it was the media that picked up his story that prompted AT&T to act, not necessarily the announcement. But if AT&T can, in the fall of a hat, put fiber to someone’s home in two days, although it’s supposed to cost thousands of dollars, so it looks like the ISP should be able to do the same for more neighborhoods, especially areas where the residents’ only option is AT&T DSL.
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Epstein was lucky in that respect, however. He has a choice – if you can call it that – between AT&T and Spectrum, but he wanted to switch completely to AT&T because his phone service is done through them.
Last october, AT&T announced that it would no longer offer DSL as a new service. Those who already pay for DSL, like Epstein, could maintain the service, but the company would not sell anymore DSL plans. This is the main problem, because of many Americans, AT&T DSL is the only ISP option.
A joint report Communications Workers of America (CWA) and National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDLA).Ied that AT&T has connected newer and richer neighborhoods to fiber and only establishing a fiber base in some unattended and needy areas. Epstein’s case seems to be a classic example of this event.
An AT&T speakspreviously told person Ars that their “investment decisions are based on their [its] network and demand for [its] Services. “But you shouldn’t have to put an ad in one of the biggest newspapers in the country for your best service to be heard.