When will AT&T upgrade us to 2G/5G tiers? How do I make it known I want it!

ATT GPON splitters were installed 2016 to early 2022 (about 16 million locations)

Some XSGPON were started to be installed late 2021 primarily as expansion to existing PFP. Since mid 2022, last year+, all new activated PFPs have been XSGPON. Are the neighborhoods around you recently been turned on for fiber while your neighborhood was part of the first 5 year buildout (2016-end 2020)?

While over time older PFPs will receive some new splitters for higher speeds, for accounts wanting the upgrade would be a new installation (estimated total time 90 to 120 minutes.

Consider ATT is installing 250,000 new accounts per quarter or 3200 fiber installs per day with still some limitations on BGW 320 gateways and tech shortages. It would be difficult to start massive upgrade PLUS new installs, my opinion.

But ATT has stated their biggest issue like many businesses is having the manpower, higher wages and sign on bonus ($5k to $10k) to meet current needs. From start date to able to perform unassisted can be 4 to 5 months. At 6 months the new hires start working Saturdays, prior strictly Monday to Friday.

I hear what you’re saying, but you can’t simply forget about your existing clientele. From what I can tell there is literally no way for a current customer to make AT&T aware that they want the faster tiers and that’s my problem. How do I let AT&T know that I want the faster tiers so that they’ll know to upgrade my area sooner, rather than later (never, from what you’re saying)?

AT&T is not forgetting their existing customers but as @my thoughts pointed out just like any business AT&T can't keep up with a balance of new customer roll-out and Splitter upgrades to existing PFP Splittters to XGS-PON to support 2 and 5 Gbps tiers.

TL/DR: No way to individually request an upgrade until a XGS-PON Splitter is installed in your existing PFP. Again another Supply issue from Corning. All Fiber components are in constrained status.

They are upgrading existing G-PON Splitters in existing PFPs. My neighborhood got Fiber in 2018 and we got a Splitter Upgrade to XGS-PON last summer. 

We also have Comcast Fiber but it is not a true EPON. They install a powered RFoG (Radio Frequency over Glass) adapter (aka ONT) in an external NID. Power is 12v back-fed from any existing Coax connect that has an available AC outlet available.

They did not want to make the commitment that AT&T chose a couple of years ago to run Fiber all the way into the home to allow simple customer self-install upgrades to higher speed service by sending out a small SFP+ Optical transceiver to replace your existing G-PON service to XGS-PON.

It is not perfect since there are still supply issues with the BGW320s.

Dave

No not never, when needed is my observation…

Example an older PFP (2018) with GPON splitters which support 32 accounts each is installed in a large area (432  addresses single door cabinet, a double door cabinet which supports up to 864). Initially have (4) splitters installed supporting the first 128 accounts, they fill to 100+, on last splitter ATT adds (2) GPON (2020) allowing for 192  total… fills to 180 ATT now adds the new XSGPON splitter (64 connections) for total 256 total. The addresses are now updated to support internet 2000/5000.

With 2.5 years left on current fiber buildout to reach 30+ million I would expect by start of 2026, 20 million will be XSGPON available and 10 million GPON. Primarily due to all new PFPs and any expansion of capacity PFP will be XSGPON.

What can you do, make sure everyone in neighborhood have ordered service to max out the capacity of existing PFP.

ATT take rate is around 38% meaning with 20+ million fiber passed addresses there are only 7.3 million fiber accounts.

Next is what these accounts are ordering, across the board the average is less than $67 per account, meaning the vast majority is only willing to pay for the lowest speed tier internet 300… image if majority were paying for internet 1000, would be an indication of demand for faster speeds.

Is there a way to request other than asking to be notified for when higher speeds become available, not that I am aware of…but requesting to be notified is expressing an interest in faster speeds.

@dave006 

We’re actually getting EPON from Comcast which is why it’s taking forever and a day to complete. They are in the final stage of doing the in home install, 200 homes at a time (out of 1900 in our neighborhood). It’ll be a few months more before they get to my section, but once they do I’ll have fiber from Comcast and ATT, albeit neither faster than gigabit, for now. Once the complete EPON install is done (likely ending in my section), then I’m sure Comcast will make new tiers available. It would be nice if AT&T beat them to this, but it looks like that will not be happening.

For what it’s worth, all the neighborhoods around me got fiber at roughly the same time we mine did. My neighborhood has a contract with Comcast, which is why we were able to get true EPON, but I don’t believe the other neighborhoods necessarily have such a contract. Perhaps that’s why they’ve been upgraded to XGS and we haven’t… because AT&T likely gets more customers in these neighborhoods.

At any rate, I prefer AT&T to Comcast (for now, who knows maybe Comcast EPON will be better than their HFC) and I wish I could get the faster tiers now. 😞

My neighborhood has a contract with Comcast, which is why we were able to get true EPON, but I don’t believe the other neighborhoods necessarily have such a contract. Perhaps that’s why they’ve been upgraded to XGS and we haven’t… because AT&T likely gets more customers in these neighborhoods.

Same case here it was a race between AT&T and Comcast for our neighborhood. Comcast cheated and rolled out the RFoG solution to offer a quicker install schedule so they got the basic all units in  neighborhood contract. The HOA was clueless about the differences between Comcast and AT&T.

AT&T already had everything engineered and and in plan the still installed AT&T Fiber as an overlay. They were a few months late since they had to steal our planned PFP to help rebuild the Florida Keys after they were flooded out by salt water.

I have both AT&T and Comcast. My primary is AT&T Fiber 1000 and "my" backup is Xfinity 400/20.

Dave

@my thoughts  Thanks for sharing your insights on AT&T's splitter designs.  You described XGS-PON segments being divided 64 ways. 

Considering an unusual scenario where all subscribers on each fully-provisioned segment are doing bulk transfers at the same time, I calculate that the subscribers would see transfer rates of 156 Mbps.

Are there scenarios where smaller splitters are deployed to provide greater bandwidth per subscriber, such as under bulk agreements?

Does AT&T typically deploy OLTs in central offices or in neighborhood cabinets with the splitters?

Bill

OLTs are in the CO…. 
GPON is 2.5G fiber to the PFP with max of 32 ports on each splitter while XGSPON is 10G fiber to the PFP with max 64 ports per splitter. 

Can the company install additional splitters and reduce the accounts per splitter, yes… but if accounts are already on a splitter would require tech appointment (installation) to change the physical connection and perform a swap of splitter and new activation to new splitter.

Ideally XGSPONs are staggered, example if (4) splitters in the PFP the first install goes to splitter 1, next to splitter 2, then splitter 3 and final splitter 4 which means accounts 1, 5, 9, 13, 17 etc are on splitter 1 with 2, 6, 10, 14, 18 on spkitter 2.

As (4) splitters is 256 ports (potential accounts) at 40% take rate would be 102 accounts or average of 25 accounts per splitter. At least 80 of those accounts would be the minimum of 300, initially lowest fiber speed was 100 on GPON.