AT&T to extend DSL to more customers

AT&T TO EXTEND DSL TO MORE CUSTOMERS
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune 7/20, AUTHOR: Jon Van]
YouTube's political parodies and sports replays on ESPN.com are little more than empty dreams to thousands of Illinois computer users who still limp along with dial-up connections because they cannot get low-cost broadband from their phone company. Customers who have more than 14,000 feet of copper line between their residence and the phone company's central office aren't able to get digital subscriber line service because the signal deteriorates over longer distances. AT&T estimates that 87 percent of its Illinois customers can now buy DSL service, but that means 13 percent still cannot get it. Network upgrades will extend coverage so that, by the end of 2008, 90 percent of customers will be covered, Kirk Brannock, AT&T's Midwest network services senior vice president, said Thursday. AT&T is extending fiber deeper into neighborhoods so that customers who have been too far from the central office to get broadband will be close enough to a fiber-fed remote station to get DSL, Brannock said. The company is also starting to offer a high-speed service to people who are just a few thousand feet beyond the previous limit of 14,000 feet.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-fri_atampt_0720jul20,0,759099...