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AT&T’s WiMAX Internet service in Alaska will be switched off Jan. 31, forcing rural Alaskan customers to find an alternative for inexpensive wireless service in areas where DSL or cable broadband is unavailable.
The company stopped signing up new customers last March and has been repeatedly notifying existing customers they will need to find an alternative service soon.
AT&T is shutting off the aging WiMAX network, which delivered up to 2Mbps service at prices starting at around $20 a month, in favor of newer wireless broadband services, including AT&T’s LTE 4G service and Wi-Fi hot spots.
AT&T is recommending customers switch to one of its mobile broadband plans. But WiMAX customers are likely to experience sticker shock when they see the difference in price.
AT&T charges $40 a month for just 1GB of usage plus an additional $20 a month device fee on its Mobile Share Device Data Plan.
AT&T never really tried with the service in Alaska, and crippled it with high prices and bundling of their landline phone long distance in order to get a small discount. The first issue was their WiMax towers had poor line of sight to many areas causing low signal strength for prospective or current customers. This caused most customers to either get no signal thus returning the units, or intermittent signals causing lots of packet loss and high latency. The second issue was the bundling of AT&T long distance to get a modest discount so your price matched their advertised pricing.… Read more »
What a shame. It makes me sad to hear when any presumably remote rural area loses it’s Internet access. Perhaps some folks can form a co-op and buy the Wimax equipment to keep it running. Alternately, the government could buy it as a backup communication system for emergencies, and a primary link for animal tracking and weather and observation stations. Locate those stations at folk’s homes and allow them Internet access for their participation *wink*.
I found my notes on the AT&T pricing when I looked into it. 1 Mbit IF you had a lineline and switch to AT&T Long distance was $19.95/mo, otherwise it was $49.95/mo 2 Mbit was $40.95/mo with AT&T Long distance service, otherwise it was $59.95/mo without. They had 3Mbit service available early on but seem to had discontinued it in the last year or two of offering the WiMax service. ACS DSL in the area at the time was offered at 1 Mbit for $69/mo (including local phone service), and 3 Mbit for $89/mo. Note that you can now get… Read more »