[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KEYE Austin Gigabit Internet Already A Reality At UT 4-9-13.flv[/flv]

Some Austin area residents already have access to a gigabit network — the one at the University of Texas at Austin. The Texas Advanced Computing Center uses gigabit speeds to generate computer modeling and process enormous amounts of data. The need for speed and capacity grows at the university by about 40 percent a year, but that does not present much trouble to the institution. Despite the growth, Brad Englert, chief information officer at UT says they can handle it.

“We’re able to keep up with that because the cost of bandwidth keeps going down as we buy more,” Englert told KEYE-TV Austin.  (1 minute)

Where to put all the cash?

While you received a 2% cost of living salary hike that was eroded away by rising health insurance premiums this year, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts took $29.1 million in total compensation straight to the bank in 2012, walking home with $3.5 million more this year than last.

Most of Roberts’ compensation is tied to incentive pay that rises along with the value of Comcast stock. Roberts base salary remained flat at $2.8 million, but his non-equity incentive awards rose right along with the 61 percent increase in the value of Comcast stock over 2012. Comcast executive compensation was disclosed in a proxy statement last week.

Comcast stock is up another 11% so far in 2013, fueled by earnings increases from its broadband service and rate increases that have helped the company maintain revenue numbers despite basic video customer losses.

Other Comcast executives are sharing in the pay bonanza. Chief financial officer Michael Angelakis deposited $23.2 million in compensation during 2012, a six percent increase. NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke, now part of the Comcast family, saw his pay rise by 11% from $23.6 million to $26.3 million. Executive vice president David Cohen got a 5% salary boost to $15.9 million last year.

The head of the cable division — Neil Smit — did not do as well. He had to make do with only $18.3 million in 2012 — a 1% decline from his 2011 pay of $18.5 million. With that kind of salary, he might be just one step away from buying store brands, clipping coupons, and turning down the thermostat at night.

On the heels of today’s announcement from Google that it intends to make Austin, Tex. the next home for Google Fiber, AT&T issued a press release claiming it was suddenly interested in building a gigabit fiber network in Austin too.

Today, AT&T announced that in conjunction with its previously announced Project VIP expansion of broadband access, it is prepared to build an advanced fiber optic infrastructure in Austin, Texas, capable of delivering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second.  AT&T’s expanded fiber plans in Austin anticipate it will be granted the same terms and conditions as Google on issues such as geographic scope of offerings, rights of way, permitting, state licenses and any investment incentives. This expanded investment is not expected to materially alter AT&T’s anticipated 2013 capital expenditures.

Currently, AT&T’s U-verse system in Austin — a fiber to the neighborhood system — cannot exceed 25Mbps as it is now configured. GigaOm’s Stacy Higginbotham reports AT&T told her it would build its own fiber to the premises system in Austin to support faster speeds.

But AT&T’s announcement does not come without plenty of wiggle room which could make today’s announcement little more than a publicity stunt:

1. AT&T claims it will build “infrastructure” capable of delivering “up to” 1Gbps. This could mean a network that supports a maximum of 1Gbps of shared Internet traffic, not 1Gbps to each home or business;
2. AT&T does not say it intends this network for residential customers, nor did it suggest a monthly price for gigabit service. Its Project VIP expansion describes planned broadband speed upgrades for residential U-verse customers of up to 75Mbps and for U-verse IPDSLAM to speeds of up to 45Mbps, not 1Gbps;
3. AT&T’s Project VIP already specifies fiber network build outs, but they are destined for cell towers, large business complexes, and multi-dwelling units that will share a fiber connection;
4. AT&T wants the same terms and conditions Google has received, including investment incentives. But AT&T could have applied for those incentives, and potentially could have already received them, if it specified plans for a gigabit network of its own. Instead, AT&T executives have always believed residential customers do not want or need gigabit broadband speeds. In fact, AT&T still doesn’t believe fiber to the home service makes economic sense, which is why it invested in a cheaper fiber to the neighborhood system that still relies on old copper wiring. AT&T also warns that, “Our potential capital investment will depend on the extent we can reach satisfactory agreements” with local officials on those incentives;
5. Wiring a city of Austin will cost tens of millions to reach every resident with service. Such an expense might be considered materially relevant to shareholders, requiring disclosure. Building a much lesser network, like a gigabit middle mile network or only offering fiber service to institutional or commercial customers would cost far less and could escape reporting requirements.

AT&T also did not miss an opportunity to promote its deregulatory agenda, which has so far not proved to be of much help to broadband speed enthusiasts stuck with DSL or U-verse.

“Most encouraging is the recognition by government officials that policies which eliminate unnecessary regulation, lower costs and speed infrastructure deployment, can be a meaningful catalyst to additional investment in advanced networks which drives employment and economic growth,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO.

AT&T’s agenda might result in a meaningful catalyst of a different kind — the end of rural landline telephone and broadband service.

While large private corporations return profits to shareholders and avoid major infrastructure upgrades, publicly owned municipal providers are moving customers to carefully planned and budgeted fiber-to-the-home networks that offer service at speeds AT&T, the state’s largest telecom company, cannot touch.

This summer, Spencer, Iowa (pop. 11,200) is getting a fiber upgrade utility officials consider an investment in the community.

“Just like Internet service has evolved from dial-up to DSL and cable modem, fiber will give customers the next level of service to continue to improve the way they live, work and play here in Spencer,” Amanda Gloyd, Spencer Municipal Utilities marketing and community relations manager told The Daily Reporter.

SMU will spend $2 million to extend fiber service this year, decommissioning copper telephone wires and coaxial cable as it brings the new network online in different sections of the community.

“This will offer a lot more capacity than the old system with less shared,” Jeff Rezabek, SMU’s telecom manager told the newspaper. The project will create much-needed work for area contractors that will install the new fiber lines.

Customers are happy to learn the upgrade will not affect their rates, because SMU has been carefully setting aside money to pay for the project without burdening customers.

“This project is all paid for with cash in the bank,” said SMU general manager Steve Pick. “This is an investment in the system.”

Outside of Spencer, rural AT&T customers still cannot get DSL or U-verse service and are now at risk of losing their landlines as AT&T ponders taking down its wired network and forcing customers to more expensive wireless service.

The upgrades in Spencer will take several years to complete, as available funding allows. SMU is a municipally owned utility providing water, electricity, telephone, cable television, and broadband at speeds up to 100/10Mbps. The utility also resells T-Mobile wireless service.

We do love fiber to the home broadband around here, especially when Verizon responsibly avoids usage caps of any kind, but we’re still surprised they re-tweeted us on their official Verizon Twitter channel. Verizon has received well-deserved compliments for offering fiber upgrades while other phone companies tough it out with DSL or offer half-measures like AT&T’s U-verse. Our biggest complaint is that the rest of VerizonLand doesn’t have a clear path to get the service (and the fact our headquarters are in Rochester, N.Y., the only major city in New York not served by Verizon, so no FiOS for us… ever. Frontier Communications is our local telephone provider, and they have underwhelmed us for years.)