AT&T: No regrets for not rolling out FTTH

Unlike its rival Verizon, AT&T chose to deploy fiber-to-the-node (FTTN), instead of the more costly fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), and during a recent conference AT&T CTO Richard Lindner defended the company's decision: "Our view at this point is that we're not going to have [to run] fiber to the home... We're pleased with the bandwidth that we're seeing over copper." Analysts estimate the cost of FTTH per actual customer acquired is about $9,650. While a home may be passed with FTTH, the owner is not necessarily going to subscribe to the service. The bottomline squares, but will the network scale?

Verizon FiOS subscribers get speeds of 30Mbps/5Mbps for $179.95 per month and 15Mbps/2Mbps for $44.95 per month, while AT&T's service tops 6Mbps down and a 1Mbps up. How long will those numbers suffice for AT&T? Three, four or five years?

For more on AT&T's FTTN strategy:
- see this post over at Arstechnica