AT&T has put up its new high-speed Internet terms of service for 2011 at
------------------- When AT&T is able to provision Service to you via our U-verse High Speed Internet at your location, we may, in our discretion, discontinue your DSL service and make available to you AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet at the then applicable rates, terms and conditions, which may differ from your previous DSL Service rates, terms and conditions (including bundle discounts). If you are on a term plan and your price will increase as a result of this conversion, you will not have to pay any applicable ETF if you elect to cancel service.
Your new AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet will require different customer premises equipment ("CPE"). When you are selected for conversion, we will provide at least thirty days' notice of the discontinuation of your service via e-mail. Thirty days after such notice, we may at our sole discretion, either disconnect your service or temporarily suspend your service for up to fifteen days before we permanently discontinue service. -------------------
I have no idea if this is there for convenience "just in case" they decide they don't want to provide DSL anymore when U-verse is available, or if this is the beginning of a DSL phase-out. I do know that one of the reasons I keep DSL is that nice CO-powered wire that stays active even when a big storm takes away our electricity for a week, something only the phone company can provide. If they take that away, suddenly their competitors start to look a lot more enticing.
John C. Fowler, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com