AT&T Sues Charter Over Fiber-Powered Claims as Spectrum Fiber Reaches 2.3% of U.S. Homes
Updated
Updated · CNET · Aug 28
AT&T Sues Charter Over Fiber-Powered Claims as Spectrum Fiber Reaches 2.3% of U.S. Homes
3 articles · Updated · CNET · Aug 28
Summary
AT&T sued Charter on Friday, saying Spectrum’s “fiber-powered” ads mislead customers into thinking they are buying full fiber-to-the-home service.
The dispute turns on Spectrum’s network design: its cable plans typically use fiber for most of the route but switch to coaxial lines for the last mile, with uploads topping out around 40 Mbps while downloads exceed 1,000 Mbps.
FCC data cited in the report show Spectrum offers fiber plans to 2.3% of U.S. households, versus 29.9% for its cable plans; in Dallas, Spectrum covers about 608,000 households and AT&T nearly 495,000.
The lawsuit follows a March advertising challenge in which Spectrum agreed to clarify that its “fiber-powered” service is not delivered over fiber-to-the-home infrastructure, though its website still notes the coax connection in fine print.