In 2003 I went from dial-up playing the game to ATT DSL playing the game. My ping time on dial-up was 166-220 from Oakland ca, on DSL my ping time was 56-66.
In 2006-07 my ping time to the game servers on DSL increased to 110 along with all of my in state California ping times increasing from 4-8 to 24-48. I vaguely remember something going on between ATT and Netflix along with a nation wide increase in internet video streaming. Along the way both ATT and Comcast notified their broadband customers that monthly usage overages for data downloads would be enforced.
Three months ago I started getting official letters from ATT warning me that they had just brought fiber within 100 yards of my location and would be throwing the switch for all broadband users moving us to fiber. They wanted me to pay 20-50$ more a month and upgrade to the new and improved broadband high bandwidth packages that would be the ATT standard. I ignored them.
Two weeks ago they threw the switch in Oakland ca, and WoW, it time warped me back to 2003. I now have a 60 ping time to the game servers in Texas and in state ping times of 1-8 depending on the city. Starting in 1998 and finishing in 2001 I watched ATT dig up Oakland streets feeding in fiber. The fiber has been 100 yards from my house down in the street for 12 years now. That was why I was able to get DSL per the 2003 ATT site survey that notified me I qualified for DSL at my location. ATT was very proud of the fact they had fiber at my location. I know ATT is a private Corporation. This nonsense sounds like the kind of service provided by the federal government.
