Will Tucson Arizona get 1 Gbps fiber Internet access from CenturyLink?

Jul 2 2012
By Jonathan Spike

Tucson, Arizona is a town that has DSL for its Internet access.  Depending on how much you wish to spend per month and your distance from the CO (Central Office), you can get download speeds of up to 40 Mbps and upload speeds of 5 Mbps maximum.

In some areas only much lower speeds are available.  It is still better than dial-up Internet.

Qwest used to run the show in Tucson until CenturyLink bought them and took over their landline services.  The change of ownership didn’t affect the service as the residents can still only get the DSL service.

CenturyLink has pulled fiber in a couple of select markets.  They are offering a new product called Prism TV.  It also has an Internet connection that is limited to a 10 Mbps download speed.

Why they did this is up for conjecture as theoretically they could offer 1 Gbps to the home.  It is a possibility that their backhaul may not support everybody, but that is purely speculation on my part.

However, CenturyLink is slowly expanding the number of markets where it is offering Prism.  They have even revealed they are including a couple of areas where Qwest has copper infrastructure.

Unfortunately they have not released the specific areas or the timing as to when the Prism services will be activated.

Guillermo Figueroa, a spokesman for CenturyLink told David Wichner of the Arizona Daily Star. “We hope to announce future deployments of Prism TV in the next few months”

CenturyLink has requested a video franchise from the city of Tempe, Arizona, but so far no public announcement as to the approval has been made.

Mr. Wichner has retained hopes that Tucson will eventually get the high-speed fiber service.

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