Yesterday we explored Verizon's response to Comcast's DOCSIS 3.0 trials, as well as their statement that they could ultimately offer consumers speeds up to 400Mbps (but won't anytime soon). Ars Technica reconstitutes our discussion, but reminds you that AT&T and Qwest are nowhere to be found amidst the bandwidth bragging. Ars notes that AT&T is giving U-Verse customers only 6Mbps of bandwidth for now -- but they don't note that the company should be able to deliver faster speeds via pair bonding.

The current rumor seems to be that AT&T will somehow announce faster speeds before the end of the year, but there are limitations. We've seen reports of U-Verse gateways syncing at nearly 100Mbps, though we're talking about only 1,400 feet from the DSLAM. It seems that 25Mbps is working well at distances of 3,000 feet; distances higher than 5,000 feet are where the trouble starts.

Of course, the squeeze is only going to get tighter: "As we've said all along, we will launch our HD offering with a single HD stream," says AT&T's Wes Warnock. "Shortly thereafter, we'll enable a second HD stream. When this happens, customers will be able to use 2 streams of HD and still have 2 SD streams to either watch or record."

The question remains whether sticking with copper was the right choice. "On average, we're bringing fiber to within 3,000 feet of customers' homes," AT&T's Denise Koenig recently told us -- which, of course, always gives them the option to run FTTH later. Despite denials from AT&T, Wall Street analysts keep insisting the company will ultimately shift to FTTH.

In the meantime: Juice Boosted U-Verse, perhaps?