Ten Reasons You Should Dump AT&T Broadband
July 15, 2012 102 Comments
Last update: April 22, 2014
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Over ninety percent of AT&T’s 11.3 million U-verse TV subscribers also pay for AT&T’s high-speed Internet services. While the U-Verse TV service is very good, their DSL service is bad. Read on to find out why.
Ten Reasons You Should Dump Your AT&T Broadband Service
1. You’ll Save Money for at Least a Year
Broadband speeds vary, but there is a good chance you’ll save money for a least a year when you switch broadband providers. That’s because you can take advantage of special introductory offers. By switching from AT&T’s Elite DSL to Time Warner’s Standard Internet, we are saving $10 a month. But that’s just the first of many reasons to switch.
Netflix ranks AT&T DSL speeds next to last place
2. DSL Speeds Are Slower than Cable
We paid AT&T extra for 6Mbps, but rarely saw speeds that high.
Cable modem download speeds are typically two times faster than DSL.That’s because DSL providers like AT&T cap speeds at 3Mbps. To get faster data rates, we decided to pay extra for AT&T’s 6Mbps Elite plan, but Speedtest tells us AT&T’s is slower than 75% U.S. broadband providers. They give AT&T a “D” grade during peak usage hours. Our data speeds weren’t always that low, they sometimes peaked around 5-6Mbps, but the data rate jumped around so much, the average was often lower. A recent government study found that AT&T only delivers 87% of the speed they advertise, while Cablevision, Comcast, Mediacom, Verizon and ViaSat all deliver speeds that are greater than advertised. Netflix also rates ISPs and unsurprisingly, AT&T DSL ranks near the bottom of their ratings shown above. U-verse also underperformed cable-based broadband from Time Warner and others..
A recent government study found that AT&T only delivers 87% of the speed they advertise
3. AT&T Seems Unable to Provide Consistent Data Speeds
DSL speeds should be more constant than cable speeds, but we found the opposite to be true. In the beginning, AT&T delivered speeds close to 6Mbps most of the time, but over the past four years we’ve seen our average speed drop dramatically. As you can see from the chart on the right, we’re not getting near the amount of data we’re paying for. Worse yet, AT&T’s data speeds frequently drop to almost zero.
Notice how our download speeds used to vary from zero to 3 Mbps
The Wall Street Journal recently confirmed my assertion that AT&T delivers Internet speeds that are worse than advertised. In fact, they along with Verizon, are the worst offenders in this area.
4. AT&T’s Customer Support is Horrendous
AT&T has the worst phone support I’ve ever experienced. They hide the customer support phone number on their site and then make you jump through hoops to get it. The site asks: Which of these four customer types are you? What is your Zip code? What type of support do you need? Then you finally see a ‘Call Us’ button. Now you enter AT&T phone tree hell. “I see you’re calling from 858-731-5252,” says the computer voice. “Is this the phone number where the problem is occurring?” “No,” I say. “Please say the 10 digital account number on your bill?” I say “I don’t know it.” “What type of service do you have? says the computer voice.” I answer.
Be prepared to jump through hoops on their website before you’re given a customer support phone number
5. AT&T Has One of the Lowest Data Caps & Throttles Those Who Exceed It
If you stream a lot of video, you are very likely to have your data speeds limited by AT&T. Most cable companies have limits of around 250GB, which isn’t that easy to reach. AT&T throttles users after 150GB a month. Although that seems like a lot of data, it’s not. If you stream movies or TV shows, or have kids who love YouTube, your family could consume more than this amount of data. Verizon doesn’t impose any type of cap on its FiOS and DSL lines. Time Warner has no specific limits, but can respond to excessive usage.
6. AT&T’s Network Has More Latency Than Others
We live in a new home that is hundreds of feet from the central office, so the quality of our broadband connection should be great, but we see horrible latency often. Occasionally these delays make it seem like we have to wait 15 to 30 seconds before web pages update. I used a site called Pingtest.net to prove the quality of the AT&T network in my area is poor.
Pingtest gives AT&T a “D” grade for line quality
7. AT&T Doesn’t Allow You to Purchase Your Own Equipment
AT&T provides their subscribers with a home gateway or cable modem. As far as I can tell they do not allow consumers to select their own hardware from a list and use it with AT&T services like Time Warner and other service providers do.
We decided to purchase our own cable modem
8. You Don’t Need DSL to Keep U-Verse TV
For the past two years we’ve wanted to cancel our AT&T DSL, but were told by their phone support reps that we needed to keep our DSL in order to get AT&T U-Verse. It turns out this is completely untrue. I wish we would have figured this out earlier. It would have saved us much frustration.
9. AT&T Hardware Doesn’t Support Advanced Wireless Technologies
If you’re a U-verse customer, you must use AT&T’s home gateway. The 2-Wire gateway that we were provided with has a built-in wireless router that doesn’t reach some of the rooms in our house. It also doesn’t support provide 5GHz 802.11 wireless support which is supported by our iPads and Samsung smartphones. This allows us to use a network that is much less congested than the normal 2.4GHz network all of our neighbors use. More info. The AT&T home gateway also doesn’t support advanced wireless features like 802.11n or wireless bonding (which increases data speeds).
After switching we saw our speeds go up dramatically
10. The AT&T U-Verse Home Gateway Limits the Quality of Third-party VOIP-based Phone Systems
In order to get the best quality with VOIP-based phone systems like Ooma or Vonage, you must connect directly to a broadband modem or to a router that can prioritize voice over data. The home gateway which AT&T provides only allows this when you pay extra for AT&T’s VOIP service. Even without changing the settings on our router, our Ooma phone system already sounds better because it’s not starved for data all of the time.
Was It Worth Switching?
It’s been well over a year since we cut the AT&T DSL cord. Was it worth it? YES! Switching was fast and easy and saved us $120 in the first year.
After switching to cable modem, we saw our speeds go way up and all of our problems go away. Here are some more details:
It’s Time For You to Switch
You owe it to yourself to investigate the alternatives to AT&T in your area. There’s a good chance you’ll save money and end up with faster data speeds. In less than a week you can switch. Installation is often free, and only takes about an hour. There is no configuration you have to do on your end. Just connect the cable from the new modem to your wireless router, and you’ll be enjoying faster speeds in minutes. Of course your mileage may vary, you might want to check with others in your area to see what their speeds are before making a change. In our case, switching was a smart thing to do.
– Rick
Note: This article isn’t intended to be a plug for Time Warner Cable. They are used for comparison purposes, because they are the only cable provider in our area. Make sure you look into all options in your area – including fibre-based broadband solutions like Google Fiber and Verizon’s FiOS.
Copyright 2013 Rick Schwartz. All rights reserved. Linking to this article is encouraged.
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About Rick E. Schwartz
Mostly-Tech 
We switched too. Thanks for the rundown.
AT&T is the worst don’t use them they will raise your rates without notice and then you will have to call and straighten it out for 45 minutes on the phone your get that done and then a few months later the same shit
AT&T GO to Hell
A few comments from a 10 year ATT user…
I find this article too biased and subjective. I have been using ATT DSL for about ~6 years and U-verse for about 4 years now. I have used different speeds ranging from 3-24Mbps with a price range of 23-30$/month. There is Charter and Time-Warner available around the same price range at my place. I recently changed from the U-Verse 3Mb package to 12Mb one. The earlier speedtest.com value was 3.8Mbps and it’s now 11.98Mbps. The latency is 23ms. The biggest problem of the ATT internet is the upload speed, it has a range of 1.5Mb – 3Mbps. So you are limited with the 3Mb at the best for the 24Mb package (Not sure about the 45Mb package).
You can get your own modem/router if you buy one of the compatible ones (look up the Uverse wiki). You can find cheaper ones on ebay – I think I’ve got mine for free when I switched to Uverse.
For the customer service I had good luck so far. A tip for getting a good discount is to call the customer service number to cancel your service directly, which I believe has representatives that are at the supervisor level and can give a 50% discount each year after the initial 1-year discount ends. The regular customer service fellows don’t know or are not eligible to give such discounts.
Now I don’t say the claims of the article above are wrong, I just think they are subjective and you should ask around where you live to find out what the service is like for each. Good luck finding a good service!
You obviously work for att
We don’t have a lot of choice in my area, but I am leaving AT&T. It is slower than dial-up used to be and I have DSL! I can’t even watch a short video without having to wait and wait! And it’s not my computer because I’ve had 6 different computers, and it’s not because they needed to fix something because I’ve called them out constantly. After four years, they FINALLY got it to stop turning off all the time! Now I have other choices and I’m checking them out. I won’t be on AT&T much longer! They are terrible, DSL is awful and their customer service is horrible.
lol this shit is slower than f*cking dial-up. the least reliable of all isps out there.
+ this must be an old article because I have uverse also and have to pay 7.00 dollars a mo. to rent their router+. and also have to call them every other mo. to argue about the bill+
On Sat (10/17), my service was interrupted, which happens frequently. Why is ATT even in the cable game? Somehow my account was suspended without my knowledge and consent. I asked the rep how my account could be cancelled when every time I call in, I’m required to give my pin. No one other than me has access to my account, right? Aren’t I the only party with the authority to cancel my account? No one at Uverse seems to know how it happened or why. Certainly, it’s not a billing issue. Payment is deducted automatically each month, which is Uverse’s requirement. I’ve called several times yesterday and today trying to get answers as to what’s going on with my account. I’m bounced around from dept to dept; dumped on unsuspecting reps – having to explain my situation again. Two calls were dropped and even though I was asked for my callback number nobody called me back. I had to call and pretty much start all over again explaining the issues. Further, I was told several times that service would be reconnected: first by COB, then by midnight, then again between 2 and 3 p.m. And the customer service – or lack thereof – is awful (particularly a manager by the alleged name of Roxanne). I was offered $20 for my inconvenience as if they’re doing my a favor. I work from home a lot so internet service is crucial. This ongoing interruption is more than inconvenient for me and costs more than a mere $20. Today, David, informs me that I have to reinstate my account in order to regain service. No way. I’m already deep into my second year in a contract with Uverse. Why would I want to start over when the service and customer service is so terrible? It’s 10/22 and I’m still without service. I have meritorious reasons to nullify this contract since I have continual interruption of service and this latest incident with my account being arbitrarily cancelled. There must be a class action coalescing somewhere. No way I’m the only one suffering through a contract with Uverse.
#7 is not correct – You can buy and use anything you want.. I am using a Netgear N300 Dual Wireless Band ADSL+ Router which is very cheap to buy. It also eliminates your issue #9 as it offers 5GHz WiFi. I am not a fan of AT&T at all – thinking of switching to Sonic, but just thought it better you get this story more accurate.
Thanks for the feedback Peter. I checked the Internet for a list of official AT&T U-Verse supported hardware like Time Warner has and could not find one. Please provide a link if you have one.
But you can’t use your own modem right?
I used my own modem with Time Warner. I also connected a second model to the AT&T U-verse router.
– Rick
#7 is correct, you are still forced to pass data through the un-reliable pace modem.
Spot on. I had AT&T for a long time, going back to when they were BellSouth. That company was easy to deal with. AT&T, however, is a customer service hell. The answer you get from one rep, once you get to them, is totally different from what you heard the last time you called. I just dumped the DSL for Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner, which is $10 more, but 10x the speed. I was also able to add a basic “broadcast cable” service for about $5/month, meaning that I don’t have to worry about a person entering the room messing with my over the air tv signal when it’s third and long. I’ll totally cut the cord with AT&T once I can get my Ooma system set up and my number ported. I don’t see how AT&T can survive in this market without radical changes to their business model. (Had U-Verse been available in my area, I may have tried it. But at the moment, they wanted me to pay more for phone and internet than someone with U-verse would be paying for much better services.) Glad I am switching.
I agree with your AT&T customer service comments and am glad your switch was a positive experience. You might want to checkout my OOMA review. I’ve been using that system for over a year and like it.
Why paying the high upfront price for ooma? Magicjack plus and nettalk are just as good and actually worth what you pay. The old magicjack sucked though as it needed a running winblows or crapple pc to be running and never offered linux support whereas now they plug into the router and thus a UX user is free to use them without crappy OS’s
For me the upfront cost was insignifigant and I wanted the extra features that OOMA has. Thanks for mentioning this however. Has the sound quality of Majicjack improved? It used to be horrible.
– Rick
The worst thing about magicjack to me: When my device was destroyed by a wheel on my chair, those jerks would not let me transfer the previously paid for 5 years to my new device that i bought off ebay.
What does one living in the boonies do when the current ISP is unable to solve a connectivity issue? HughesNet: Ablsolutely not. AT&T? the only other choice.
I agree this is a serious problem. Consumers in the U.S. should have more choices than they have today.
– Rick
Not sure if you are talking about att dsl or uverse because you are mixing info on both.
1. The speed you get depends on the plan you have so if i order 3m then it should be around 2.25 and up and if i order 18m then it should be around that to. Saying your speed multiplied 500% doesnt really make too much sense.
2. Data cap for uverse is 250gb also
3. My latency stays around 30
4. My netgear router works fine with my service, you may have to change some settings but that is common in networks with multiple routers
5. This service is really dependat on diffren things like wiring equipment and how it was installed. One pereson may have no issues but someone else cant get it to work just because of a small issue in the network
In the end you cant put it all in one bag and say this one is good and that one is bad…
easy to spot and see you people work for twc !! it stinks i had at&t and switchrd to twc the worst mistake of my life..slow connection,no company rep..in short you are in your own have contract for 5g onli get .85 company replay…is up to 5g meaning from o to 5g
That’s hilarious you think I work for Time Warner. I’m not the only one who feels this way. AT&T is constantly ranked near the bottom of all performance surveys I’ve ever seen. I really wished AT&T broadband didn’t suck so bad because it was a hassle to switch. In the end it was worth it for me.
– Rick
Reading through here again makes me realize that despite the occasional irregularity of service- and improvements thereafter- our local wireless ISP (DigitalPath) is doing a terrific and sincere job of it. They worked with me for 3 weeks until the problem was resolved after changing out components and at least 10 hours of service calls. Not only at no charge but I will be credited for the downtime. I am really glad I held on. At the moment the only rip I have on AT&T was when they repaired my line downed in a storm- and left the entire length of cable where it had fallen, about 300′ worth. No wonder so many people are abandoning their landlines these days.
Rick,
Thank you for taking the time to build out your ATT story. I’m switching my home and businesses ASAP and will never purchase anything related to AT&T again. We had a install date for a new line, fouth one in our home. Installer to be here between 8am- 8pm on Friday – no show , no call. Move to Saturday new proposed time 2 – 3pm “or earlier”, again no show , no call. Of course we wait. Monday we get Cust. Service rep that could care less, move to supervisor – more of the same – care less – no return calls. Absolutely Horrendous experience taking many hours to reach someone with no resolve. The new line is tied to a new business venture that we needed for Monday – go live. Now we are scheduled for Thursday and folks at ATT could care less the impact this had to their customer. Additionally we were signed up for U-Verse but experienced the same ..coming X day, no show, no call. I inquire – reschedule, now coming on X day, and yet again no show no call. I call again, to find “we having equipment issues”. Cancel the order. Every single call into their 800 numbers is frustrating and painful. The other comments you make to speed of DSL I’ve also experienced – Poor at best.
One thing I’ve learned in business you either are good at customer service or you SUCK – meaning there isn’t customer service. AT&T SUCKS. They the most frustrating company I’ve ever encountered.
I’m a long term customer back to the days of Bell. Interestingly enough if you ask 9 of 10 AT&T customers they have the similar stories and are leaving AT&T. Simply unbelievable the executives at AT&T have their head in the sand.
Happy to share and happy to be done with AT&T!
John T in Missouri
I never had a problem with the local AT&T techs, but I appreciate you for sharing your comments here.
– Rick
Here’s another reason to dump AT&T: I have DSL service through AT&T. When I recently called them to see why my internet was running so-ooooo slow, they told me to turn off my computer so that they could conduct some “test”. When they were done testing — my computer wouldn’t turn back on! Don’t know what they did, but it killed my computer and I’ve now been waiting more than 10 days to see if they’re going to accept responsibility for the damage. I will have to buy a new computer AND I’ve lost more than a week of work time. Since I’m self-employed, that means NO MONEY earned for the past week! I’ll be changing to cable internet access ASAP.
Sorry to hear about that Susan. I hope they do the right thing and help you out. Good luck.
– Rick
Anyone have experience with Dish internet?? I’m about to ditch AT&T also and am considering this, I already have a Dish for TV
I’ve been with AT&T uverse for 6 months. We don’t use it for a lot of downloading but it always slows down to a crawl (0.52mbs) from 6pm onwards in the evening. Had techs put to check the line. Asked them if they throttle and they said no. So, since its consistently slow (documented on my speed tests app) how can I leave the contract early. Easy process or will they fight me?
I’m sick of this uverse crap.
There must be a way out of the contract if they are not delivering. Do a Google search and see if you can find anything on this. Good luck!
– Rick
We are currently changing from AT&T DSL to Comcast cable (South Florida). I am no expert on this stuff so I am wondering which package to get. The basic service offers 3 MBPS downloads while the next level offers 20 MBPS. Is the 3 MBPS substantially faster than the basic DSL I now have or should I go to 20? Interestingly, I can get the 20 MBPS package w/voice for the same price. Again, not familiar with OOMA etc. Any info appreciated. Thanks.
Based on my experience 3Mbps down and 1Mbps up is marginal for a voice-over IP phone system. I’d recommend you go with the next level up. If 20 is the same price it’s a no-brainer. I would highly recommend you try OOMA, we love ours. Buy it from Best Buy or Amazon and you can easily return it if you don’t like it. But that would surprise me.
– Rick
While I agree that ATT’s suck factor is high, you basically trade in one evil for another. I used to have ATT DSL, and the bill got to a point where the cost/benefit ratio went out of whack. I then took advantage of a Comcast cable offer. Prices were great for six months, then went up, and then went up again at the 12 month point. At that stage ($65/mo for internet only), it was pay-back time, and Comcast started to take advantage of *me*. Since I had cut the ties with ATT a full year earlier, I was able to take advantage of their latest intro offer, which I now have. However, to my great dismay, I am finding that their modem/router (ATT Uverse 3800 HGV-B) refuses to play nice with my gen 6 Airport Extreme. Alas, I am locked in for a year, so there I go. If you’re willing to pay, yep, I agree that staying with cable is the way to go. For the rest of us minions, switching back and forth to save some dough is a given.
Thanks for sharing your comments here Casey.
– Rick
Against my better judgement (I’ve dealt with AT&T in the past for our business lines), I’m considering switching to AT&T for internet. I am a new resident in Nashville, TN and have had Comcast for 3 weeks. The speed is horrible – I’m paying for 25M and get anywhere from 100K to 15M The 15M speeds don’t last long – the speed varies throughout the day and are mostly at the low end. My experience with TWC internet was much better.
Thanks for sharing your experiences here.
– Rick
Like yourself, when I had problems with AT&T, I would call the 1-800-NO HELP number and start the hoop jumping process. I finally figured out how to bypass all that by contacting my representative on the Public Service Commission and letting him know of the problems I was having and the lack of response from the company. By the next day, I had phone calls from VP’s of this department and managers of that department, all saying how ‘Sorry’ they were I had been having problems and they would see to it ALL would be corrected! Bottom line, don’t waste your time calling 1-800-NO HELP, call your Public Service Commissioner!
Great advice. Thanks for sharing this here.
– Rick
Thanks for this article. I am on the verge of leaving AT&T. I am having all the same problems. I am thinking about going with Cox cable, but they want me to pay my late mother’s old cable bill since I live in the same house. I am trying to find alternatives to AT&T.
It’s time to switch! Time to give in to all of the U-verse advertisements that have been mailed to my house. Oh wait. U-verse isn’t available where I live? But my friend who lives literally 8 minutes from my house has U-verse. There must be a mistake. Too bad. you’re stuck with the lowest advertised 1.5 Mbps DSL. Good luck trying to do anything before 3am because you’ll be looking at a reoccurring red modem light atleast 6 times a day. But hey. I’ve had this internet option for over 9 years. They must be upgrading it sometime in the near future…….. Or maybe I should switch service provi– oh. That’s right. I live in the southeast where AT&T is practically the only option… Well atleast I still get to see how happy other people are on TV with their U-verse speeds! Good for them!
another in the same boat, been a loyal customer for a decade, but I got my first bandwidth cap notice today in the sf bay area, seems they are enforcing it now at the absurd cap of 150gb now, the only reason I stayed with them was because they weren’t enforcing the cap yet and it was too much trouble to switch.
150gb cap was set years ago, and it was absurd then, now with cloud computing and hd streaming its about as stupid a cap as it gets, its absurd government regulators let this monopoly continue to abuse our country, they throttle and cap the paltry bandwidth they provide americans when other countries laugh at our internet speeds.
I completely agree.
– Rick
LOL. There are some things that need to be updated in this article. I have a bonded 45 Mbps line (aka T3/DSL3) and I get 45 Mbps. sometimes it will spike to 50 or 60 Mbps. I pay about 65 bucks. The modems that come from AT&T have QoS (Quality of Service) which ensures that services such as VoIP and other digital communications are prioritized. I personally have not ran into a cap and I download a lot, much more than the average person. Movies, games, music and streaming no problems. Also I would like to know how that table that provided average Mbps speeds was figured, Google being on top is no surprise however they run fiber to home which is 1 Gbps or 1000 Mbps. I will provide links to the test Ping and speed. first is ping http://www.pingtest.net/result/89045498.png and second is speed http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/3090526247 also as far as using other equipment (modems) of course you can use what ever one you want as long as you have the knowledge to configure it to the att DNS server settings which you can ask for. Customer service could always be better but that can be said about many large companies. well that is just my two cents.
Thanks for sharing your experiences.
– Rick
Reblogged this on Web Design with Mel.
AT&T “Fast” Access in some parts of Miami is garbage. I’ve been stuck at 1.5 Mb/256 kb for over 10 years, and I probably get 50% of that speed during peak times. I think AT&T is finally going upgrade the infrastructure in the near (ha!) future, but I’ll probably be gone by then. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some real broadband wherever I end up.
Thanks for sharing your experiences here.
– Rick
Rick i live in Miami Florida 33165 like Bill Frost the same problem,we still have DSL,i call to ATT (we pay $36 USD plus taxes monthly for 1.5 mbps) and ask them for better service and they told me that there is not faster service for my area Miami Westchester,my brother lives in Monterrey in Mexico and he has 15 mbps download with Telmex 10 times faster tham att Miami-Westchester,so i called ATT told them this about my brother living in a third world country having better service than me living in the first world in Miami,and the person from there service with south american accent (there call services in spanish are in El Salvador Costa Rica and Chile) she did not care and she thought it was a joke,and then she said ohh we have U VERSE oh but i am sorry is not available in your neighborhood call next month because we are working hard to improve our system, that was 6 months ago well i call last friday and the same story,there is not Cable in my block so they are going to run the cable very soon or at least they toll me that, att its save for now but as soon i have cable our story will be different specially for my Voip phone Vonage
I can’t believe you pay so much for so little. I hope that changes soon.
On a more positive note, I was able to speak in Miami this year and enjoyed it very much.
– Rick
Part of my 2 cents…
Att uverse has a dedicate line to each adress, “peak” hours should not be effecting your services becaus it is not like cable where your neighbors are running over the same line. As well as service where you can’t get the TV service (adsl signal) . It makes sense in previous years for such issues but coming now the quality of the service has come a long way.
If you’re experiencing slow speeds at 6pm everyday it’s not a “peak” hours issue. Sounds like you’re having issues somewhere with interference, either a light post outside gets turned on and somehow is causing electric interference on the line or believe it or not an AM radio station could be cranking up there signal at that time causing interference on the line as well. One way or another I’ve resolved every issue I’ve came across as a customer complainng about Internet speeds as the service sucking, to be something completely different.
Whether they run speedtests while their kids are waching Netflix and gaming online they’re not getting 100% of their speed…or their blaming our speeds because their computer opens up their browser slow. Haha enough ranting on my end. Enjoy the upcoming holidays everyone!
Thanks for the comments. While it’s true that every DSL customer has a dedicated line to their house, there are other bottlenecks both in and outside the central office that affect data speeds. If you conduct your own tests you’ll find that speeds drop certain times of the day. It’s very predictable.
Secondly, when I perform speed tests, I do it multiple times to make sure the results are accurate and repeatable. I always made sure no one was streaming a video or downloading files while I was performing my tests.
– Rick
I have 12 mg uverse service and get a constant 11.99 speed now I just dumped Comcast because of there poor customer service 1 1/2 hour wait times just to get someone you cant understand is not acceptable, the billing is always wrong I was not getting the channels I was paying for when I finally got someone one the line (in the US) who found the problem in the coding and fixed it Comcast wanted to charge me for his actions to fix the problem which was created by Comcast and then wouldn’t rebate back for the 6 months that I didnt have what I was paying for.
And when you sign up don’t take to heart what they promise because you will disappointed
At&t will let u get ur own equipment but they will not provide support /tech problems for it. If u get their product it has a year warranty and they will walk u threw setting up because I’m not savy bout tech stuff, not even the basic
Although it it nice to see someone voice their concern over an experience with a product I find this article to be more based off frustration than knowledge. Anyone that reads this that doesn’t really know how the different DSL technologies work and is having an issue is going to agree with everything that is written here. Different tiers of Uverse DSL use different protocols. iE: VDSL, VDSL2, ADSL1, ADSL2, etc. I have had them way before uverse existed into the bellsouth days when cable was faster. I have also upgraded over the years and currently run the new 45/6 tier that uses pair bonding which a lot of customers are still waiting for. Two things with this. One is that it is, for my area 13 dollars cheapet than the competitor, Comcast, and two, I consistently get 43 to 45mb with a consistent latency of 26 on a wired connection which I use on every device that I need the fastest speeds too. Keep in mind that I my household is very connected, more than the average. As far as te 250gb cap; I am not even really sure it is enforced as I have not personally ran into it. If you want a proof via speed test, please ask. Ranks better than 87% of US households, during peak hours.
Your article is poorly written and done in your anger without really getting your information right and when anyone happens to run into the title of the article in a google search it will only attract people that have had issues. Might I suggest to you or anyone else to do a google search for how uverse and DSL work so that you understand it.
I would also like to point out that the average PC user usually has no idea that their computer is laden with Mal and Spyware not to mention the overall performance of their machine that affects the performance of IE or other browsers that can skew their speeds. ( obviously, this was not your Issue)
Lastley, I would like to point out that most uverse customers use copper to the VRAD from their homes which in older homes is more likely to cause issues especially inside wiring affecting the NID. Ideally, fiber to the curb yields the best results as DSL technology requires an extremely clean signal to function properly. Cable on the other hand (DOCSIS) is a bt more forgiving.
I’m pleased that one person is getting good data rates on AT&T.
While it’s true I’m not a fan of AT&T’s broadband most of the points made in my article are facts.
For example:
– You’ll Save Money for at Least a Year. This is due to promo offers.Of course the same is true if you switch the other way.
– DSL Speeds Are Slower than Cable – Although this isn’t true in every case what is true is the EVERY study shows AT&T under-performs its peers.
– AT&T’s Customer Support is Horrendous – Indisputable
– AT&T Has One of the Lowest Data Caps & Throttles Those Who Exceed It – Well documented.
– AT&T Doesn’t Allow You to Purchase Your Own Equipment – Also a fact.
– You Don’t Need DSL to Keep U-Verse TV – Factually correct.
– AT&T’s Hardware Doesn’t Support Advanced Wireless Technologies
I encourage you to prove the above items are not factually correct.
– Rick
Dear Rick – I agree, At &T sucks!!! But on the other hand, so does TWC and Cox cable. And many, many. many many of your so-called “Facts” in your internet rant above are simply not true, my dear! Any educated reader can do simple research and see that!(Netfllix ratings, Seriously?) In addition, although not fully implemented to it’s capacity here in the US.., Fiber optic solutions in general are VASTLY superior to primitive coaxial cable globally. Why are you so obstinate? I thought the internet was supposed to make people MORE educated, not less.! Please research more before you post such useless childish temper tantrum motivated drivel!
I couldn’t agree more. Thank you for such a detailed and comprehensive post. I only wish I had been warned before I ever got involved with them. I feel like a fool for switching from TWC to ATT after believing their special promo offer. I can’t wait till my contract is up and I’m going back to TWC where it’s fast, and no billing errors. Every single ATT bill is double what it should be. They are astonishingly irresponsible.
I agree. ATT needs to quickly upgrade their infrastructure and do away with their 150GB/month limit.
i live in California and my area only has AT&T and Time Warner. Both are fine, I don’t know what all you are complaining about. Customer service has been fine at both places, I currently get 20-25/sec and about 14-17 wireless, I run 2 phones, Ipad, netflx, streaming music player, and full internet ( day trading with 4 monitors) and I have no problems. This is real inaccurate info, because speeds and prices change with location. You also need to learn to deal with these people. If you have one service and even mention changing over to another, I guarantee they will get you a better price. Do your research and stop sending the wrong signals just because your ex-wife worked at AT&T, or some personal issue. Grab a tissue
I have no connection to any AT&T competitor.
How much do you pay for your 20-20Mbps? Not $29.
– Rick
If you look at ALL of the studies (Netfix, U.S. Gov., etc.) They all report the same results. AT&T always comes in close to last. And the data rates they report and close to mine.
– Rick
Rick, your point 7 is true as far as I can tell and bugs me greatly: While you can buy your own equipment for ADSL, that is not true for U-verse (VDSL). I have AT&T U-verse at a nominal 12 MB down and would be happy, except for the supplied Gateway. The wireless worked only for a few hours after installation for which reason I am using my Netgear router instead.
Very important for me is also the problem I am having to get 2 external VOIP devices working correctly. I have one working okay (not perfect), but never managed to get the second one working with U-verse Internet. I believe this is due to limitations of the Gateway. With DSL, I had three ATA devices working fine. I switched to U-verse for the higher speed, but did not realize the external VOIP problems I would be having.
Thanks for sharing this feedback.
– Rick
i HAVE HAD IT WITH AT&T !!
I was fine with the elite tier for many years, but the last year has been absurdly awful and frustrating to the point that I am totally willing to switch to Time Warner despite how much I hate that company too. I have spent countless hours troubleshooting a connection that is frequently less than half of what minimum is supposedly guaranteed, and which constantly resets itself whilst i am in the middle of something important (and the rage this has caused my gaming partner is indescribable, especially if he was winning at the time connection disappeared.)
The only thing that kept me from calling TWC this long is the hassle of switching and the fact that our cable drop got taken out by a broken tree branch and I know it will take them two months to get someone out her to fix it, but the last straw has finally broken the proverbial camel’s back when the last tech from att declared the problem to be with the modem and replaced it with a new one that essentially broke my VOIP service with MagicJack and now I have no phone. This useless piece of equipment is not at all user friendly or configurable in the most basic ways, and they charge $100 for this thing which is available on ebay for less than 20! (And still no one buys it, becuase its GARBAGE!)
To top it off, the price has been creeping ever so steadily upward and for 10 buck sless per month I can have something like 3-4x the speed download and 3x speed upload with TWC! I’m done. I don’t want the headache any more since more hours of my time have been wasted with this nonsense than should have been .
I just got a notice today my AT&T Elite DSL is going up to $49. Ridiculous, especially with their 150GB data caps, absurdly slow speed and horrid customer service. My 4G internet on my Verizon cell is faster and more reliable than this crap. Bye Bye AT&T.
I just got a notice that my TWC broadband is going way up as well. When this happens, you’re best calling to cancel. Often, they will reduce the price.
– Rick
I too have had it with att…I’ve had the Elite DSL…i was paying for the 6m, although it never came near that….all they had to provide was 3.1….i99% of the time it wasn’t anywhere near that. I got fed up with calling….but calling in the middle of the night worked best for me….no wait times and they spent more time fixing things on their end….funny how it was always on their end…like magic I would get a faster connection. They don’t even have the elite here anymore….but the price is the same for a crappy connection….most of the time you can’t watch videos…moreso at night after midnight…I would think it would be slower during the day…one night ago it was barely moving…speedtest was at 0.20..I called yesterday only to be told I had to upgrade to uverse….they didn’t say anything about having to pay a rental fee on the modem….i am switching to cable…..
Left it out, not only is the AT&T gateway unreliable, but the Gateway has only 100BASE-T ports. not even gigabit.
Very true. My cable modem has Gig Ethernet support.
– Rick
Most of this crap is inaccurate… All DSL is the same, and cable works the same way, if you’re really far from the terminal, you’re going to get slower speeds than advertised. That’s why it says UP TO that speed. If you’ve ever use fiber optic you’d know it’s WAY more subject to speed variations based on location and distance from the terminal. I pay for the 6MB/s plan and I get an solid 5.2-5.5 with very little variation. I usually download at a steady 600-680 Kb/s, not all over the place like you said. My latency is always under 100ms with no jitter when connected to servers more than 500 miles away even, 50ish when closer. I used my own modem and router. I only pay $45 a month for 6MB/s. Not many providers offer similar prices. The few times I had issues or faulty hardware their support was 100% helpful and polite and spoke plain English and came out to fix an issue the next day. I have the $45 plan and get 250GB/Month which does suck, but they don’t throttle your internet, they just charge $10 for every 50GB over 250. They give plenty of warning to let you know when you’re close.
All of the surveys show the same thing. AT&T under-performs other cable operator and broadband providers. This isn’t my opinion. These are the facts. Our house is less than a quarter mile from the AT&T central office, so our speeds should be excellent. I’m also in a new house and a new neighborhood, so wiring isn’t an issue.
– Rick
I’ve had AT&T DSL for years. Slow? Sure, but for my needs it worked fine. Never lost connection, etc. I recently switched to Comcast and have had intermitten service for the past three months and their wi-fi modem pretty much requires me to stand on a chair to get a connection one room over. And the customer service is awful. Guess I’m wondering what’s actually RELIABLE versus speed.
I’ve had several problems with this service. The one that beats all is what I call THE $99.00 SCAM! I allowed a service tech out to my property because of internet problems. By the time he left he had disconnected my internet along with two phone lines and told me that he could rewire my house for a 136.00 per jack. I contacted a friend who came out and reconnected both phone lines and the internet. He also checked the connections inside and found no problems. The problem was with a relay switch not even located on my property. I was still charged $99.00 for the service call which was dropped as soon as I called corporate. AT&T has now been notified that they no longer have permission to be on my property. Also any person caught tampering with my phone lines will be escorted off property via COUNTY SHERIFF. Company vehicles will be towed away at AT&T’s expense. Also, I assume no responsibility for anything that may happen to such vehicles before or after they are removed from premises.
Hahaha clearly you have no idea what easment is and how you can’t do shit about it so pucker up buttercup if you have a pole in your yard or a terminal we have the right to it and yes the counter sheriff will escort us to it if he has to
Once I found out the scheme of ATT charging $10 for every 50 mb they add for anyone going over a 150gb data limit is absurb, disgusting and unethical. I immedialtely changed over to Timewarner at 15mb/sec and getting more for less. I was being charged $49 for 6mb/sec.
Do Not stay with ATT change before yo ulose a lot of money. However I am buy a shor tpotion n ATT stock because its going down down down. People will droop them like a hot potatoe.
ATT customer support seems to be okay, I found worse on Verizon, the upload speed, and cannot change to my own modem, both are such a pain (in CA, max upload speed is 3mbps… WHAT?!)
i have att&t tech support saved as a contact because i have to call them on an astonishingly consistent basis. BIG SPOILER FOR ANY OF YOU UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE ATT AS YOUR ISP ===========> as soon as the robot lady says “please say, or key in, the ten digit phone number associated with the account,” say “AGENT,” then when she speaks again, say “TECHNICAL SUPPORT” —- boom, your dialed right in with a human. that will save you hundreds of hours as you call them on an at least weekly basis for the next few years. to clear the air, i dont pay the bills, i just do everything else associated with them (ie- call tech support when companies are screwing up) – otherwise, i would have canned their ass within the first year, for sure. we’ve had their DSL service since 2007. 3 days ago, during one of my routine tech support calls, the agent said something which implied that he could see how many times i’ve called. for shits and giggles, i asked how many times i have called, EVER…. 13 times in 2007, 7 times in 2008, 30-something in 2009, 23 in 2010, 28 in 2011… sound bad? I LITERALLY HAVENT EVEN B-E-G-U-N TO SCRATCH THE SURFACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in 2012, my calls became very frequent (the agent literally stopped counting at 100, and there were apparently more than that, that year as well). the frequency of my calls has been at a steady 100calls/year (minimum), ever since….. I WISH i could tell you this was anything close to a hyperbole of sorts; however, that is not the case. between their constantly re-occurring “outages in your area,” and their impeccable ability to perform “system maintenance” at the most inconvenient time(s) possible, I’d have to say that my internet is malfunctioning between 25-30% of the time. I have literally never been so dissatisfied with a corporation/entity of any kind, by an enormous margin. Does your income have any kind of dependence upon your ISP’s ability to perform the simple task you pay them on a monthly basis for? if so, save yourself some lost-jobs and other latent fees (such as “anger bills,” from drywall repair, which resulted directly from the frustration caused by this horrible excuse of an ISP). if ATT&T were a human; and this single human caused you an accumulated amount of frustration anywhere near the amounts caused by ATT&T, each and every person who encountered said human would be in prison for murder – i guaran-fucking-tee it. Anyways, while i still have internet (because god knows its gunna collapse, literally, any minute now – as usual – ima go print something while i have this brief window of time to do so. moral of the story – do yourself a favor so big that you dont even realize yet, and go to ANY OTHER ISP!!! 4285% more expensive than ATT? do it, still. horrible reviews? still, go to them instead. bad customer service? u have no idea – go to this other isp still. ((fuck att&t/0.000001)^fuck) ^infinity power. fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em
PS – i forgot to mention ONE thing that’s good about this embodiment of fecal matter – a good giggle! call their shit ass support number, and during one of your many minutes on hold, take a minute to acknowledge the robot lady’s suggestion to attempt resolving your problem on att.com/support <—– STUPID BITCH!!! I HAVE NO FUCKING INTERNET, OR I WOULDNT BE LISTENIN TO UR STUPID ASS! if you find things like this humorous, then your in for a treat!!
PS – fuck this goddamn company. if you're into trading stocks, go short some shares on these bastards, because i have no fucking idea how this goddamn place is still in business. even if their phone shit is great, their reputation as an ISP is horrendous enough to create a terrible public image for these fuckers. fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em, fuck em – god!!!!!!! i literally cant even express how badly i fucking hate this corporation – fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate them too brother! They suck bawls!
cable is faster but unreliable with very very bad service
I have at&t internet and never get a lower ping then 500, its always at 1000-2000 ping on average
What the fuck are you talking about. Do you know the difference between the DSL 15 years ago and now. I get 50gbps its the same as comcast. they both offer the same exact shit and both screw you on price but you get what they say you will get. Who the hell do you work for. Are you truly that stupid or are you sucking a company’s dick. Every last thing you mentioned is a lie. You can by phone, cable, or internet separately however you want. Cable for Comcast is actually slower because during peaks time it slows down. ADSL doesnt do that. No one throttles anything. They dont care what you use the internet for you have unlimited internet you dumbass. what would throttling certain sites accomplish you fucktard. you dont need to buy the router or rent it either. Where do u come up with this shit. Every telecom company has shitty customer service so who cares. Have you ever been on the phone with Comast its all the same headache. Eat a dick you liar. Have some respect for yourself. Some people arent sure about all this stuff so its bad enough a dildo like you is spreading more bullshit lies. You know what the truth is. All major internet providers rip you off and offer you the same shit with the same bad service. You know why dumbass? because its a market based economy. THis isnt China. You really think one provider is as good as you say while another is horrible and people are just do dumb not to know? If the shit you said was true everyone would ditch ATT. You think they are the biggest provider because people are retarded for no reason. Its because the other provider is the same exact bullshit. And learn the difference between DSL and ADSL. ATT is not DSL you stupid moron. The run bonded lines and have 50gigs for 35 dollars a month comcast is the same shit price and speed. THey offer more channels in HD than comcast also if you really want to count. And ATT used fiber if you have an area equipped with it so stop making up bullshit. I just have one question is does that big Comast dick going down your throat come in high definition. Thats they only cable you worry about is a big black one up your ass.
I have had AT&T wireless, including (1) wired TV (required) and three wireless TV, for over 6 years. The Internet has NEVER, ever, gone out. The TV was pixelating once, so I called the customer service number I retrieved from the internet. Some answered in Texas, very nice young lady, spoke ENGLISH!!! Yahoo! Wasn’t transferred to Bangladesh, and wasn’t on hold longer than 2 minutes. The service tech came out and fixed the problem in 20 minutes (no charge). My family had Comcast prior to AT&T, which was completely opposite from everything I wrote above. Internet was out once a week at best. Downloaded OOKLA, and ran a test, results were as follows: PING: 26ms, DOWNLOAD: 14.29 Mbps, upload was 1.87 MBPS
Switch to Comcast wrongo. Comcast will give you a nice deal to start and then triple the costs a year later. There is no competition. I was going to get Roku but I hear that there are problems with Comcast/Roku connection. Comcast is trying to prevent Roku from interacting with Comcast.n
AT&T only provider to my home and won’t give me DSL service because they only have 12 slots available in my Area. Can’t get U Verse because my copper lines won’t support. They won’t upgrade them either. What can I do to get Internet w/o using AT&T? I did look into Hughesnet however reveiws of their service Horrible and latency for my gaming very bad. How can I get another ISP in my area? Any solutions would greatly be appreciated.
Wow. Reading this biased report on why you should dump AT&T has so many errors in it, it makes me wonder if you know anything about technology other than what to plug into. Where do I begin? Sheesh, okay first off AT&T does not affect third party voip providers, what happens a lot is when the cat5 pairs are punched down, guess what eventually you run out of pairs ( imagine that). Take apart a Jack sometime, you’ll see AT&T punch down jacks give you twice as many lines as the cable company. Secondly, yes we do support 5.0 GHz ( it’s called a NVG599), the NVG599 supports 802.11ac, meaning your aren’t limited to 802.11b/g/n of old like with your 2WIRE modem (which they don’t even issue anymore). Thirdly, your internet speed and connectivity aren’t guaranteed by anyone, especially if your wireless ( it’s called attenuation, Google it). Finally and most importantly, AT&T doesn’t lineshare it’s line like the cable company it’s all dedicated specifically to that customers NID, which is fed by cat5e wiring straight to a punch down or AB jack, meaning a dry loop. So unlike your neighbors who use cable like Time Warner or Charter, that dedicated line is your speed, it’s not well your neighbors have it so between primetime of 4-9, your internet is slow, but I bet if you went on at 3am, you would see exactly what I’m talking about( 60mg services typically go to businesses, so why would the cable company be able to promise you at a residence anything? I could go on and on and on, ( transport types of internet, intermittent sync, inid conversion, remote terminals, etc.) Obviously you were getting your signal from IP-CO, which that in it if it self is a problem. We do remote terminals, not co generated signal, and daily we disconnect customers from DSL to VDSL depending on their distance. Next time ask someone who might know AT&T, your article itself shows you don’t know anything.
Completely egregious!!!
AT&T Internet doesn’t even provide cable connection in the neighborhood & kept sending advertisements to upgrade. My elderly mother thought she should learn how to use the computer & upgraded her phone with U-Verse and couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t get her computer working. Then they wouldn’t allow her to cancel the service and keep making her call them only put her through hoops & additional transfers to other customer service people & loyalty accountants to who hang up on her.
You sound very confused.
First off in 2014 your complaining about your dsl speeds are you kidding me were moving people off dsl and onto the uverse platform to provide better speeds. I will give you that it does depend where you live for what speeds you can get. You also state you can’t buy your own modem or as we call rg yet if you have dsl that is your only option if you have uverse you no longer can purchase your own modem.not to mention you also go back and forth comparing dsl and uverse acting as if they are one in the same they are not dsl cannot provide tv service (uverse tv platform) it is an atm signal and tv is on a vdsl signal.
I think it’s just going to be better to list things from here
On 2.4ghz channel that unless you buy your own router is pretty standard for comcast att and wide open west has 11 channels on it download a wifi anaylzer app see what channel is open and change accordingly pretty easy.
You also state we have the Worst latency not true yet again I’m an installer and when one in a speed test for my customers the ping is on avg 19-21 my comcast at my house 20-22(uverse isn’t avail. Where I live) also if your so worried about your ping you should run the cmd ping or tracert for better more accurate results
You state data caps and throttles if your
getting close to 100 gigs your torrenting and a lot I was YouTube and netflix and listen to xm radio on my phone daily and for hours and at the end of the month I’m close to 10/15 gigs so you are downloading some big files for example a few years ago star was all 6 movies in blue ray quality remastered and all that was around 13gig on a torrent website soo what are you actually doing with the internet that you hit 150 in a single family home.
You state our customer support is terrible were known for how well we treat our customers comcast has been given worst customer service ranked in the bottom 5 for years along with bank of America to name a comparison okay you may had a bad experience your you just can’t read a 10 digit account number over the phone clearly the reason it’s automated is to better handle traffic of calls and get you close to the right handler otherwise you would call in and it would be a 2 hour wait during peak times just to get an “operater” to redirect you to another department all providers have the automated system it’s their for a reason not just to piss people off and not to mention your first topic it’s called a promo or intro rate for a reason look up the definition all providers do it get you that perfect price and after a year or 2 you end up paying more it will always go up till you switch then the same thing will happen with your new provider
I think you need to do some research be for you just go bashing companies just because you are crying about your dsl speeds
My folks have ATT-U-verse and it (phone, television, internet) goes out at least five times a day–sometimes for moments and at other times hours; and no, it is not the router — my folks have been conned by ATT to buy a new router with every major service call. They refuse to take the time to get to whatever the source of the problem is. And they also live in the SF Bay Area, so it’s not as if it is a signal or technology desert. At their advanced age, having phones go dead for hours and even a day in one instance, is intolerable. It is frustrating for them to have to keep Tracphones available for emergencies (which has happened). ATT is the absolute worst.
Thank you for sharing this info.
I worked for Southern Bell, Bellsouth and at@t and I can assure you at@t does not care about you or your poor service. at@t wants only one thing; don’t call them and don’t bring up their name in a negative manner. JUST SHUT-UP and mail your MONEY!!! I’m not a disgruntled employee just so ashamed of my former employer that was ounce such a customer focused company.
That’s all well and good, but I don’t have any other choice. What ISP should I get when I dump AT&T – there isn’t another affordable high speed ISP available to me, and I live in a fairly densely populated area.
These companies all got together and divided up the country so they each get a section and they don’t have to compete with each other. Which would be fine if they were regulated like power or gas, but they’re not, so they can do whatever they want, like throttling your service or raising rates as they please.
Lack of competition is a real problem in the U.S. And it’s going to get even worse after more mergers are approved.
If you haven’t switch yet think about having at&t switching you to what they call a dual pair or a second in coming feed from the street. The dual pair is two dsl internet connections coming into your place. What really going on if during peak hours you not getting enough bandwidth, That why the DSL is slow. it needs the second connection to help it out. What’s really happening is they is too much internet traffic going in and out, which is causing the slow down, so before you switch get the dual pair added on which activates broadband 2.
Also if you decide to try my suggestion make sure that you are using real telephone wire for both broadbands 1 & 2. Some people think they only need a coaxial cable for both broadband. That not true. The coaxial cable only could hook up to broadband 1 only. So you must use telephone wires for both. And by the way the coaxial cable is not really good, use ethernet cable instead. everything speeds up with the ethernet. including the tvs.
I’ve had ATT DSL for about six years and now UVerse for about four. We recently were given our yearly bill increase but this time I was billed $65 a month for 6 MB and we only actually got 3-4 peak MB. So we decided to explore options. Cable one said we could get 100 MB for $60 a month so we tried it. We actually got around 115 mps peak and about 70 during some times of the day so it was super fast speed. But we were limited to 150 Gigs a month. At this time we had both Uverse and Cable internet and were deciding which to keep. ATT had a 1,000 GB monthly limit and costed us $30 a month for the first year and $50 thereafter so it was purely a financial decision to keep ATT. It is usually a consistent 40-45 MB connection.
Through the years the frustration with ATT has been high. Customer service usually sucks but is getting better. The yearly promotion thing truly is horrible. I’ve probably spent twenty hours on the phone over the last ten years with ATT usually with high frustration levels. They claim now that they have switched to flat rates for their service and no promotional offers that need renewed every year which I don’t really believe is true since I’m on a promotional rate right now.
I did find that bypassing my internal home phone wiring and running a cat 5e directly from their outside box to the router in the house improved my speed. Those with DSL or Uverse may try that to increase their speeds.
FINALLY after years of wanting to switch yet being sucked into fake AT&T promises of faster speeds (we only got 1.91 upload and .4 download on GOOD DAYS, we are now in the 21st century with more than 5 times that speed. GOODBYE AT&T you lying money hungry monopoly.
Yep, by by to ’em. Going to get modem today and get my puter back to the 21st century. Yayyy for us.
I want the $29.99 10 mp like Comcast has. Been with ATT like forever. The rep says she can give me 6 mp! and charge me $40.00. What? I called Comcast, I can’t stand this slow speed anymore as I am now at 1 mp at $29.90 with ATT. Ugh!!!!! The rep @ Comcast actually laughed and I did too. She said they still have 1 mp??? I can’t believe they still have that around! I know huh? Anyway I’m getting the Comcast as I’m going to buy a modem and they will come out tomorrow and hook me up. Yikes! ATT been with them since the 80’s and they still treat you like crap. Buy ATT.
Googled this article after noticing the same thing. Every night around 10 pm to 2 am, ATT internet speed drops to practically zero. Some simple webpages: like one listing a table of water viscosity won’t load at all. Some webpages won’t load initially but if I come back to them after 15″, I find they’ve loaded. The speed test pages on the internet won’t even load in the 1st place.
I am planning to switch to cox because I do get alot of problems with Att. Att do suck cause my internet is somewhat will be on for 4 days And then the broadband light goes red. No serviceinternet service at all of course if there is no service there is no tv too. Att gave me a new router/modem and technicians said “they fixed it” but they really didn’t. Same problem for over 2 yrs now we play our bills in advance or on time as well.
5-5-20 Today, I called ATT to get a new plan for an UNLOCKED phone I already owned (and which works perfectly). Kept getting routed to prepaid because the phone I was calling from is prepaid (and also unlocked). Finally get with a sales rep on the post-paid side and sign up for an Elite plan. The moron on the end screwed up my name which caused the credit check to fail. Told her to re-run it, then she gave me the new phone number and said the SIM was in the mail. Also, she screwed up my email. which I didn’t know at the time. She said to wait 20 min to use the app or website to use the phone number and PIN I set up to begin the TC process. 45 min later, no luck. Called again. Got someone who looked into it. He said the credit check never went through. Gave him my name, etc. Credit check went through. He confirmed the first moron not only jacked up my name but also email, so I never received the email confirmation email from ATT which is evidently needed for TC. He fixed the email and sends me on the way. 45 min later, no luck. Call back. Genius tells me that I need to go to the store now to get a SIM because its required before TC can be completed. I confirm that if I do, I don’t have to pay for the SIM because I’m supposed to get it free with the BYOD plan. I go to an ATT store, not knowing that a vendor store is not where I need to go. Rep tells me she has to charge me $5 plus tax to get the SIM out of her inventory. Then she tells me she can’t activate it, I have to do it online. Come home, put it in the phone, try activating, nothing, try TC, nothing. WTFO. Call ATT AGAIN. Genius in the Philippines who can BARELY SPEAK ENGLISH can’t unscrew this and says I have to go to an ATT corporate store to have the SIM activated. I demand to speak with a supervisor, and he hangs up. CALL BACK AGAIN FOR THE FIFTH TIME IN ONE DAY. This is NOT FRIGGIN ROCKET SCIENCE. However, it appears ATT has gone out of its way to make BYOD such a colossal PITA on purpose to dissuade people from BYOD. So, I’m hold as we speak. If this last cat can’t activate this SIM, FK ATT, I’LL SWITCH ALL MY SERVICE TO VERIZON. Waiting…….that call just got hung up after 30 min on the line SO FK YOU. DONE. Going to Verizon.