AT&T as an ISP

[Knufire]

Right now my house in on Comcast, which has had some reliability issues. Everything I've seen online points to Verizon FIOS as being one of the best, but sadly they don't service my area. . Some AT&T guys have been going around advertising, they also have a fiber optic uplink in the area, I was wondering if anyone here has any experiences with AT&T's services?

 

[DreamerBrian]

The feedback I have received from a few people I know is that AT&T is just like any other ISP... but if they have fiber then I would jump at the chance to get it!

Brian

 

[Route44]

I am working with someone right now on the TechSpot forums that is wondering why his system is now so slow connecting to the internet since switching from Comcast to AT&T. We did a number of things but I eventually advise that he contact AT&T and tell them about the issues he was having since the switch.

AT&T's answer: It is your problem. Period.

 

[Sir Barton]

Ive had Uverse internet (no TV or phone, just internet) for 2 years now and havent had any issues. They were nice enough to give a courtesy call and let me know a tech would be working on the system and even gave me an estimate of the downtime. That was the only time I was without internet, and it lasted maybe 3 hours. Comcast service was always flaky in my area. I had them for 6 years before I switched to AT&T. I live in the Detroit area like the OP, and so far theyre pretty good around here. There was one point when I had weekly outages with Comcast...sometimes being without internet for a couple days. It all depends on the area you live in, some providers can be very good while others can be lackluster in the same vicinity. Go to a different town, and the opposite may be true.

 

[OC101]

I used AT&T ADSL for years at Sault Ste Marie, MI. I get about stable 5.2mbits/680kbits speed out of the service which claimed to be 6mbits/768kbits.

 

[SMTP]

Given a choice, I would never use AT&T as an ISP. Having dealt with both the business and home side on the job, I can say without a doubt that their customer support is some of the worst I've ever dealt with. Example: a client of mine had trouble with their AT&T MIS T1 line. When I called support I was told "This account doesn't exist. I can't help you" *click*. Really? Call back again and ask for the person marked as the account manager for the circuit. It goes to voicemail where the person says "After April I will no longer be with AT&T". The voicemail was still active 7 months after that person quit. When I called yet again and asked to know who the account manager was "I don't show any record of an account for this circuit ID". "Well how about you look it up by business address then? It's ______". "Oh, I see it now. What seems to be the issue?"

Other routine AT&T shennanery also include awesomeness like randomly resetting PPPoE account passwords, not completing wiring when contracted to perform full installations (I HATE this one), and changing business DSL lines from static IPs to dynamic.

When their connections actually work it's usually decent. Their support makes it not worth it if you ever have a problem. I'd stay away.

 

[arkan]

First of all, AT&T turn off their customer support system whenever there's a major outage in our area. It just goes right to a recorded message. This is made even worse by the fact that when you do get a real person on the line, their name is jeff or bob or michael and they have a Bombay accent. Their upload speeds are also seriously inadequate and have not changed since I first got dsl like 10 years ago. During certain parts of the day my ping stays low but my internet traffic is slowed to a crawl for no obvious reason. Then there's the matter of the 150 GB a month cap you get stuck with if you don't get Uverse. Comcast gives you 250GB a month. At&t is also sheisty and counts their own traffic to and from your modem as part of your cap allowance. Not even Comcast tries underhanded **** like that.

 

[Evilsizer]

with uverse im a bit disappointed to be honest... i went from 3mbit ADSL to 12mbit, the download speed is great dont get me wrong, esp for the price at 40ish a month for 12months. the problem i have not been able to fix. it only happens to one server in CSS, i keep getting ramdom connection problems. i have put my computer as the DMZ in the router and even added the ports in the routers profile for apps for css. i still have the same problem. i can reset the connection and hw for it to be ok for a while but then happens out of the blue. all my hw has stayed the same, i go from adsl and a fry's airlink router to all att hw and start having problems.

i would try to find reviews of people in your area to see what problems they are having first. i wish i checked but we have been with att before the name changed to it, use to be SWbell. right now we are stuck with this internet for 12months per the contract and getting the cheaper price for the 12mbit service.

 

[fall]

I have uverse TV and internet at my place for about 2 years now. Only problems I ever had was first a defective DVR, called them and I had a new DVR in 2 days. 2nd problem was my at&t router died, called and had a replacement on my doorstep next day.

Never had any internet problems without them calling and telling me first, we also have business class internet from AT&T at work, and every problem we had with that was our fault.

Business Customer Support is terrible but for home its not bad.

IDK if AT&T does this but if they try and get out of running cables in your house do not let them!! Had Comcast before, and I have a room that they needed to run a cable too and said they did... Come to find out the Comcast guy setup some kind of wireless receiver in that rooms wall and then ran a RJ-45 cable from the receiver to the computer.... Worked fine before i switched, once switched i thought it was att so i called and let them know i just switched from comcast and the support guy had me remove the faceplate from the wall, told him what it was, he sighed and told me i got Effed over... Long story a little bit longer, att support got a guy out to my house and he ran me a cable for free. Could of ran it myself but for free I didnt refuse


Either way good luck!

 

[Cerberus2k7]

I have uverse TV and internet at my place for about 2 years now. Only problems I ever had was first a defective DVR, called them and I had a new DVR in 2 days. 2nd problem was my at&t router died, called and had a replacement on my doorstep next day.

Never had any internet problems without them calling and telling me first, we also have business class internet from AT&T at work, and every problem we had with that was our fault.

Business Customer Support is terrible but for home its not bad.

IDK if AT&T does this but if they try and get out of running cables in your house do not let them!! Had Comcast before, and I have a room that they needed to run a cable too and said they did... Come to find out the Comcast guy setup some kind of wireless receiver in that rooms wall and then ran a RJ-45 cable from the receiver to the computer.... Worked fine before i switched, once switched i thought it was att so i called and let them know i just switched from comcast and the support guy had me remove the faceplate from the wall, told him what it was, he sighed and told me i got Effed over... Long story a little bit longer, att support got a guy out to my house and he ran me a cable for free. Could of ran it myself but for free I didnt refuse


Either way good luck!

Verizon has by far the worse business customer support I have ever experienced. 90% of them can barely understand you and don't even know what a DS1 is. AT&T is "ok" but you gotta ride their *** and escalate every hour. Sprint IMO is usually the best to deal with unless they're EMEA sites.

 

[arkan]

I have uverse TV and internet at my place for about 2 years now. Only problems I ever had was first a defective DVR, called them and I had a new DVR in 2 days. 2nd problem was my at&t router died, called and had a replacement on my doorstep next day.

Never had any internet problems without them calling and telling me first, we also have business class internet from AT&T at work, and every problem we had with that was our fault.

Business Customer Support is terrible but for home its not bad.

IDK if AT&T does this but if they try and get out of running cables in your house do not let them!! Had Comcast before, and I have a room that they needed to run a cable too and said they did... Come to find out the Comcast guy setup some kind of wireless receiver in that rooms wall and then ran a RJ-45 cable from the receiver to the computer.... Worked fine before i switched, once switched i thought it was att so i called and let them know i just switched from comcast and the support guy had me remove the faceplate from the wall, told him what it was, he sighed and told me i got Effed over... Long story a little bit longer, att support got a guy out to my house and he ran me a cable for free. Could of ran it myself but for free I didnt refuse


Either way good luck!

Their business class support is actually done through a company called Arise to avoid complains about the people with thick accents I mentioned in my post. When you call their business support, you're actually being forwarded to a person making $7.50 an hour working from their home. If you need help with anything not in their script you have to wait for a callback normally. This same company also handles some of Verizon's support and gets bad reviews as well.

 

[voodoo do'er]

I like AT&T