AT&T to Launch 1 gigabit service here

[arcturus]

Press release:  http://about.att.com/content/dam/snrdocs/Western_Michigan_COMMITMENT RELEASE_ATT Fiber_4 19 17.pdf

News:  https://www.cnet.com/news/att-fiber-adds-eight-more-metro-areas/

[GRDadof3]

I'll believe it when I see it. AT&T has the worst connectivity around, both for Uverse and their cell service. 

[twoshort]

I've had their cell service for ever, live in GR, and have no issues.  FWIW.  Also had uverse for years.. no issues there either.  Have xfinity now, but would certainly get pricing on this!

[GRDadof3]

16 minutes ago, twoshort said:

I've had their cell service for ever, live in GR, and have no issues.  FWIW.  Also had uverse for years.. no issues there either.  Have xfinity now, but would certainly get pricing on this!

Uverse constantly loses service (lost signal, resetting), and I drive a lot for work and the cell coverage for AT&T is not nearly as good as verizon was when I had it about a year ago. When you can't get a good signal (one bar) on the East Beltline between EGR and I-196, that's a serious problem with cell tower coverage. Same with other no-brainer areas where the cell coverage is shitty. And when you're talking on the phone and suddenly the people on the other end can't hear you anymore, that's also a problem for business. I've talked to AT&T and they just shrug their shoulders, and try to sell me boosters and shit. 

Can't wait to switch back to verizon.

[organsnyder]

Uverse is a very different animal compared to true fiber-to-the-home (FTTH): Uverse is fiber-to-the-neighborhood (FTTN), with legacy copper going the last mile. Those old wires often have various issues that cause signal loss. FTTH would have an optical path the entire way, which is much more resistant to interference.

That being said, I'm highly skeptical that AT&T could deliver a product that I'd be satisfied with. Unless they offer a competitive price, responsive customer service, and truly unlimited data, I'm not signing up. I'd much rather see one of the emerging local/regional players (Lightspeed, Spartan...) build out in my neighborhood. The big media companies simply have too many competing interests to really be focused on serving my needs.

[Allison Slater]

23 hours ago, organsnyder said:

Uverse is a very different animal compared to true fiber-to-the-home (FTTH): Uverse is fiber-to-the-neighborhood (FTTN), with legacy copper going the last mile. Those old wires often have various issues that cause signal loss. FTTH would have an optical path the entire way, which is much more resistant to interference.

Comcast has a huge problem with that in Heritage Hill from what I understand.  I know my Comcast connection will be great -- 20-30 down, and then suddenly for hours on end drop to 0.01 down or in between with very high jitter.  (Although the upload is -always- stable and fast.)  I've been told by people it's a problem with the cables, anyway.  ATT isn't much better.  They don't offer very high speeds and also suffer the inconsistency problem here in HH North.  It's all fine for web browsing, but transmitting large files or streaming or doing anything that requires a stable connection is often impossible.  I've been looking forward to Lightspeed expanding one street further so I can switch to that and be done with these problems.  Although since it looks like I'm being forced to move, it doesn't matter much anymore anyway for me.

[organsnyder]

We had problems with our Comcast service dropping out due to a bad coax cable. Getting it replaced was a PITA—it was an underground run that is longer than they're willing to do now—and required getting Comcast's "escalation department" involved (via Twitter, IIRC). They ended up installing a new pedestal on our side property line halfway back to the pole. There's a thicker trunkline-style cable that runs to there, and then the regular service line to the house. We've had zero problems since.

[GRLaker]

I have U-Verse right now and haven't had issues aside from random slowness. But I had that with XFinity as well. My parents once had U-Verse and anytime there was anything other than sunny weather, all services would go out. Lightning in the area? Gone. Thunder? Gone. Rain? Gone. Wind? Gone. It was worse than having a dish. Granted, that was about a decade ago, so it's possible that things have changed in their area since that time.

[Allison Slater]

18 hours ago, temporary.name said:

That's because Comcast (and other cable companies) share a connection among a neighborhood. Your neighbors are probably using the internet more during the times you experience a slowdown. Few people saturate their allotted upload bandwidth so that's why there isn't an issue there. It's not a problem with the cable itself but with Comcast's clear desire to oversell their available bandwidth. 

That explanation would make sense if the timing were consistent, at peak times, and the download speed sloped downwards.  The timing is unpredictable, has happened at any time of the day or night, and the change between 20-30 down & 0.01 down is immediate and abrupt.

[x99]

1 hour ago, tSlater said:

That explanation would make sense if the timing were consistent, at peak times, and the download speed sloped downwards.  The timing is unpredictable, has happened at any time of the day or night, and the change between 20-30 down & 0.01 down is immediate and abrupt.

It's nice to know Comcast stinks just as bad as AT&T.  The drop outs are completely random, with no seeming connection to peak demand.  I've been blaming it on the router, but it sounds like this is something of an across the board issue.

[thebeerqueer]

I've got Comcast on the Westside and I haven't experienced any drop outs in speed in a couple of years. Over Winter Beer Fest weekend I had four friends staying at my place all connected to the wifis and no one experienced any slow downs. I really feel like its a total crap shoot. 

[thebeerqueer]

11 minutes ago, temporary.name said:

It's not so much a crap shoot as it is most people don't understand the technology.

I am obviously one of those people because the words you used after this statement went far above my head. I'm just thankful that I'm not experiencing these slow downs. 

[thebeerqueer]

17 hours ago, temporary.name said:

Wifi channels = like a radio station. When there are so many "access points" broadcasting different wifi networks, the channels become crowded and "stations" overlap / become busy.

 

DNS servers = Domain Name Server. Essentially the phone book of the internet. Comcast has a phone book your modem uses to know where Google is. or Facebook. or infowars. () There are other phone books you can use like google's 8.8.8.8 server. 

 

MTU = Maximum Transmission Unit. Basically your data (sending or receiving) gets broken up into "chunks" (technical term is packet) and sent on their own journey through the information super highway. The destination then reassembles them. The chunks' size is set by the MTU. Too big for the internet connection / route and packet loss occurs. Think of MTU as the maximum vehicle size for a highway with packets being the cars/ semis and the MTU being the maximum size of that vehicle or semi. 

 

Latency = the actual time (measured in milliseconds; ms) it takes for an electronic signal (over copper or fiber optic) to cover a physical distance. For instance, my internet data needs to actually transverse the US, from Columbus to San Francisco to actually use google's website. That distance is real and my data can only move so fast (about 3/4 the speed of light across a fiber optic cable because of signal degradation and resistance). 

 

Again, a person's ISP may be providing a perfect internet connection but if some of these (arguably the customer's responsibility) parameters is set incorrectly, the internet connection can seem less than stellar. 

Thanks temporary.name for the crash course in internet terms and concepts. It was really helpful. 

[Allison Slater]

21 hours ago, temporary.name said:

You can try running a tracert in windows command prompt. Do 'tracert www.google.com' and see where your latency is accruing. If it's beyond Comcast's DNS severs, you could try changing your DNS servers (google's 8.8.8.8 is good) to try for better routes. \

It's not so much a crap shoot as it is most people don't understand the technology. Wifi channels can be crowded (happens a lot in apartments since theres so many wireless networks), DNS servers can be bad, MTU size can be set wrong, even things like power settings for network adapters can cause problems. I had Comcrap in Walker and after some initial configuring, I never experienced a slowdown or dropout unless power went out. I could hit Chicago in sub-20ms consistently and upload all day long without file corruption. 

Already set to google's DNS years ago.  I'll run tracert next time it goes bad.

At one point I did imagine it must have been my wifi, so I got an ethernet cable to run down the stairs.. but the problems persisted, so I know it wasn't related to the wifi connection.  My landlord is an IT guy and I know he spent a bit trying to improve the situation but was unable to do so.