AT&T internet speeds?

[dravack]

Hey guys. Stupid question but hey gotta ask. Apparently like 80% of this apartment complex uses at&t and they love it. But, then also I figure most of them don't know what a gif is much less what is "fast" internet.

Here's the problem.

My 12 month contract with Comcast is over and Comcast thinks I'm crazy and will pay $170ish for the bundle. Going to switch obviously. I'm debating between calling them and seeing they can give me a deal on just the internet. Apparently "new" customers get $49.99 for 50 Mbps or $39.99 for 25 Mbps. I'd probably request the 50 but yeah anyway if they get b**t hurt over me asking for new customer deal the current customer deals are 50 Mbps for $78.95 and 25 Mbps for $66.95 still high but much better than $170.

Now other option is AT&T apparently their fastest internet is 6 Mbps for $19.95... 6? really I mean is not really that slow is it? lol their slowest speed is 768 Kbps for $14.95 makes me laugh. So yeah do you guys think I'll notice a difference or is AT&T spot on with their listed speeds?

According to www.speedtest.net  I'm getting 59.25 Mbps down and 11.78 Mbps up. 

Also apparently the internet i'm looking at is "dsl" since the website says uverse isn't available here but I swear they told me it was when i moved in last year. But, looking at the uverse speeds it looks like 18 Mbps is the max??

Users: 3. The misses and her friend who use the internet just stream netflix/hulu/prime/vudu/etc.. and thats it. I stream netflix and play some games. Sometimes at the same time depending on the game. (civ 5 i'm looking at you)

Requirements: I don't have to have super super fast internet (no fiber anyway) But, I also remember 56k times and I do not want to revisit that time of my life lol. God I love and hated the 90s.

Query: Which internet would you use? (comcast/at&t)

 

[detectiveconan16]

768 Kilobytes per second at $20 per month? For some people that sounds pretty nice since it is twice as fast as what people are getting at $40 per month ON a regular basis. I guess speeds are terrible anyway, considering how the telecoms have such a grip on our country. I wish you and I and all the other CAGers had access to cheap and faster internet.

I've got to upgrade my Internet, but I'm a little wary about Optimum, and that's my other choice!

 

[ZerotypeX]

6 Mbps is not bad. You will be able to stream Netflix in HD and play games just fine. The only issue is the speed when you download. If you download your games (steam or digital for consoles), there will be a significant notice in the time it takes to download. I am assuming your upload will be around 0.5-2 Mbps, if you don't upload much or upload big files, that should be doable.

Usually At&t has daily cap on the up/down stream. If was like 250GB per month or something and if netflix is running alot or other stream sites. You will go over that cap and then they charge you like $10 per 50GB. I would double check that too.

 

[dravack]

6 Mbps is not bad. You will be able to stream Netflix in HD and play games just fine. The only issue is the speed when you download. If you download your games (steam or digital for consoles), there will be a significant notice in the time it takes to download. I am assuming your upload will be around 0.5-2 Mbps, if you don't upload much or upload big files, that should be doable.

Usually At&t has daily cap on the up/down stream. If was like 250GB per month or something and if netflix is running alot or other stream sites. You will go over that cap and then they charge you like $10 per 50GB. I would double check that too.

Yeah they have a monthly cap of 250gb which comcast has too so not much difference there save that $10 is less than what comcast charges I believe.

I guess what has me worried is that 6 Mbps seems so low compared to the ~50 Mbps I have right now.

I do download my games via steam/gog/ps4 store but I don't mind waiting. I have no problem leaving my computer on over night or while im at work. It's just the streaming, gaming, and internet browsing that worried me.

 

[Draekon]

Quality and max speed of an internet provider will vary from area to area, including different parts of a town. Asking for details from people who live around you is often the best indicator on quality, so long as they are able to actually give you proper information if you're willing to try and dig a little ("How often does your connection drop?" or "What speed do you have and are you always receiving what you pay for?" or "How fast do you download?"). Personally I could never live with 6Mbps, but a lot of people can. I'd also never be caught dead with Comcast or Time Warner at my home, however that's my own personal hatred for them leaking and when I move in the future I will make sure I'm never stuck with either of them. That's not to say you shouldn't stick with Comcast as that's your decision.

As for deals, all ISPs should be able to lower your price by calling in. You may not necessarily get the 'new customer' deal, but there should always be one available. Threatening to cancel your service often results in getting deals they don't normally give to people who call in as well. Though this will vary from representative to representative that you deal with over the phone as some just don't give a shit.

The other thing is that speed tests aren't always the best way to tell what your actual speed is. ISPs are able to determine that you're on that page and bump up the speed you're seeing for speed tests. This isn't always the case (and isn't necessarily common), but downloading or uploading large files to places are usually the best way to tell. Basically you take the MB/s you're downloading at and multiply it by 8 to get the Mbps you're running at because 8Mbps is the equivalent of 1 MBps. (8 bits = 1 byte)

An example of what I just said would be that I pay for 50Mbps, but I download at around 6MB. 6MB multiplied by 8 comes out to around 48Mbps. So for the most part, I get what I pay for. It's actually a little above 6MB, which is actually 50Mbps but I'm just throwing it out there to show you what I was talking about. (6Mbps = 750KBps or 750KB/s)

Gaming will be playable, but you'll mostly be connecting to others in Peer to Peer games and if by some chance you're host, everyone else will probably lag a fair amount. However as gaming becomes more advanced, it seems to require more bandwidth to stay stable. Each game will be different of course. Streaming, Netflix's HD is 5Mbps required and they're a bit better than most other places with streaming compression. Browsing shouldn't be too impacted unless you're on a heavy image site and gifs generally suck if they aren't in HTML5 format.

I usually try and recommend people to at least have 8Mbps per person in a household if they want everything to be fairly clean for when everybody is using it at once. Though 6Mbps is probably do-able, but you'd have to put up with stuff here and there. Mostly with gaming and downloads feeling slow.

 

[shrike4242]

Call Comcast, ask for their retention department and see what they can do for you if you tell them you're going to leave.

 

[hotstud19us]

I think the first thing to ask is what do you do online. If its just browse the internet then the 6mbs won't bother you. But if you use a lot of bandwidth a month. Then you probably don't want this. Ask the other people in your apartment building if they can run speed test for you to see if they actually get the speeds offered. I don't have comcast but see if you can see how much data you use. Also there maybe other local providers in the area. Use google or a phonebook (if you can find one) to see what other providers are in the area.

 

[dravack]

Quality and max speed of an internet provider will vary from area to area, including different parts of a town. Asking for details from people who live around you is often the best indicator on quality, so long as they are able to actually give you proper information if you're willing to try and dig a little ("How often does your connection drop?" or "What speed do you have and are you always receiving what you pay for?" or "How fast do you download?"). Personally I could never live with 6Mbps, but a lot of people can. I'd also never be caught dead with Comcast or Time Warner at my home, however that's my own personal hatred for them leaking and when I move in the future I will make sure I'm never stuck with either of them. That's not to say you shouldn't stick with Comcast as that's your decision.

As for deals, all ISPs should be able to lower your price by calling in. You may not necessarily get the 'new customer' deal, but there should always be one available. Threatening to cancel your service often results in getting deals they don't normally give to people who call in as well. Though this will vary from representative to representative that you deal with over the phone as some just don't give a shit.

The other thing is that speed tests aren't always the best way to tell what your actual speed is. ISPs are able to determine that you're on that page and bump up the speed you're seeing for speed tests. This isn't always the case (and isn't necessarily common), but downloading or uploading large files to places are usually the best way to tell. Basically you take the MB/s you're downloading at and multiply it by 8 to get the Mbps you're running at because 8Mbps is the equivalent of 1 MBps. (8 bits = 1 byte)

An example of what I just said would be that I pay for 50Mbps, but I download at around 6MB. 6MB multiplied by 8 comes out to around 48Mbps. So for the most part, I get what I pay for. It's actually a little above 6MB, which is actually 50Mbps but I'm just throwing it out there to show you what I was talking about. (6Mbps = 750KBps or 750KB/s)

Gaming will be playable, but you'll mostly be connecting to others in Peer to Peer games and if by some chance you're host, everyone else will probably lag a fair amount. However as gaming becomes more advanced, it seems to require more bandwidth to stay stable. Each game will be different of course. Streaming, Netflix's HD is 5Mbps required and they're a bit better than most other places with streaming compression. Browsing shouldn't be too impacted unless you're on a heavy image site and gifs generally suck if they aren't in HTML5 format.

I usually try and recommend people to at least have 8Mbps per person in a household if they want everything to be fairly clean for when everybody is using it at once. Though 6Mbps is probably do-able, but you'd have to put up with stuff here and there. Mostly with gaming and downloads feeling slow.

Thanks this is very informative. I'll still ask around just in case. I hear on the interwebs some people complaining about at&t over selling in an area and then to many people trying to use it at once. Though this area is already fairly well developed so should be fine.

I think the first thing to ask is what do you do online. If its just browse the internet then the 6mbs won't bother you. But if you use a lot of bandwidth a month. Then you probably don't want this. Ask the other people in your apartment building if they can run speed test for you to see if they actually get the speeds offered. I don't have comcast but see if you can see how much data you use. Also there maybe other local providers in the area. Use google or a phonebook (if you can find one) to see what other providers are in the area.

As mentioned above I game and stream videos mostly. I roughly use ~250 GB of data every month according to the usage history.

If you mean what games I play then its mainly rts, fps, and racing. With a little space trucking thrown in (elite dangerous and star citzen)

Either way I'll ask around but most people around here don't really seem interested in any heavy data usage. Ofcourse looks can be misleading so maybe they are. Though mostly they look at me strange when I mention gaming.

 

[hotstud19us]

See if any of your neighbors play games online. Or see how streaming is to see if there's any noticeable wait compared to your service.

 

[Vinny]

We had AT&T and Comcast at my parent's house, and of the two, Comcast was substantially better. Both have terrible customer service who can't seem to solve any problems that can't be fixed by restarting your router and modem without having to send over a technician. Both will result in at least 1 billing error every few months, which you'll need to call to have fixed. But ultimately, Comcast actually delivered usable speeds and were more consistent. 

AT&T was DSL which has some advantages but not many. Our AT&T speeds were supposed to be 1.5Mbps (that's bits, not bytes) up/down for $20 a month. Never did we reach anywhere near those speeds and were extremely inconsistent, i.e., much slower during peak hours. With Comcast, we paid $50 for 25Mbps up and 5Mbps down, and the slowest I ever saw my speeds were 18Mbps. Outside of checking email, AT&T was completely ing useless. 

I've heard numerous people say that Comcast will offer you deals/cheaper prices if you plan on cancelling due to not being able to afford it... especially if you have another option. 

 

[detectiveconan16]

No wonder they were trying to buy Time Warner, to limit options!

 

[dravack]

So not local. But, I asked a guy I know who lives like 3 hours away. Apparently he uses AT&T for all his uh tv show "watching" and he says his "buffering" *cough cough* takes some time. But, he's never had any issues with it. So that's a plus still need to ask some locals though been kinda busy. Thanks for all the comments though. 

 

[shrike4242]

So not local. But, I asked a guy I know who lives like 3 hours away. Apparently he uses AT&T for all his uh tv show "watching" and he says his "buffering" *cough cough* takes some time. But, he's never had any issues with it. So that's a plus still need to ask some locals though been kinda busy. Thanks for all the comments though.

Wow, that wasn't at all obvious and you really put it on the sly.

I think we can all figure it out if aren't using our brains as balance weight for our feet.

 

[dravack]

Wow, that wasn't at all obvious and you really put it on the sly.

I think we can all figure it out if aren't using our brains as balance weight for our feet.

lmao. Yeah that was kinda the point I think everyone knows what I ment. just thought it would be funny. That said one neighbor I asked said she sometimes has problems with it.