I don't profess to know anything near as much as the experts in here, but I have been on the Net since it was invented by Al Gore, and that was back in the days when we were discussing how a 56K modem does not give 56K speeds.
You can see my "compliment 6Mbps" thread I just posted, but I agree with you, if you are not getting the speed you are paying for, might as will downgrade your plan to the speed your are getting (e.g.., I am on the "up to 6Mbps" plan for $35 month.)
Now I'll share some tips from what I know:
- I used to have Comcast Broadband, for years, I think about seven. Comcast was great, but I HATED the price. So when they would not renew the promo price I get every year (on expiration of the current promo price) I canceled and looked for an alternative.
- Where I live in San Francisco there are few choices because of where my building is situated and there's not much in terms of hard wire options (Comcast, AT&T, that's it). So I decided to give wireless a try (and even on that there were few options. Verizon who wanted $60 monthly for a 5GB plan, and Clear, who had wireless unlimited for $50, but speeds where iffy in my locale.
- I ended up going with Clear because I really wanted to give Comcast the boot.
- Clear was great for two months then it started acting up to where I could not get a signal from the WiFi fob to my computers. Something was interfering with the signal. There was interference inside my place from something emitting electronic interference or there were people in the neighborhood interfering my signal with their WiFi (Windows Network would detect about 20 WiFi connections in the pop-up menu.) Also, the building next to me has a HUGE radio tower. From Google Earth I could see there were all kinds of antennas and towers affixed to it. So any one or all of those could be interfering with the quality of my signal.
Get this: I could not get a connection to my computers, but after sunset I could. Then when sunrise occurred, my connection would cease! That happened like clockwork. So I dunno why that happened, was it ultraviolet rays, radiation, someone flicking on office lights, just don't know. But that was bizarre. I did a test to confirm what was going on. I played a movie via the wireless connection. At 7:10 in the morning I lost the connection, exactly when the sun rose. (My Clear device had to sit on a window ledge facing east.)
- Anyway, here is what I posted in my other comment. Your quality of signal could be dependent on any of these things happening. For example, how old is the wiring in your building? Any rodents? Is anyone else in the building sharing the trunk that goes into the building? How far are you from the "vault."
- Note: You may want to have an AT&T technician come out. They can do all kinds of tests and troubleshooting to see what the problem is. Here is my experience last week:
When I used the self-installation kit I did not get a signal, so AT&T sent out a tech the next day. He spent a few hours getting me connected, here's the basics of what went on:
- The wires from the basement to the four units in my building were all messed up. He said that no one in the building had land line service or data. So he was able to cut wires and do anything he wanted.
- Things were so messed up that he installed a new set of wires that ended up making a direct connection from my place to the basement. He said that my wiring was really old anyway, and that the two new "dedicated" wires were better for use with U-Verse.
- He then went to the "vault" that was a block way and checked on a few things.
- When he got the connection working he performed a test and said "this is not operating at the speed you are supposed to be getting (I looked at his tablet that had a diagnostic test running. It indicated about 760K speed. Yikes.
- He then diagnosed that the problem was in the copper wire running from my basement to the "vault." He then spliced two wires directly to the wires coming from the vault to the trunk in the basement. After that he walked to the vault and "hard wired" two little wires to my spot on the panel (that had about 1000 to 2000 residence connections on the panel).
- After all this he said "If this does not work I am going to have to have a 'street technician,' or some term like that, to come out and rewire the wire going from the vault to your basement, because the wire is really old, plus there may be a partial break in the wire caused by construction or something else."
- After he did all this and ran the diagnostic, it performed at the 6Mbps that was my "up to" plan speed.
So you might want to consider all these things before giving up.
Here is the comment I posted before:
FYI: A connection speed is dependent on many, many variables that will make your experience different than mine. Some things: the quality of your phone wires, the age of the wiring, the quality of the connection to your computers, how many people are sharing your wiring in the building, the distance from the AT&T "trunk" or "vault" to your residence, interference in the wiring from any number of sources, including rodents chewing the wires somewhere inside the walls or some guy jackhammer the sidewalk and weakening the wires, how many people are sharing the wires and cable, and even pirates stealing part of your bandwidth.
Bonus Tip: If you are paying for 12 or 24 Mbps but can't get higher than 6Mbps, for example, maybe you can downgrade your plan to 6Mbps and end up paying less for service.
dhascall
Posted from Apple iPhone
