New Member
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2 Messages
Unreliable service
Moved to Att fibre from comcast recently assuming it will provide better performance and will be reliable. I work from home and therefore internet is very critical for me. This morning I woke up with no internet service, turn out the modem somehow dies and would not power up at all. Called att support immediately and they placed a request to ship a new modem to me. However, I will not have the new modem until at least two days from today.
Now I do realize that hardware can go bad and is totally expected once in a while. But the thing which I don't like is, there does not seem to be a way around this kind of a situation. What I learned so far is:
- You cannot go to a ATT store and pick up a fibre modem if you need it urgently.
- You can not buy/use 3rd part modem from electronics stores (best buy/ office depot etc.) if you have att fibre.
- Can not expedite your request from ATT to get the modem same day or next day.
Considering all these limitations, now I feel it would have been better to stick with Comcast's cable connection since there were no such limitations there. Getting better performance (better download and upload throughputs) is good but you need to have the service up for that as a pre-requisite.
Wondering if anyone has found any way around this kind of an issue (except for buying hotspot services on cell phone)
tgerstel
New Member
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18 Messages
2 years ago
On the equipment side of the equation, nope, there isn't any officially supported way to have a backup or acquire one same day. Searching elsewhere might yield you some anecdotal solutions but I can't vouch for if they work or not.
On the more generic topic of working from home full time and needing backup solutions, I'd suggest to you that line of thought isn't limited to just AT&T. Yes the cable companies have the equipment side of things generally solved provided you have a Best Buy/Target/WalMart etc nearby. What can't be covered is a service outage that lasts an extended period of time (car hits an equipment cabinet or pole taking out both the cable and fiber services, for example).
We have two work-from-homers in our house and we take the following hedges against prolonged outages:
1. Hardware-wise, I did buy a backup power supply (not a UPS-though I have those too, the actual power brick) for the modem and the ONT. Cheap insurance -- you can get 'em on amazon or ebay or any other place for relatively cheap.
2. Both our mobile phones have hotspot service.
3. We know where the nearby "work from coffee shop" spots are.
No residential service no matter who the provider is has service level guarantees. Whatever you decide to do it's wise to think through your backup options.
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sund
New Member
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2 Messages
2 years ago
Thanks for sharing your setup details and I really like the "nearly coffee shop" idea. I think we are sort-of (but not exactly) saying the same thing. With options to buy modems from local stores, I can at least limit my outages to the ones which are not caused due to issues with any equipment sitting in my home (effectively reducing the outage frequency or incrementally improving resilience if not completely resolving it). And with a relatively cheaper cable plan, I can use some of the money to pay for other backup options (hotspot).
But would really like to see an enhancement from fibre ISPs (ATT being my current fibre ISP) to enable customers to at least be able to replace their modems the same day. Can be as simple as making the modems available on ATT stores if not making the service compatible with 3rd party/generic modems.
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ATTHelp
Community Support
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231.2K Messages
2 years ago
Hey @sund! We understand your frustration about the intermittent internet service that you've been experiencing.
We are glad to hear that you were able to get a new modem ordered. Please let us know if it helps with your internet service.
Robert, AT&T Community Specialist
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