Internet Plan Speed Disparity vs Neighbors

The bandwidth you are able to achieve is determined primarily by the length of the wires between your home and the AT&T network device you attach to and the type of service that network device offers.  "half a block" is an imprecise measurement;  assuming that you mean 1/20th of a mile (264 feet), that can be significant.

Even if a trunk link ran right by your house, if it feeds your DSLAM or VRAD 2500' feet away from your home, then the wire distance is 2500'.

also the wiring doesnt usually take the straight line path. even if the dslam or vrad is 100 feet from you it could go all the way around the block before it comes back to you .

@cachowix 

The way the infrastructure is setup in the area, yours might be the one home in the bad spot for all related factors.

In any case, AT&T support is inbound. You call them, not the other way around. I would suggest requesting an address validation. As this includes having a tech check physical setup in the area, this can take weeks as they work that in around their actual priorities.

heres a post i created about 7 years ago 

An Answer to: " why was i told i can get U-verse but cant" | AT&T Community Forums (att.com)

Thanks for the responses, all. 

@JefferMC, You are correct that the actual pole-to-pole distance works out to more like 500'. You piqued my curiosity on true distance and route from the DSLAM cabinet, however - now I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

@Juniper, thanks for the tip - I will place a call to support and ask for a validation.

@Constructive, that's an interesting post, sort of the inverse of my scenario. Totally as an aside, it seems like a better way to define availability would be to draw a continuous 100ft (or whatever) buffer around the line, not a huge radius around a device.

We are here to help point you in the right direction, @cachowix.

Thank you to all the aces for the useful information.

We are happy that the aces were able to help you.

Let us know what happens with the address validation, or if you have any other questions or concerns.

Thank you for choosing AT&T.

Marc, AT&T Community Specialist

ATT offers (3) different platforms, each unique in speeds, distance, and availability.

The most common and deployed from 2006 to end 2015 is FTTN or Fiber To The Node with last distance copper. The longer the copper distance the lower the speeds offered.

FTTN is fiber to a point (VRAD) with power meter then connects to local cross box (XBOX) that has the traditional phone distribution wiring. There are (3) different card types (F, K, N) that can determine max speed along with distance. The newer K or N card can provide internet 100/20 as bonded (2 phone line connections) within 1000 feet. From 1000 to 1800 feet would be 75/20 speed tier. Then drops to 50/10, 25/5, 25/2 as distance increases. For single pairs short distance would be 50/10. Notice that bonded pair is (2) 50/10 combined to provide 100/20. 

On F card best bonded speed is 50/10 while best single pair is 25/5. 

In 2016 33 million residential addresses had FTTN option.

During the same 10 year build out select areas from CO (central office) where upgraded from legacy DSL (best speed 6) to ADSL2+ with best speed of 18. Again as copper loop increases from source the speeds available decrease from 18, 12, 10, 6, 5, 3, 1.5 and lowest is .76. At start of 2016 about 24 million addresses had ADSL2+ option.

The above listed upgrades were know as UVERSE with FTTN offering triple play of IPTV, INTERNET and VOIP while the ADSL2+ only offers internet / VOIP.

The 2016 to present new deployment is direct fiber with current offerings of 300, 500, 1000. With 15 million already available and another 15 million to be added during the 2021-2025 expansion FTTP will be the number 1 option for 50% of ATT hardwired 90+ markets, 21 state footprint.

When using the address checker do not use as existing customer but as new customer… if you have or had DirecTv many times the internet accounts will be set up for ADSL2+ instead of FTTN. As not ordering IPTV service less bandwidth was provided. 

The K and N cards can be provisioned to be either, F cards can only be FTTN. 
However if immediate neighbors left and right can only receive 25, either bonded pairing is not offered… happens with apartment / condos with limited outside connections… or if bonded is offered there are no more ports or pairs to provide bonded service (facilities issue). 

Streets can be dividing lines as well as distance and 500 feet is about 1/10 of a mile. I have a tendency to use the Milwaukee grid mapping which is 1 mile if every 8 blocks or 660 feet per block which includes the road width. Thus an address that supports internet 100/20 is within 1.5 blocks of the VRAD with straight wiring. If wiring loops around the neighborhood could be 300 feet physically from the VRAD yet be over 5000 feet of wiring resulting in a close address able to receive internet 100 while others receive far less. 

The internet 100 address could also be coming from a different VRAD as each box servers a particular area. Example is could have a VRAD across the street 100 feet that serves North and West of location yet your on the south side of street with copper wiring coming from .9 a mile away. Similar an area could have direct fiber but your section is still copper based service as the fiber PFP area if outside your area.