Scholar
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389 Messages
Internet 50 plan - fiber or copper?
I've been thinking about upgrading to fiber which recently became available in my neighborhood. When looking at the available plans I found one called "Internet 50", i.e., 50 Mbps. The price with bundled phone service was attractive, so I called AT&T to ask a few questions. The main one I had was, is it a fiber or copper connection to the house? The CSR said it's copper, but he also said the 100 and 1000 Mbps services are also copper, which seemed unlikely to me. On the bundle listing page, the 100 and 1000 Mbps services are listed under "fiber", but the 50 Mbps isn't.
A neighbor was supposed to have the Internet 50 installed yesterday. The tech said it would be fiber to the house, so now I'm confused -- is it fiber or copper?
Also, is the Internet 50 plan available only to new customers? I currently have U-verse, but I don't know if that makes me a not-new customer for fiber.
-- oobleck
Jeffster
ACE - Professor
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2.6K Messages
6 years ago
I have 50Mbps over copper to my house.
I have it from 2 bonded pairs which gives me well over the 50Mbps.
I have the BGW210 modem.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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35.2K Messages
6 years ago
VRADs do have battery backup, enough for several hours at least.
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gr8sho
ACE - Professor
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5.4K Messages
6 years ago
I'm glad to hear it.
But in the end it doesn't seem to help the occasional service disruption caused by weather.
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
6 years ago
@Jeffster said:
Given that you have a pair bond configuration I have a question for you. At the point where the pair bond enters your house is it converted to a single twisted pair to the gateway or are there two twisted pairs, presumably over at least a 4-pin ethernet cable to the gateway?
The reason I ask is when I upgraded my gateway to the NVG599 from the old 2-Wire 3800 I had to switch from using coax to a twisted pair. I was able to get ATT to utilize an extra unused telephone line I had in my house as my "twisted pair". It works fine but I am not confident if I can get another twisted pair connected through that same telephone line. If the pair bond reduces to a single twisted pair to the gateway installation is a lot simpler. But I suspect it needs 4 and I don't want any holes drilled in my walls. So just how many active copper lines go into the gateway when the outside connection is a pair bond?
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Jeffster
ACE - Professor
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2.6K Messages
6 years ago
@_xyzzy_
It comes into the house on a cat 3 wire with still 2 pairs.
Then the tech put in a connection box to where he ran the data cable to the RG.
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
6 years ago
@Jeffster:
It's that connection box I am not sure of. Is the green data cable you show in the second picture using a RJ11 or RJ45 plug. Hard to tell from the picture (but I think it's RJ11). I assume the gateway end is plugged into the gateway's green broadband RJ11 socket and not the red RJ45 ONT socket since there is no ONT for a pair bond. But it's still not clear whether 2 of 4 strands of that green cable are being used.
I'm not sure which wires to look at in your upper picture. But I notice that the wall connection in the bottom picture has a gray multi-strand cable sticking out (near the top). Is the other end of that gray cable the one I see in your top picture? m Still hard to tell what's what though.
At this point I don't even know if I actually need a pair bond to the VRAD. I would have to order the Internet 50 to get a tech out to find out.
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oobleck
Scholar
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389 Messages
6 years ago
Glad to hear it. Outages that long are very rare in my neck of the woods (knock on wood!)
-- oobleck
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Jeffster
ACE - Professor
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2.6K Messages
6 years ago
@_xyzzy_
I believe those are RJ11 plugs
Not sure if all the wires are used or how many wires are used by the data Cable as that was installed by the tech.
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192kHz
Employee
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540 Messages
6 years ago
@_xyzzy_
It stays as 2 pairs all the way to the RG.
Do you have Cat3 or Cat5 from the room the RG is in to the NID?
If it's Cat3 as long as you don't have 2 VoIP lines going out to the NID you'll be set for bonded pair.
If it's Cat5 you'll have 1 more pair to play around with, so you could have bonded pair into RG and 2 pairs of VoIP to NID.
Yeah, you'd have no way to know before hand. The system would see the loop length and build the order accordingly. You gotta be pretty dang close to the VRAD for single pair 50mbps.
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_xyzzy_
Expert
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15K Messages
6 years ago
@192kHz
Damn. I was afraid of that. That was the piece of information I was looking for.
No. I'm using an extra telephone line that was available from my use for ISDN in the 90's. It took the tech guy some time to match up the proper pair to connect to the outside connection. My concern is there isn't another 2 strands in that telephone line that can be matched up and while the one pair is good enough for 25M which I currently have would it be good enough for 50M (it's not that long of a run) or would even 2 pair work either if is available.
If I recall my loop length is 1800 feet. It's why I am concerned about pair bond in the first place. I suspect 1800' is too far to not require a pair bond.
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