Question About Dsl Speed

Did away with the home phone a few months ago and kept the ATT DSL as it is our best option in our area.
Soon after, not right away, my DSL speed slowed down, some times it is better or slower than others.
The DSL was not working after a two days of heavy rain and some minor flooding. I had to call ATT repair service to report it so while I had them on the phone I ask about the slow down in DSL speed. I was told that because I live two miles form town and also because I no longer have a dial tone on my phone line that was the reason for slower speeds.
So I am just curious if this is fact why did the DSL speed not slow down immediately after having the home phone turned off?
Any thoughts?

 

I did not agree to any change but suspect it was lowered because I dropped the home phone. ATT is pushing Uverse but my line does not test as well on Uverse as DSL. They tested it twice already trying to get me to switch as they plan to phase out DSL service in the next few years.

 

DSL - copper wires from the nearest exchange - will almost never work well for any streaming service (that's what Uverse is) and which only performs well with a cable line, mostly now containing fibre-optic. DSL will never get higher than 3mbps which these days is not that good for any activity. SDSL which is faster than DSL/ADSL is not, from what I've read, available much outside of Europe.

 

This test speed is actually one of the highest I have had. Most of the time it is much lower.
Download 1.28 Mbps Upload 0.29

 

That's very poor. Fibre is so much better:
https://www.att.com/shop/internet/gigapower/coverage-map.html

 

Yeah the real problem is this is a rural area and we will be the very last to benifit from any upgrade from ATT.
The closest green cities available on that map to me are about 150 miles away and the blue cities underway are probably over 300 miles away. So it is not going to be available here for many years if ever.
My only other option is something like HughesNet and that will cost a good bit more than DSL but something to think about.

 

That's a shame. All these companies in USA and Europe make such fortunes they should spend more money and get to work more laying those fibre optic cables!

 

I sooo want fiber interweb... City 30 miles away advertises it, maybe one day soon.

Good luck with it Katkat, seems you don't have any good options right now.

I googled fiber speed, hope this is accurate, sure would be nice...

 

I have to chime in with an old ATT story. We have 75 houses in our little neighborhood. Back in the day we had 25 ATT DSL users. At our monthly neighborhood meetings it seemed there was always someone with problems. One day I happened to be out for a walk and the ATT guy was in the phone box. I counted 24 lines. When I asked him he said "No, there are 32, we have room for expansion" but quickly closed the door and refused to open it. Soon after cable was offered and the DSL problems went away.

 

I think the year 2020 is the death year of DSL with ATT everywhere as they will no longer offer it. Everyone with ATT will have to switch to Uverse, or so I have been told, or find a new internet carrier.

 

Standard Cable is the internet connection alternative to DSL. Uverse requires Cable. Uverse is not an internet plan. You can't have Uverse without cable but you don't need or are required to subscribe to Uverse to have Cable.

 

Max I have not bothered to read that much about Uverse as of yet because some of my friends and neighbors have ATT Uverse and most hate it because they are on old lines and ATT is slow to update lines and equipment in my area. As I mentioned before we are remote and not a priority.
Not sure what will happen in the future but running Uverse phone and internet on old lines, as they do in my area, is a hit or miss experience. Phone and internet service are spotty on Uverse here now. No new cable has been provided here.
Here is a example: I know someone who lives about 1/4 mile from their parents and can look out the window and see each others homes. Trying to have a phone conversation with each other is difficult as connection cuts off often or if not total disconnect the sound quality is often so bad the can not understand each other. It is like a bad cell phone connection. They can not stay connecter to the internet most days as well.
By the way we do not have Cable TV service in our area either. That is why most people started using Dish Network or Direct TV years ago. Now ATT owns Direct TV. Just within the last few years have options like Time Warner or HughNet for internet been available.
If by 2020 ATT has run new cable to our area Uverse might be a option. Then again who knows what will be available by then.

 

I think you are misunderstanding Cable and Uverse. They are two entirely different things.
Uverse is a streaming service - like Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Now TV etc. You subscribe to it, but to use it you need a fast internet connection such as Cable. It mostly wont work on DSL at all.
Cable is the form of internet connection, ususally the cables having fibre-optic wires in them.
AT&T will allow anyone to choose Cable if they are in an area where they have been laid. They don't require any customer to subscribe to Uverse just to have cable. It's the other way around. You subscribe to a cable internet plan and then, if you so choose, subscribe or not to Uverse, or Netflix, or Amazon Instant etc..

 

I understand the difference.

I was replying to your post and telling you what is available here.

ATT wants everyone to change home phone and internet to Uverse and bundle Direct TV satellite together . Which I do not want because of the bad quality of phone and internet on Uverse.

 

Yup! I strongly agree with Fiber also.

 

What AT & T want people to buy and what people choose are two different things.

Fibre-optic cable internet is a technology in itself totally unconnected to streaming video packages.
I have fibre optic cable with Virgin Media - they would love me to subscribe to their combined phone, broadband and streaming TV packages, and they mail me about it several times a year all of which go in the bin.

Uverse has nothing whatsoever to do with the internet connection technology available in a given area, so 'bad quality of phone and internet on Uverse' is meaningless as they are not even remotely connected. AT&T are the same as any other group. Once they lay cables in an area, subscribers can choose the type of connection/speed they want, without subscribing to any streaming TV package, and if they tried to say 'you can only have a fast cable internet connection if you subscribe to a streaming TV package' it would be illegal, so they wont.

This is AT&T's fiber only service with an availability checker:
https://www.att.com/internet/fiber.html

 

OK one last time Max, I have tried to explain to you what Uverse means here in my rural area from ATT. I know DSL is Broadband! I understand what Uverse is suppose to be and is in cities. What ever Uverse is and how it is suppose to work does not apply here. Uverse as you know it or how it is suppose to be does not exist here in my area yet. Which is one of the very first points I tried to make in this thread.

Right now if I signup with ATT for Uverse it does indeed come through my old phoneline. Which can't carry it. I understand that is not how it is suppose to work and this is why people are not happy with it here in my area. They have not run new cable to my area and as I have said before Att has no plans to do so for a few more years. You can tell me what it should be all day long but fact is it does not change a thing here in the middle of nowhere!

What is available here is what is called "ATT Uverse Home Phone and Internet Service" but it is actually "fake Uverse" it is just phone and internet. And yes it is provided on old phone lines. That is why they want you to bundling it with Direct TV for video.

Hope this clears it up for you.

 

Ok once again. Uverse is irrelevant to whether or not your location has Cable internet lines laid. You keep mentioning Uverse when it is immaterial. When those high speed cables are laid, if not now, you will be able to subscribe for that kind of fast internet connection with or without subscribing to Uverse or any other streaming service. You do NOT have to subscribe to Uverse just to get a fast internet connection. You subscribe to your internet suppliers in your area, eg AT&T for FIBER if those lines serve your home.
I hope that is crystal clear.
https://www.att.com/internet/fiber.html

 

As an added point, if there are no suppliers serving your home who have not, or don't intend in the near future, to lay the cabling for an internet speed of greater than 6mbps, then you wont get a fast speed, and wouldn't be able to smoothly use any streaming service from any supplier. It's very simple.

 

Obviously it is pointless to tell you again that I understand the issue and I understand the options. No need for you to continue to tell me over and over what I have already told you I understand! So I won't.
I also understand I don't have to use ATT, but I know what my choices are and right now it is my best choice for the money. Period. I may not like my choices but I understand them.

 

You raised the issue of DSL speeds - you got a straightforward answer to that whether you understand it or not.
You then mentioned, and continually mentioned even when it was pointed out as irrelevant, an AT&T streaming service.
It's very simple - telephone any or all the companies that supply internet to your physical location and ask them if there are any fast cables (which is NOT copper DSL) laid in your location or planned to be laid in your location in the near future.
It's as simple as that, I'm sorry you don't get it.

 

katkat, just a thought...
Is mobile broadband perhaps an option where you live?
AT&T claims...

If not, maybe consider another ISP.

 

Eldon yes there are and again ATT has the best coverage of those available but their coverage is spotty.
Family and friends who live between two and four miles from me have the same problems I do. Drive fifteen miles in any direction and connections are better. Cell phone service also has a lot of dead spots in this area. Again ATT has the best overall coverage here.
Cable internet with Time Warner would be my next best option but more than double the cost.

 

Sometimes we are at the mercy of the ISPs.
Whether I use my mobile modem (42 Mbps) or my mobile phone's LTE modem (150 Mbps), the internet speeds stay the same. And I have different ISPs - one the largest in South Africa, and the other the largest in Africa.

 

Wireless is much faster than that.

 

Yes, if it is available and is economically viable as the OP said price was a concern. But we were concentrating on wired to the home connections. But Eldon has already raised the possibility of a mobile option in post #24 - if there are transmitters to that location and it is affordable.