AT&T Significantly Streamlines Its VDSL2 Broadband Tiers As users in our AT&T forums were the first to notice, AT&T has dramatically streamlined the broadband tiers being offered to the company's VDSL2 and fiber broadband customers. This comes as part of an overall simplification process after AT&T killed off the U-Verse brand last year. If you're an AT&T customer lucky enough to have been upgraded from older, sluggish DSL lines (certainly still no sure thing for many AT&T customers) AT&T's now just offering just two or three speed options to new customers.

If you're a new customer on AT&T VDSL, you're now restricted to one of two options in most, but not yet all, locations: • Internet 50: This 50 Mbps downstream, 10 Mbps upstream tier is being offered at a promotional 12-month price point of $40 per month for standalone service, or $30 if bundled with additional services. There's a 1 terabyte cap, with overage fees of $10 per each additional 50 gigabytes of data usage. • Internet 75 or Internet 100: (depending on your loop length and line quality) This 75/100 Mbps downstream, 20 Mbps upstream tier is being offered at a promotion 12-month price point of $60 per month for standalone service, or $50 per month when bundled with other services. There's also a 1 terabyte cap, with overage fees of $10 per each additional 50 gigabytes of data usage. Of course if you're in an area where AT&T has upgraded to fiber to the home, you also have the option of the company's symmetrical 1 Gbps service, though availability is limited. This option, which costs anywhere from $70 to $110 per month depending on regional competition, has no usage caps or overage fees, but again, customers are often disappointed by the extremely scattershot availability. Again, your mileage will vary depending on what part of AT&T's footprint you live in. But it's a pretty thorough streamlining from the massive array of different, inconsistent speed options AT&T has offered across its territory in years past. "AT&T has been working hard over the years to continue to drive clarity with our customers and deliver more simplified internet plans," a company representative tells Fierce Wireless. "It has been confusing in the past," the spokesperson admits. "For instance, in 2015 we had 10 speed tier plans and in 2016, we reduced it down to six plans and now we’re reducing it down to 3 plans." AT&T has been losing broadband subscribers as it struggles to compete with the faster speeds cable broadband provides. That's only expected to become more of a problem for AT&T as cable providers embrace relatively-inexpensive, gigabit-capable DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades, and the full duplex DOCSIS 3.1 upgrades that will make faster upstream speeds on cable more commonplace. Streamlining its options will help, but AT&T's still going to find itself behind the competitive speed curve. Let us know what you think -- or share your experiences in getting these new options -- in the comment section below. Let us know what you think -- or share your experiences in getting these new options -- in the comment section below.







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Most recommended from 40 comments

adowns

join:2002-11-23

Derby, KS 14 recommendations adowns Member Still very screwed up I am in the market where AT&T's been testing the 20Mbps upstream. I qualify for 75Mbps Down and 20Mbps up. Speeds are great. Very reliable. I am FTTN/VRad customer not Fiber to the home. Their database is incredibly screwed up. My grandmother is at 1350 ft (copper) and fully able to get 100Mbps package using a bonded pair. Her signals are about 30% worse than mine are. I'm sitting about 150-200 ft shorter loop length with an awesome signal quality (techs are blown away by the clean line). I've called everyone in the broadband department because I want the faster 100Mbps package. They tell me no go because the database said no. What's funny is my modem itself is provisioned for 190Mbps down and 38Mbps up. Everyone (tech support/supervisors) clearly said I should be able to qualify for that speed but because a database says no i'm SOL. I'd say this news is great, but AT&T is dumb enough to not fully fix their system. Corporate

join:2014-10-04 7 recommendations Corporate Member In other words... The Charter model.



I can honestly see why AT&T and Charter are doing this.



Having streamlined speed tiers will help cut down on confusion between CSRs, and what they say is provided at a given customer's address.



Frontier should really implement this model in their DSL areas.

cfm117

join:2004-02-13

Winnetka, CA 6 recommendations cfm117 Member Got it today Just got 100/20 put in this morning. Still have another 100M of overhead too. N cards @ 956'



DSL Aggregated Information

Type Down Up

User Rate 107006 kbs 22004 kbs

Max User Rate206155 kbs 50949 kbs

Protocol G.993.2_17a



DSL Line (Wire Pair) : Line 1

Type Down Up

User Rate 53503 kbs 11582 kbs

Max User Rate101869 kbs 26788 kbs

Noise Margin 20.3 dB 14.9 dB

Attenuation 12.7 dB 12.7 dB

Output Power 14.5 dBm -14.8 dBm

Protocol G.993.2_17a

Channel Interleaved

DSLAM Vendor Information Country {46336} Vendor {BDCM} Specific {42213 }

Rate Cap 100003 kbs

Attenuation @ 300kHz 8.1 dB

Required Impulse Noise Protection 1

VCXO Frequency Offset 6.5 ppm Ok

Excessive Impulse Noise 0 Ok

DSL Line (Wire Pair) : Line 2

Type Down Up

User Rate 53503 kbs 10422 kbs

Max User Rate104286 kbs 24161 kbs

Noise Margin 21.3 dB 14.9 dB

Attenuation 11.3 dB 11.2 dB

Output Power 14.1 dBm -16.1 dBm

Protocol G.993.2_17a

Channel Interleaved

DSLAM Vendor Information Country {46336} Vendor {BDCM} Specific {42213 }

Rate Cap 103715 kbs

Attenuation @ 300kHz 5.7 dB

Required Impulse Noise Protection 1

VCXO Frequency Offset 6.4 ppm Ok

Excessive Impulse Noise 0 Ok

gadawg

join:2006-01-27

Louisville, KY 1 edit 6 recommendations gadawg Member 25 Mbps There is a 25 Mbps tier as well. I was upgraded from 18 to 25. 6 Mbps upload. Paying $40 per month with a $10 discount for bundling with DTV.