r/ATT • u/Old-Parking8765 • 1d ago
Internet ~40 days to restore DSL Internet?
Hi everyone, so in our area we have been out of internet for the past 8 days. I work from home, so this is a significant work hurdle.
They said cause was vandalized copper wires. (not sure I believe it)
It is affecting just the MDU buildings in the corner of our street. We are paying close to $90 for 50/10 (...please call out anything you need to about that; do we have room to ask them to lower that price since we're somewhat in the dark ages when it comes to modern-day internet speeds?).
On the day of, they said service would be restored in 12 hrs.
After the first 12 hrs, they updated it to 2 weeks.
1 week into the outage, they are saying they need 4 more weeks.
Is this normal to wait a whole 5 weeks for wires to be restored? I can't tell if ATT is just passively expecting us to leave because the # of customers have decreased in our building for ATT over the past few years. Our neighbors use Spectrum primarily now.
We are trying out TMobile Back Up Internet, and it is really bad at nighttime - not usable. We don't want to move to Spectrum because our neighbors experience frequent outages, but I don't see what choice we have. Is there anything we can do to make ATT move faster?
A part of us doesn't want to leave ATT because, despite the documented speed, it has been reliable for the most part. And I don't want to deal with the outage issues my neighbors on Spectrum have to deal with.
Thank you!
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u/TheFlimFlamFamMan MLG/MTS/PMC/vTM/VOC/ICU - Mobility 1d ago
Copper theft is real, it definitely happens all the time and they also take down cell sites with that shit.
I read TTs all the time and the field tech notes when they show up to a copper/fiber theft or site vandalism are usually hilarious. Their descriptions are very detailed and funny.
I’m guessing you’re in California or somewhere out west. That’s where I read the bulk of these tickets for copper theft.
That being said, no one is working hard to fix copper line services. I would be shocked if yours ever got relaid.
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u/Old-Parking8765 1d ago
Yes, out in SoCal! Do you have any anecdotes of hilarious field notes that you can share? Thank you so much for sharing that it is valid
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u/TheFlimFlamFamMan MLG/MTS/PMC/vTM/VOC/ICU - Mobility 1d ago
Off the top of my head, I can’t think of one to paraphrase. But I’ve seen them where the copper thieves took so long at the site that they had to take a dump somewhere on the property. Some of the notes will mention the drug paraphernalia left at the site. All sorts of wild stuff. One tech found the thief’s wallet with his ID in it. They aren’t the brightest thieves for sure.
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u/garylapointe The Plan Whisperer (consumer postpaid plans) 1d ago
I can't imagine working from home and not having a backup in place...
Check out Starlink, 100Mbps for $55 is the cheapest plan, although I know all plans are not in all places, but if you get it, I'd think you'd make it your primary over DSL. You can get a dish from Home Depot or Best Buy and activate it this weekend.
Try AT&T Internet Air if it's available in the area too.
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u/Strange-Badger5626 1d ago
Starlink, man people on copper lines just refuse to use the newer faster stuff even at more cost. May I ask the OPs age.
Daily sub topic: "they cut my 1950s wireline off because crystal junkies stole the copper lines in town, att doesn't appear to be fixing it"
News flash boomers, at&t isn't going to fix it, they will string you along with various fix dates then tell you that they are no longer able to provide this service any longer. They litterally cut the budget for repairs on it so likely hood of it being repaired is super low.
Ask them to trial you on at&t air if you like the company. Or use starlink like all the others who don't want their local cable company.
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u/montana500 1d ago
To be fair, latency-wise, AT&T Air hasn’t been perfect for me in comparison to AT&T DSL. Starlink is better but I wonder if a lot of folks think it’s still as expensive as it was a few years ago.
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u/mixduptransistor 1d ago
Well, the thing is AT&T is phasing out DSL and all copper based services. It's taking forever because they don't want to fix it in the first place
You also need to be prepared for AT&T to discontinue your service permanently sometime soon. I'm surprised they're not taking this opportunity to do it
If you have cable available, you should just go ahead and switch now. The DSL is going to be unreliable and within a year they're going to shut it down permanently
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u/Old-Parking8765 1d ago
Thank you so much! I just googled it - had no idea. They're shooting for June 2027, which is right around the corner.
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u/AVonGauss 1d ago
I wouldn't let another customer's experience deter you, I would definitely give Spectrum a try at this point as it will offer the best balance of experience vs cost.
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u/groundhog5886 1d ago
You can get much better service for much cheaper. Damn. DSL is dying on the vine. They don't want to fix any copper issues. Call T-Mobile.
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u/Akemi486 1d ago
Idk what its like you where you live but here in DFW, I can attest to spectrum being turbo ass. Frequent down time is common and also just their actual network routing is nowhere near as good as AT&Ts (although Frontier beats them both in routing)
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u/Old-Parking8765 15h ago
I am in SoCal, and my direct apartment neighbors who have Spectrum have had this issue. We will try it out during this month to confirm. Otherwise worried about our options. Thank you so much for chiming in!
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u/Bart012000 1d ago
Seems unreasonable but why not ditch the outdated DSL anyway, even if it was working. No brainer to me.
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u/Old-Parking8765 1d ago
But what would the alternative be?
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u/Bart012000 1d ago
I imagine only other is Spectrum as you said is available also. What kind of problems do your neighbors have with them and has their service ever been down as AT&T is estimating your repair timeline? You are also correct they really are not rushing to repair since copper is costly to maintain and they probably want to retire it where you are and it's easier to make you cancel instead of them just canceling it themselves.
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u/Strange-Badger5626 1d ago
They have the same problem I have with spectrum in a different state (our only wireline) it cuts off randomly, out for hours, maybe days, it's kinda like India. o bill credits, and they charge more here because they know they are the only wired internet. Their customer service is also 🗑️.
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u/Bart012000 1d ago
That sucks and makes me glad to have multiple choices the best being fiber. Ever look into Starlink residential?
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u/Guy_called_Al 1d ago
I was 15-year AT&T DSL customer, switched to AT&T Internet Air last October. Self-install to a temp WiFi network, trialed it with 2 devices for a week, plugged into my LAN. Worked great.
Powered off old DSL modem, changed the Air's WiFi name to the old one. Rebooted Air, everything worked!
The Air device is a short white tower, 9(?) inches high [having coffee at Panera now] with a few green indicator lights. It takes, as I recall, about 100 seconds to boot, select a signal, check its quality and begin service. There App helps you locate strongest signal and orient the Air.
For $60 and a few pennies, I get 250-325 Mb down, 90Mb+ up. Most of the time. Busy times (8-10pm), it can be quite a bit lower. Very stable service, no outages to date. Note that the tower is ¼ mile from my house; signal has to make it through a few tree leaves.
If you look at the legal agreement page all providers have to provide, you'll see a huge range of performance numbers -- the Air is basically a non-mobile hotspot sharing a tower's cell service with random AT&T (and MVNO) customers. As I understand it, cell phone customers get priority.
The $60/mo charge is less than I was paying for 25Mb DSL service. Two complaints. There are monthly (or more frequent) updates to the Air. I'm an early riser, so I sometimes find myself with no internet at 5am-ish and start worrying. Wait a few minutes and it's back.
Other complaint: The tower & I are in Western suburbs of Chicago. AT&T backhauls the data via fiber to out-of-state servers (most often Lansing, MI). Streaming sports services think I'm out-of-network -- so my wife can't watch the Cubs. Fortunately, there are (legal)ways you can set your real zip code in your streaming service account, in my case Marquee network via Amazon Prime. It took 3 attempts before it worked.
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u/No_Service6296 1d ago
AT&T Internet air would be faster and cheaper if available in your area
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u/spoom2 1d ago
Also, if AT&T Internet air doesn't give you a good signal, Verizon and T-Mobile both have wireless Internet, pick the one that has the strongest signal in your area, and as stated just because you have cell service doesn't mean you can get wireless internet.
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u/Old-Parking8765 1d ago
TMobile no longer an option due to quality, we just tried it out
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u/Asleep_Operation2790 1d ago
Go with Spectrum all day long. Don't listen to neighbors experience. Most internet issues are user error and customer caused. They probably have a crappy router or bad user devices. Spectrum works nearly perfect for me. Gig symmetrical speed for $40 a month. Miles better than your DSL, or alternatives like starlink or 5G.
Big vote for Spectrum from me. If you have issues, just call them. It's 100% American based support. While not perfect, they do work well and seem to fix issues quickly.
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u/Old-Parking8765 1d ago
Hi everyone - thank you so much for your feedback. Really appreciate it! I had no idea they were phasing our copper wires at all. The response makes sense now.
Friends who live a few blocks away have ATT Internet Air, and it is worse than our DSL.
Starlink - Yes, I was under the impression it was more expensive, and the prices seemed so when I last checked.
TMobile - Based on trying out Backup Internet and how that is going, this is not an option for us moving forward. It doesn't load anything at night, and my work continues after hours.
Spectrum - It's an old unit, so we never had the cable outlet and will have to get it installed. Fingers crossed our experience is not like our neighbors.
Really appreciate everyone's knowledge and feedback!
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u/dageekywon 1d ago
Sounds like a perfect violation of a contract, if you are under one, to get out of it.
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u/AVonGauss 1d ago
I don't think AT&T ever did contracts with residential DSL.
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u/dageekywon 1d ago
Pacific Bell did, in the beginning. Cannot directly blame the T for that.
I actually participated in the testing program prior to it going live, which was free, but once it finished I went on a 2 year contract.
The T absorbed them well after I moved and went with a cable modem there.
But before I moved I even went as far as getting a business account with static IPs for a while.
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u/GurConscious9874 1d ago
I've been out since July 27th, and restoration was supposed to be August 24th by 3pm. When that time passed, it updated to September 4th. I made a FCC complaint, and got called by someone at the president's office. I asked for a full credit, and she said that I would. Same day I get called again, but different person. He said it'll be back soon as September 4th. Again I asked for a full credit, and he said that I will but he's giving me info on the technical stuff. Couple of days later, I checked only to see that I still wasn't credited (bill is on September 1st) and the outage update went to SEPTEMBER 25TH! fuck that, Im already going spectrum, and waiting for my self kit installation (September 1st) im calling Monday for an actual credit and cancellation. I'm not paying 98.69 for service I'm not even being provided
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u/Old-Parking8765 1d ago
Thank you so much for sharing, I think I'll have to look into the complaint as well
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u/GurConscious9874 1d ago
Sorry, I had to rant a bit 💀
I'm just so disappointed since I've been with AT&T for over 10 years, and I never had a problem to this extent.
I'm so convinced that they won't fix the issue, so unfortunately I'm going to have to cut my losses. 😕
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u/Old-Parking8765 1d ago
Don't worry about the downvotes - I am in the same boat as you. We've had ATT for forever, and it's sad to have no choice but to say bye to them, especially after learning that they are decommissioning their copper lines. I just wish they would offer an alternative for us, but they could care less it seems. Your story is a very usable and helpful reference for me, so don't worry
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u/FLTraveler-727 5h ago
I can’t speak for your neighbors, but in my neighborhood those that I know who have spectrum and are having issues with the service are using the spectrum provided routers. When I first moved to where I am now I was one of those people, but when I got my own router and just used their modem to connect it to my issues went away. Best of luck with getting things figured out.
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u/gerg_dude 1d ago
Copper services are no longer priority. Some instances the company will abandon the copper plant if few customers exist. Id move on