6 megabit AT&T DSL for $27.99

[Steve]

I might have ASI's (AT&T Advanced Solutions) 866 number at home. If I find it I'll post it. Helps to have a ticket number from SBC or whomever first though.

 

[aboothman]

Originally posted by: kalster
you guys getting close to 6mpbs, what is your distance from the CO?

ya I am getting pretty close to 6000 on the download, and upload is constant 600+.
I am about 300 feet from my CO

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: Elixer

Originally posted by: yukichigai
I'll reiterate this point again and again and again until people get it: being further away from the Central Office doesn't necessarily mean your speed goes down. Back in the old old OLD days of DSL that was true, but now most telcoms that offer DSL service deploy Remote Terminals capable of being DSL endpoints at various locations throughout their coverage area. These are almost always linked up to the CO via fiberoptic (and a lot of it) so the speed you get at X feet from an RTS will almost always be the same as the speed you get X feet from the CO. (give or take a millisecond of latency)

Besides, AT&T will only give you 6M DSL if you are within a certain number of feet of the CO or an RTS, (6,000-something according to the article) unless you get an override from the engineering department. (They have to come out and run some tests to verify that you're capable of getting the speed) 90% of the time if they let you sign up for 6M down (that's maximum 6M down, by the way) you'll get something in the 4.5~6M down range.

For those of you worried about the cost of the phone line, look into Federal Universal Phone Line service (cheap pricing if you make under 12k a year, e.g. college students) or a metered line. (Usually $5/mo + taxes, then a ~$0.20/min charge per call, which can easily be avoided by never plugging in a phone)

Finally, someone posted some decent info.

Last time they had this "deal" in my area, they told me "up to" 6Mb. As I questioned on, they said it can vary from 1.5Mb to 6Mb depending on line conditions, and distance from CO. Read the fine print, and you will see where they talk about this. Take a look at the possible fees they talk about for sending a line tech over.

As far as I am concerned, we need more competiton in phone/cable tv/HSI/ and so on.. so bring em on!

You still have to be under 8000 ft from a RT to get 6Meg DSL. Nothing's changed in distance.

 

[chinkgai]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
You still have to be under 8000 ft from a RT to get 6Meg DSL. Nothing's changed in distance.

well, at the end of my block (well under 8000 ft) we have a RT...but they keep denying that the package is available for me

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: aboothman

Originally posted by: kalster
you guys getting close to 6mpbs, what is your distance from the CO?

ya I am getting pretty close to 6000 on the download, and upload is constant 600+.
I am about 300 feet from my CO

I forgot how to figure out how far I am from the CO.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Elixer
Last time they had this "deal" in my area, they told me "up to" 6Mb. As I questioned on, they said it can vary from 1.5Mb to 6Mb depending on line conditions, and distance from CO. Read the fine print, and you will see where they talk about this. Take a look at the possible fees they talk about for sending a line tech over.

If you are within the distance restrictions for the 6mbit odds are you will get pretty close to 6mbit. And you can always switch to another slower package if nessasary without getting penalized.
I dont know if they would allow you to try it out for a month and then cancel if you didn't get 6mbit, but you could ask.

Anyway, the package has changed since you last looked. Its now a minimum of 3mbit. In other words, they garuntee at 3.0-6.0, at least 3mbit speeds.

Originally posted by: Baked
I forgot how to figure out how far I am from the CO.

Generally you have to call them and ask. And last couple times I tried to find out, they said they weren't going to tell me.

There are occasional tools online to try and figure it out, but the problem is, they dont know locations of RTs. So often you can be too far from a CO but well within the nessasary distance from an RT and the tool would be giving you an incorrect answer.

 

[are34]

go to dslreports.com , there is a distant calculator on there. It will ask for your dsl
number then calculate the distant from your home to the CO.

 

[aggressor]

That's not all that accurate, though. That's just a 'birds-eye' distance calculation, and doesn't look at the truth path your phone line takes from you to your CO. Plus, many areas are serviced by remote terminals now.

 

[Deleted member 139972]

.

 

[Athena]

Originally posted by: aggressor
That's not all that accurate, though. That's just a 'birds-eye' distance calculation, and doesn't look at the truth path your phone line takes from you to your CO. Plus, many areas are serviced by remote terminals now.

True. My CO is less than a mile from my house -- no matter how you measure -- but we are on remote terminal connected from another county.

 

[Baked]

Originally posted by: Devistater

Originally posted by: Elixer
Last time they had this "deal" in my area, they told me "up to" 6Mb. As I questioned on, they said it can vary from 1.5Mb to 6Mb depending on line conditions, and distance from CO. Read the fine print, and you will see where they talk about this. Take a look at the possible fees they talk about for sending a line tech over.

If you are within the distance restrictions for the 6mbit odds are you will get pretty close to 6mbit. And you can always switch to another slower package if nessasary without getting penalized.
I dont know if they would allow you to try it out for a month and then cancel if you didn't get 6mbit, but you could ask.

Anyway, the package has changed since you last looked. Its now a minimum of 3mbit. In other words, they garuntee at 3.0-6.0, at least 3mbit speeds.

Originally posted by: Baked
I forgot how to figure out how far I am from the CO.

Generally you have to call them and ask. And last couple times I tried to find out, they said they weren't going to tell me.

There are occasional tools online to try and figure it out, but the problem is, they dont know locations of RTs. So often you can be too far from a CO but well within the nessasary distance from an RT and the tool would be giving you an incorrect answer.

I'm getting 2.4MB D/L speed w/ the 3MB service right now. That's not bad right? I ordered the 6MB service yesterday, so even if I get 5MB D/L, it's still a good deal for only $3 more a month.

 

[sat4fun]

Posted at AT&T Direct and it has been over 24 hours with no reply. This may be an effective way to resolve, but it is far from quick. Gonna try to find some time to call when I get home tonight. I'd rather jump through the hoops than wait helpless for a reply to an unofficial forum.

 

[Devistater]

I had a problem where my download dropped speed (from my normal 6mbit to 3mbit) for a few days once the upgrade hit (I could tell because my upstream increased), then it went back to normal. I dunno if this is part of the upgrade process or what, but just thought I'd let you guys know.

And yeah I'm getting about 768kbit upstream now. So if you currently have the 6mbit package, its worth it to reduce cost and get the upgrade in upstream.

 

[imthebadguy]

i hear dsl sucks tho..... cable not ftw?

 

[LukeMan]

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
Most SBC/AT&T areas have RT's that are pretty close to people's homes so the 6500 feet distance limit is not that bad.

I live in the middle of a city of 100,000 and the nearest hub is 2.5 miles away. It really sucks. Only broadband choices I have are the 5.0mb/256kb Mediacom cable connection that costs $50/month and has packet loss/bad pings cuz they oversell their cable, or to go with 256 kb up/down dsl since thats all I would get being this far from the hub.

 

[cheesehead]

I make my money helping folks with their computers. I've had to deal with the south wisconsin SBC tech support before, and they suck.

To give you a rough idea, you have to wait ten minutes before talking to a person.

Why?

Because the list of areas with no service is that @#$#@$ long!

 

[Baked]

They upgraded my DSL yesterday. Doing 5027/634. Kick ass.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: imthebadguy
i hear dsl sucks tho..... cable not ftw?

And I hear cable sux

Actually, it just depends on your particular area. If you are too far away from a CO or RT, then the DSL speed wont be good (but they check your distance when you order the 6mbit package to make sure you aren't too far away).

Cable tends to be more expensive currently. SBC starts at $13 and this 6mbit is $28, cable is around $40 a month or so (more if you dont have cable TV).

Also in some areas cable oversells thier BW and the speed drops to molasses during peak hours (see the comment 2 or 3 above this for an example). But in many cases, cable is the speed you pay for almost all the time. In a few cases DSL is also oversold, but you dont hear about that nearly as much as cable (with the all the recent SBC sales, there's reports of slowdown during peak hours in the Bay area in CA recently, and a couple other places because so many people have signed up. Supposedly they are working to fix this).

Again, it depends on your neigborhood. Cable might be better or DSL better. Comcast also has a 8mbit service which is even faster, but it is more expensive.

And the best is of course FIOS But thats in a very very few small areas.

Unfortunateyl the only way to find out which is better for you is to try it or ask someone who has the service in your neighborhood.

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: 13Gigatons
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060426/ap_on_bi_ge/at_t_dsl_1

Finally they can tell comcast to shutup with there dumb commercial about how fast they are compared to 786K DSL which doesn't exist anymore.

Sadly the 6 megabit is a sync speed so you will only get 5.2 megabit download speed but comcast isn't really producing 8 megabits downloads either since they oversell their network.

Phone Line + DSL = less then $50 {SBC/AT&T will be forced to launch Naked DSL: Standalone DSL }

Most SBC/AT&T areas have RT's that are pretty close to people's homes so the 6500 feet distance limit is not that bad.

Bad link. What is the upload speed? Is this a six month trial then my rates double like Verizon does?

 

[Fritzo]

Originally posted by: are34
go to dslreports.com , there is a distant calculator on there. It will ask for your dsl
number then calculate the distant from your home to the CO.

That tool isn't accurate, as it posts physical distance, not cable distance. For instance, at my old house I was only 4300 ft from the CO, but there was an apartment building inbetween me and the CO, which increased the distance to 12000.

If you have load coils on your line, it will also increase your distance. I have access to ASI's tools for distance qualification for most areas. PM me with your phone number and address and I can check it out for you if you want.

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: Googer
Bad link. What is the upload speed? Is this a six month trial then my rates double like Verizon does?

Its because yahoo doesn't keep the news links live very long before they delete them.
And unfortunately the OP isn't keeping his post updated with links and info. Like the upgrade online link where you can upgrade your current DSL without even calling them in just 5 minutes (it also does a check to make sure your line qualifies before it offers you the upgrade). If you have SBC already, it shows you all packages you are eligible for in terms of an upgrade.

This is a 6016/768 plan (despite it saying 6016/608).
(its because of the availible "redback" profiles they have currently in thier hardware for upgrades and new customers. You can find this kinda thing out from the postings over at the DSLreports website from SBC techs, and from people who have upgraded and post the speeds they have. My personal speed tests seem to confirm this as well since I had the 6016/608 plan before and my upstream ticked up a bit above what I had previously after I upgraded to the 6016/768).

Its not a few month promo price. Its the normal price for a year. Before the year is up you can sign up for whatever price they have a year from now, probably be the same or better. So far, I've done this upgrade to new plan or price thing fairly often from SBC.
If you look at the SBC website and the pricing you will see that the month to month (without a year commitment) is about $50 for this plan, which means thats the price it goes to after a year if you dont change to whatever the best deal is after a year.

 

[BigLar]

Recommended by the NSA for easy accesss to your personal communications....

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: BigLar
Recommended by the NSA for easy accesss to your personal communications....

Which? DSL? Cable? Dialup? All the above?

If they want to listen in to someone, they can, regardless of what you use.

And now you have the FCC ruling that all telephony services (including all VOIP) must include ability to be wiretapped. So like I said, if they want to listen in or watch you, they can. They just need a warrant from the gov (it could be a secret warrant) to do so. Normally anyway, these days, who knows.

Heck, the FCC ruled a year or two ago that phone companies could SELL all personally identifiable information about you, including call lists, locations, numbers, duration, your name & address, etc etc to almost anyone. The kinda stuff police would need a warrant for, they can just sell to almost any random person/company. That invasion of privacy concerns me FAR more, the selling of all my personal info. That kinda selling stuff is far more likely to be abused by companies IMHO. The FCC said the only way that can be stopped is to "opt out" which means calling up your phone company and forbidding them to do so. I did that a while back, I suggest everyone else does the same. If anyone wants to know more and how to ask them to stop that (there's a particular word that they call this stuff, CPNI), let me know and I'll see if I can find my old links to the FCC press releases on this and info.

 

[PhaZe]

I jumped on this deal and my max download is 620KB/sec and upload is 78KB/sec.

Not bad because I was paying 39.99 for speeds slightly lower than that.

 

[ppaik]

im hesistant too pull the trigger since it is a 1 year contract...

currently on comcast cable and getting roughly 6m down but more importantly for the 6 months that ive had comcast at my home, the service went down once for about 2 hrs. But Im paying $43 a month with my cable tv package and the monthly bill comes out just shy of $150. Needless to say that a $15 month savings would be quite nice especially since gas prices went up so much...

ive read some people complain about the instability of cable and dsl. im currently about 6000 feet from the CO and im in a fairly new apt building (built in the 90s).

Anyone have problems with the att dsl line? are there tech support quick to finding issues in areas etc? comcast outsources their tech support to india, does att do the same?