Why is AT&T cellular so slow?
For years AT&T has been one of the largest wireless carriers in the United States, however many consumers use social media and other forums to express that the speeds of the data service are slower than Verizon or T-Mobile. There could be several reasons for this and below are some of the possible explanations why at times the AT&T cellular connections can feel slow.
Network Congestion
Data throttling is one of the primary causes of perceived slow AT&T Internet speeds, especially when there is congestion on its network. In simpler terms, this translates to a situation where many individuals are attempting to analyze data at a particular location. If towers receive too many requests for data, speeds are decreased for all users attached to them. This is especially prevalent in busy cities, crowded shows or sporting activities, and during traffic peak hours when everyone is on the move. AT&T has been more concerned with geographical coverage rather than having the network capability to carry more traffic. Also, many of the spectrum bands they operate on are of lower frequency and have less coverage and penetration through barriers compared to Verizon’s low-frequency range. The fact that more users were able to connect on weaker signals increases congestion.
Older Network Technologies
The contrasting aspect between AT&T and its competitors like Verizon and T-Mobile is that the latter has been slower in upgrading its network towers to newer technologies such as 5G and LTE Advanced, which enhance speeds. Verizon and T-Mobile recently claimed to have mid-band 5G coverage of more than 95 million people, while AT&T has only 50 million with slower low-band 5G more vulnerable to traffic congestion. Their LTE network is even based on the older LTE-Advanced Pro technology compared to other carriers using upgraded LTE-Advanced that supports faster gigabit speeds on 4G. Therefore, the overall AT&T network ceiling for the performance is lower than the competitors.
Fewer Small Cells
Apart from enhancing the basic cellular tower hardware, enhancing ‘small cell’ is another significant means through which the carriers are enhancing the network speeds and overall capacity in densely populated regions. Small cells are like mini-cell towers installed on light poles rooftops and other areas to give targeted coverage and to offload data traffic. AT&T once more trails Verizon and T-Mobile when it comes to deploying small cells in urban centers to reduce traffic and increase data throughput. While the company is actively expanding small cells, it still lags far behind.
Throttling Heavy Data Users
Another strategy that AT&T has increasingly used to address congestion and overloaded towers is data throttling on unlimited plans when customers exceed certain usage limits (usually around 50GB on the newer unlimited plans). This means they drastically reduce your data speeds in case you have consumed much data in terms of high speeds. This does help manage congestion, but at the obvious cost that heavy data users get much slower speeds for the rest of the billing cycle. Verizon and T-Mobile now only limit throttling to those who have consumed over 200GB of data for specific conditions.
Stingy International Roaming
AT&T has constantly been flooded with complaints by its customers while using their phones in foreign countries because of outrageously steep international charges and unreasonable restrictive policies. They also offer annoying speed limitations of about 200-300 Kbps in many destinations across the world. Verizon and T-Mobile offer a much friendlier attitude toward overseas data with higher high-speed allowances, making AT&T an even less desirable option for international travelers requiring reliable fast data connection in foreign countries.
Rural Coverage Gaps
All four major wireless networks still lack adequate representation in the rural areas that are located some distance away from the highways and population concentration; however, for statewide coverage, AT&T seems slightly less equipped compared to Verizon. Certain experts believe that overall AT&T’s 4G LTE network reaches about 20-25 million people less across the country than Verizon does in rural areas. Thus, customers in the country depending on only cellular connections are more vulnerable to connectivity problems or roaming at slow speeds.
Old Unlimited Plans
Some of the currently grandfathered, or older AT&T unlimited customers from a few years ago may experience slower data speeds compared to new unlimited consumers. This is because there are new old legacy plans from AT&T that have small print work which gives the company the right to slow down speeds whenever the network feels like it needs to do so, unlike the current plans. To unlock full-speed unlimited data on AT&T now, you have to be on one of the newest unlimited plans available in the market like Elite, Extra, or Starter. Customers already subscribed to AT&T can change their plan by contacting the company, and they do not have to sign up for a longer commitment period. But be prepared to pay for much more than what you used to pay for your old discontinued plan.
To sum it up, AT&T cellular connections are slower than other big networks due to more network congesting by excessive usage and limited spectrum, infrastructure upgrades to new technologies not done as fast as necessary, limiting heavy use of unlimited data plans more aggressively, rural coverage gaps, and throttling older unlimited plans regardless of their usage. While companies like Verizon are quickly moving to provide 5G improvements, and T-Mobile is massively increasing mid-band capacity with their acquisition of Sprint’s spectrum, AT&T is slow to implement its 5G plans. Until they can fully ramp up building towers to satisfy demand and keep unlimited data speeds affordable without having to artificially throttle speeds back, AT&T cellular users should continue to expect molasses-like slow speeds in many situations for now. But network performance is a dynamic factor since technology continues to improve.
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