Why is my AT&T so bad?
AT&T Internet and cell service complaints are relatively common and if you often ask yourself why is my AT&T internet/cell service so bad? you are most probably not the only one.AT&T Internet is a large telecommunication company in the United States that provides service to millions of clients in the country. However, many dissatisfied AT&T customers report issues with internet speed, call drops, and weak signals. There are a few things that might be causing the poor AT&T service that you are experiencing.
Network Congestion
Network congestion is cited as one of the most frequent root causes of poor service delivery by AT&T. Whenever a large number of users attempt to connect to a specific cell or connection point, that particular one gets congested. This reduces Internet connection and call quality for all people in that area. City areas that experience high traffic density are the most affected by congestion problems. But even if some niches don’t get much foot traffic, they still can become overwhelmed during the hours of high usage.
Congestion may be the cause of your AT&T services slowing down at a particular time or in a particular area. However, it is very difficult for individuals to avoid congestion issues unless of course, AT&T needs to upgrade its infrastructure, or else people switch to less populated regions.
Rural Dead Zones
Whereas the inhabitants of large cities face such issues as network overload, the representatives of rural territories have their share of connection problems. The coverage maps of cellular and internet services provided by AT&T depict services extending to a majority of the US. However, as one goes deeper into the countryside, the coverage may not be as good as in the metropolitan and suburban areas.
Remote regions do not have cell sites and cable/fiber connectivity to deliver internet service. You could be enjoying bars and speeds one minute and find yourself in a black spot unable to make a call or access the internet. These rural gaps in coverage are some of the reasons why AT&T's service can be so annoying for some of the users.
Until further advancements in connectivity are made to embrace more small towns and countries, people will have to use wi-fi hotspots or type of satellite internet for rural homes to avoid dead zones.
Outdated Devices/Technology
Your network issues related to AT&T can be caused by several factors that are not necessarily due to AT&T. Is that to say one could slow performance if for instance one was trying to use an old device or an outdated networking technology? From cell phones to routers, modems, and computers, everything affects your internet and cellular connection.
An old device with an outdated wireless antenna and chipsets will not offer the speed and reliability of a new model phone or hotspot. Changing gadgets also does not solve the problem of an erratic connection in AT&T. However, there could be a noticeable improvement if you upgrade the devices every couple of years.
Further, the use of LTE and 5G cellular networking, DOCSIS 3.1 modem, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Cat 5e+ Ethernet cables allows for faster and more persistent AT&T experiences. Old technologies such as 3G cellular, initial DOCSIS cable modems, 802.11n routers, and Cat 5 wiring restrain speed and connectivity.
To me, if you could easily upgrade the gadgets and the networking equipment, AT&T is more useful when its infrastructure is functional. Do not use your technology as a constraint where it is not necessary.
Throttling & Deprioritization
The truth is some AT&T consumers intentionally experience throttling being an aspect of the network management measures the company has in place. Like most other modern ISPs, AT&T keeps providing bandwidth throttling and data deprioritization as ways to deal with congestion.
When it exhausts the resources of cellular towers, AT&T slows down data usage for the whole area until it experiences a decline in usage. This intentional slowing affects everyone locally. Another circumstance, Still, AT&T throttles data on a per-user basis for individual subscribers who exceed the monthly data allowance on its unlimited plans.
As soon as you cross a certain data limit such as 22GB per month, your “unlimited data” is truly reduced to unlimited but of lower priority in the network. During peak hours, users in this category experience lower speeds than other users in their vicinity.
When networks get congested, throttling and deprioritization make the internet on your Phone or Tablet almost unusable. They are aware of the policies and their effects, and there seems to be very little that they can do about it than cut down on data usage. However, limited data goes against the very concept of unlimited data plans.
Some areas just inherently have terrible AT&T service by default because of factors such as geography, lack of infrastructure, demand imbalance, throttling, etc, which are mostly not within the consumers’ control. Sometimes, changing the cellular network or the Internet service provider could prove to provide better results based on the area. Talk to neighbors to compare the quality of the options that are to be chosen.
Here is how to test and improve the service issues in AT&T.
Before giving up on resolving your AT&T problems, run some diagnostics to quantify and isolate the source(s) of difficulties: Before giving up on resolving your AT&T problems, run some diagnostics to quantify and isolate the source(s) of difficulties:
• Actual internet down/upload speeds on wifi and cellular data can be tested using various speed test tools across multiple days and locations. Record the speed test for documentation of the areas this slowdown most often takes place.
• Pay attention to the latency while performing speed tests to identify if there are network delays and lags.
• Measuring the cellular signal strength: In decibels (dB) on your phone, move from a certain location to another. Signal bars are known to be completely unreliable. Check whether some of them produce worse bar/dB results.
• Call AT&T to enquire whether they identify any problems with network equipment in your area that may cause a temporary decline in the quality of local service.
• Make sure that all home networking equipment, cables, and devices incorporate the most up-to-date technologies and specs to eliminate inefficiencies.
• Try changing cellular and internet providers for a month of recording comparative speed tests to see if other options work faster in your location.
• Switch to another SIM card in the smartphone or cellular device if there is a problem with the hardware instead of the network.
• You can also consider physically installing the AT&T wireless gateway/router in different parts of a structure to compare the signal strengths received from external infrastructure.
Still, even if you try to resolve the potential problem of your particular situation, the AT&T service can remain below expectations because of the unresolved issue with the demand congestion, deprioritization of a particular area, insufficient infrastructure nearby, or finally, the outdated consumer devices that cannot fully handle today’s bandwidth demands. Therefore, the only certainty to avoid inconveniently slow and unstable AT&T internet and cellular for some consumers is to change providers. Since there is stiff competition locally, evaluating other ISPs and Mobile networks provides the best outlook of your best bet.
Upgrade to faster, more reliable AT&T Fiber Internet today! Call us at +1 844-905-5002 and get connected with speeds that keep you ahead.