Source
r/ATT•
iOS14

AT&T is slower than expected, do I stick around?

Wireless

We recently switched 4 lines from Verizon to AT&T because Verizon was getting more expensive and we’re saving $80 a month on AT&T due to the healthcare discount.

Unfortunately, it turns out at least in our area that AT&T is a pretty significant downgrade. When I’m out I rarely get over 20mbps even on full bars of 5G, and at home I get 2 down and .1 up, when I used to get 80 on Verizon and 200 on T-Mobile.

Is it worth sticking around with the savings and waiting for AT&T to hopefully improve or should we jump ship again? I contacted AT&T support on Twitter and they made a trouble ticket, so is there a chance that could help?

Thanks

Posted Jul 29, 2022, 8:50 PM UTC

1492
GatorBehr•

I wish I could get 20Mbps down on Verizon. 😂

21
bigdish101•

I get a consistent 400-600 with T-Mobile and 80-120 with AT&T and <1mbps with Verizon.

6
GatorBehr•

I don’t get speeds like that on AT&T, but I’m on prepaid. Prepaid AT&T is routinely faster than Verizon (I have “get more” which is a great joke because you can’t get anything on their overloaded network.)

8
bigdish101•

I get those speeds on AT&T with AT&T based TracFone on 5G band 5.

3
-PC--•

That's great. FYI... Soon, they are going to try to switch you to Verizon because TracFone was bought by them last year.

0
thelimerunner•

I’m on AT&T Prepaid. $65 Unlimited Max plan from Wal-Mart with 22GB before deprioritization. AT&T has a decent amount of capacity in my market. Home sit tops out at 175 on LTE. Few spots in the city I can hit 200+. iPhone 11 Pro Max. I’m impressed coming from Verizon, obviously varies by market but AT&T has really improved around me in the last 5 years.

2
jmedina94•

Verizon must've done some serious upgrades in our area recently. I left them a couple of years ago on my personal phone because of congestion. Tested it while waiting for the bus recently. Almost 300 Mbps down on LTE while my iPhone 13 PM on AT&T 5G was around 50-60 Mbps.

2
tonightitfeels•

this is really a question only you can answer...

is it worth sticking around to save $80/mo and only get 20Mbps down on average? ask yourself if you really need more speed, aside from doing speed tests, do you ever really notice it? do you really care about the speeds when at home, assumingly using wifi?

im a speed-head but aside from downloading large files, i know i wouldnt notice 20 down vs 200 very often if it isnt a speed test.

if youre leaning heavily on porting out, check the price difference to move to unlimited premium, youll be a level up, could double your speeds.

18
nkd83•

Exactly. I am the same way. If it does the job and I can do anything I need. It’s fine.

2
nuellisam•

I switched to Verizon and speeds are insane ! I had only had att so it took a while to forget buffering is a thing when using hotspot on my iPad.

However Verizon has too many dead zones where data just flatlines, am in the Bay Area and like in Sausalito I have no working data , same thing in the Castro area ! It’s pretty frustrating but am gonna stick with them since I use the hotspot for YouTube a lot

5
iOS14OP•

Verizon was struggling for a while but recently they started to deploy 5G UWB in our area and speeds improved significantly. We mainly switched for the savings, but maybe AT&T starts getting their network together as well?

5
nuellisam•

We can only hope but I would switch back to att if I didn't watch a lot YouTube,Verizon seems to be too unreliable cause I never know where my phone is gonna refuse to work and with att I only knew one dead zone in the entire city.

2
bigdish101•

I’d try T-Mobile.

4
AtlantaSoulMan•

Sounds like ATT does not have good coverage in your area.

You could use WiFi at home but that's just a workaround.

You're paying for service, so switch to a carrier that provides the service you need. That may mean you need to spend a little more each month.

5
rpaulmerrell•

I feel sorry for all these people that are part of these plans that can’t seem to make up their mind. What plan works and what doesn’t based on cost ATC. Very interesting indeed.

4
bigdish101•

Healthcare discount?

You said you get 200 on T-Mobile why not stick with T-Mobile? They tend to be cheaper than AT&T or Verizon.

4
Evening-Parsley-8410•

With the Healthcare discount on AT&T, it tends to be cheaper than T-Mobile. Unless you have the First Responder discount on T-Mobile, AT&T comes out to be cheaper than T-Mobile with the Healthcare discount. (That's with 4 lines)

2
johann_popper999•

ATT has burned me in the Boston area for 25 years. Literally every single one of dozens of friends and coworkers get far better service with literally every other provider, especially T-Mobile. UNLESS I go over the border to Rhodes Island. The smallest state in the union gets excellent service.

Why don't I quit? Pure laziness. Or maybe I just enjoy having something to hate.

4
Source-Vast•

I know this entirely varies on location but I've had the following experience.

Verizon: Reliable coverage until you find the one dead zone, susceptible to buildings blocking signal more then others.

T-Mobile: Fastest speeds overall but spottier/less reliable connection even with full signal at times. Inconsistent overall.

ATT: Not the fastest always but most reliable and usable data connection. I have taken ATT coast to coast on different trips and granted sticking to major highways had flawless coverage even in spots seeming sorta remote. Even having 1 bar of LTE is usable where the other two seem to falter even with "good" signal. By far best value for me on the prepaid plan.

4
jmedina94•

T-Mobile is a joke around here in terms of signal. Somebody I know was trying to show me a restaurant on Yelp today. It kept loading at 1 bar so I got my iPhone 13 PM on AT&T. Full bars and loaded up in a second.

2
ilikeme1•

Yes it does. In my area (Houston):

Verizon: Works reliably pretty much everywhere, but slowest nationwide 5G & LTE, usually. 5GUW is usually great though, both C-Band and MM wave. Usually works the best of the 3 deep inside buildings. Great rural coverage too in most spots.

T-Mobile: Coverage just as good as Verizon in the city, getting better along the highways and rural areas as of late. Usually the fastest.

AT&T: Tends to be faster than Verizon (non UW), but first to loose service indoors and deep into large neighborhoods. Very good rural coverage outside of the city.

2
Evening-Parsley-8410•

Omg, you're absolutely correct! I live in Tennessee, so I know a little about the coverage, and you're right about all the carriers.

Verizon: Penetrates buildings better, has More Coverage, and Most Expensive

T-Mobile: Fastest, but when going to the boonies "No Service"

AT&T- A little faster than Verizon, A little less coverage than Verizon, but can grasp onto that one bar of service and still be usable

2
HighJewElfKing•

AT&T is working on deploying C Band so network May get better as time goes on

3
furruck•

You're better off taking Unlimited Premium, the work discount makes it the same price as Extra anyway.

One thing I will say about AT&T, if you do not have C-Band (5G+) in your area yet, just turn 5G off in the phone, as it will limit what bands the phone can aggregate with. In Chicago, it was practically the only way mobile data was usable once people started getting 5G phones a year ago.

Turning off 5G took me from ~5-10Mbps average to 30-50Mbps average due to the phone not being stuck on B17 to anchor with n5 5G. Try that and see what happens.

Otherwise, for $80/mo i'd stay unless you're downloading a ton of files on a regular basis, as anything over 5Mbps, you're likley to not notice on daily usage tasks.

3
gringoentj•

Are you on Unlimited Starter?

2
FaPtoWap•

Hate to say it. But so many people would get roped in to that plan because of price. Id try and paint a picture of what that really meant, and they always came back complaining.

3
gringoentj•

Yes, I agree the price is right but the QCI level is not.

2
FaPtoWap•

Correct. Its like being on Mobile Share 30 or ATT Unlimited 60 in 2022 and complaining about speed.

1
iOS14OP•

All four lines are on unlimited extra

2
garylapointeThe Plan Whisperer•

If you're getting good bars, before leaving, try Premium as it is a higher priority.

If it works better for you, then you can join AARP for $16 and get Premium for the same price as Extra (that works out to $1.25 more a month), and now you're on the highest priority consumer plan they offer.

Makes sense to give it a try before switching back.

3
gringoentj•

That's strange your QCI level of 8 I believe should work well. I mean you could test one of the lines and go to premium and see if that helps with the data speed and what you are trying to do. But the plan you are on should work well up to 100gigs

1
ExtraJohnson•

I switched from T-Mobile and it was way faster than ATT in Cincinnati. I'm thinking about paying off our ATT phones and switching back

2
jmtrader2•

I have had all three and travel the east coast a lot. AT&T has been the most reliable and average the fastest for me. I'm surprised you are having these results.

2
iOS14OP•

Me too, I figured all carriers would have it figured out by now but AT&T being this bad shocked me. We even had cricket a couple years ago and it was significantly better than AT&T is right now.

2
jmtrader2•

That is so strange. Maybe try the post paid premium plan with your discount and see if that helps?

1
iOS14OP•

I think we’re going to try T-Mobile and depending on how that goes in a couple months we may go back to Verizon with the BYOD promo.

2
MacMan931•

Verizon is trash around me but Att had dead spots so i’m stuck with trash.

2
Aggressive_Net_4444•

Upgrading are coming with Verizon very soon

3
MacMan931•

Very true but with them buying a ton of MVNOs their network I don’t think will ever be as great as it was even with CBAND coming. I think their mistake was to concentrate on mm wave deployment. When it doesn’t go past the end of their nose, they don’t have enough money to build out mm everywhere. It’s almost like it was an afterthought.

1
Aggressive_Net_4444•

They had to concentrate on mmWave because it’s all they had, they didn’t get enough midband for 5g until the cband auction, tmobile got their midband from sprint.

2
TailRash•

Recently switched from Verizon to AT&T to get the $800 trade in and overall cheaper plan. It's not terrible but it's definitely not as good as Verizon. I have to stick with them for 3 years to get the full $800 credit. If the service hasn't gotten better by then I'll switch back to Verizon without hesitation.

2
NewFrame2757•

If you plan on getting an iPhone 14 then yes stick around. Lots of new tech in the 14 will make your experience on ATT bettrt

2
Realistic_lad•

I get 100 megabit down on att 5ge and I’m on prepaid. Haven’t had any coverage issues. Guess it just depends where you live.

1
cell2071•

There going to improve but no telling when we will see it. Also I stick with it because it’s cheaper the Verizon. I think about it a lot.

1
SeaworthinessEven859•

Did you buy new phones when you switched to AT&T or did you bring your own device from Verizon and switched it to AT&T ?

1
iOS14OP•

We brought our phones from Verizon but they’re all pretty recent iPhones, I personally have a 13 PM.

2
SeaworthinessEven859•

Ahh okay, gotcha. Sometimes if your phone is brought over from another carrier that’s what may cause you not to get the full advantage of the AT&T signal. Because when you buy a phone from a carrier that phone was meant for that carrier to work on their signal ,even if you unlock the phone and switch to another carrier you may not get 100% advantage of the carrier signal you switched to because your phone originally was meant to mainly work on the carrier you bought it from.

2
iOS14OP•

Yeah that’s true. I believe the latest iPhones though all have the same bands no matter which carrier they are from so I don’t think that should be an issue.

2
calislidebayarea•

Have you tried locking to LTE only? LTE tends to have faster download speeds because it can aggregate (combine) more bands than AT&T’s 5G implementation. At the moment, 5G only benefits you through higher upload speed and maybe better download speeds if you are connected to 5G+ (n77).

1
Windofgod19•

Which plan are you on?

1
iOS14OP•

We’re on Unlimited Extra

1