Review by Chris 313 Location: Houma, Terrebonne, LA, USA Cost: $60 per month Install: about 2 days It's fiber, speeds the same both ways. Lower ping. Smokes cable. Pre order was a bit off, CSR was not helpful. The Fiber service bangs. Get it if available.

Pre Sales Information: Install Co-ordination: Connection reliability: Tech Support: Value for money: (ratings match consensus)

Scroll down to bottom of review for current updates. Other than that enjoy my Fiber journey.

After a year of waiting, some false starts, hope and relying on inaccurate information that still persisted to this day, (Looks like it’s not inaccurate anymore, eh?) here we are.

I’ve been a Comcast cable customer for almost 20 years. Got installed Saturday, January 31, 2004 at 5:30 PM, my technological life changed forever. The connected started at 3/384 and was 44.95 a month. For almost 20 years, cable has been my connection. Through all the ups and downs, and upgrades, it was cool. But it wasn’t Fiber. Monday, January 8th, 2024, that all changed.

I’d been following the roll out for years and recently, I started checking daily. I’ve also hit CSRs up a time or two a month just out of bordom. They say the same thing, we’ll notify you. It’s not available, but demand in your area is through the roof. Until January 7, that is. I was told by a CSR to check back in 15 days. Much different than the previous responses.

Monday, January 8th at like 2:30 in the afternoon, I was browsing AT&T’s site and my address was marked as available to order up to 5 Gig Fiber! Yay! Within 30 minutes, I had things ordered for the 2 Gig speed and an install date for Wednesday, January 10th, 2024, between 2-4 PM was on the books

As part of the holiday promotion, I’m eligible for 350 dollars in reward cards that I’m going to use to pay my bills for a few months. So, yay! Free install too.

Then came the issues, the receipt I got listed an entirely different account number then the one I’m actually listed as using. I hope this doesn’t screw anything up now or in the future. Second, I was sent an email to “activate” my account, only to not be able to. (Unknown to me at the time, it’s because it was working it’s way through the system and just needed a day.) Finding this out later made me feel a bit dumb, as I believe that you should have immediate access to your account upon creation. But whatever. Not knowing about the wait period, I called up a CSR to ask about this. She couldn’t speak English for nothing, my unknowingly non-existent problem didn’t get solved, and she tried to upsell me on Direct TV Stream, which I thought about, but have no use for and don’t really want.

I want TV, I’ll go for something like YouTube TV or just buy my content in pieces. Since this call was being recorded, I left my thoughts on the situation and they had the nerve to send me a survey for the CSR who was most definitely operating under a Americanized name. I also swear I heard the same voice working for Comcast as a CSR when I called in to re-up my deal 2 years ago. So my pre-hookup didn’t go too well so far.

Two days later, it’s the 10th and I’m waiting for that 2-4 window. The install was supposed to be a 2-man crew. One was nothing more than a glorified salesman that was gonna sell me cell phone service (I’m planning on it, but not just yet, given Samsung Unpacked 2024 on January 17th.) I have no interest in being sold anything other than what I ordered and was infuriated when the first guy didn’t show until 4:20, sat there for 10 minutes, said nothing, did nothing, and then just took off. I had to keep extending things and keeping the appointment. If I was gonna get installed today, I wasn’t gonna let this stop me.

After the first idiot left, I got a phone call from Zack, my actual installer. He was much nicer, understood my anger and told me he was still coming. I told him I was here waiting and to come on down! He comes at 5 PM. Ok, great. Let’s get this party started! He tells me he may be able to install me, but doesn’t know for sure, or if it’ll even work. It depended on what he found in the PFP box my area is hooked up to, He nicely didn’t want to get my hopes up, but if there was any news, I wanted to know, good, bad or otherwise.

He comes back a few minutes later, turned out I’m the first one in the box, on the first line, first splitter, etc. So I’m the tester for my area. Yay, but I guess that’s what I get for being the first one in my area to order the service the DAY it was available on the site. After confirming I can get hooked up, he got to work, pulling out his ladder, and all the needed stuff for the install, explaining things and showing me things as he went. Nice! Made for some decent pictures of my install too. The install itself was flawless

So, it’s been a little over an hour and we’re almost done. By 6:18, I’m up and running. Corning Fiber, cables, a Humax BGW-320-500 and a XGS-PON SFP module later and I’m online! Things are definitely faster. According to the line tester, I’m very clean, great light levels too. I’m set for 2 Gig and that’s what I’m getting. Sadly though, the computer I use won’t break a Gig. (Measures between 524 and 800 before maxing out like 80% of my rig on a download/upload.) But having 2 Gig means I can do more than just the computer. My game consoles and an OneDrive upload went on that first night, all at once and I was hitting 1900 out of 2350. Great.

Over the last days, it’s been quite a ride getting my router, (ASUS AXE16000) working with IP Passthrough on the gateway. Gaming that first night was unbelievable. It was like everything was on fast forward and my ping was 1 or else in single digit. This is coming from Xfinity 1200/42, where my ping was 16-200! Once everything is properly hooked up and configured, AT&T Fiber has sold me on the gaming aspect alone. I love the fact that I can do an upload to OneDrive in 4 hours or less vs 12+ hours with cable. Comcast is about to get their ass kicked, and they know it. Deservedly so, given what will probably be a 2-5 year wait for competing upgrades that mirror AT&T’s current 300-5 Gig offerings. AT&T already has them beat. Imagine what they’ll offer speed wise starting later this year, let alone in 2-5 years.

I don’t know if I’m gonna keep the 2 Gig package at the price point It is, but it will be lower with phone and whatever other goodies I can get, but the 1 Gig package is a good fallback without much loss of room to move. Especially with any upgrades AT&T does this year to really put the hurt on Comcast.

It's still early days, but I’m riding the light and loving the hell out of it.

I’ll update when I get my phone service going or anything changes with my router config. Been a hell of a learning experience. The gateway definitely needs a Bridge Mode where you can just plug in your own router and everything just works.

Update: 1/14/24

I checked my account just for giggles and after only 6 days of being an AT&T customer, my bill for a month of service has already been put out. Ok, fine, whatever. But at the same time, I was hoping to use some of that 350 in reward cards I'm supposed to have, only for the first one to not even be shipped yet. Let alone the other 250. Not bad but a little irritating.

Update: 1/19/24

Ordered Wireless service to get the All-in-One 20 discount on my internet. That should be fun.

Update: 1/23/24:

The first of 3 gift cards have arrived from AT&T. Tried paying my bill with one, only to have it rejected. Gonna give it a while and then try again. According to the activation number, I still have the full balance of it.

Update: 2/14/24

Got 3 gift cards in so far. 350 in total. Used them to pay my electric bill without a hitch since AT&T didn't want to take them for their bill side of it. Eh. Also went from the 2 Gig package down to 1 Gig as purely a money saving measure. Loved having the 2 Gig and being able to run my network at full speed. Would still recommend if you have a large network with many devices and/or power users.

Still waiting to see if Comcast will charge me an ETF fee for canceling service, but it isn't looking likely. Yay. They did something good and I won't have a nightmare tale about it.

I'm also receiving the All-in-One 20 off discount now for having AT&T Fiber and phone service. That's nice.

Update: 2/29/24

Since the last update, I got my first phone bill in. Was double what I expected, but I was prepared for it. Also, had the first power outage since I got Fiber, only to see my UPS keeping the gateway online, despite the lack of power. Things came back an hour later, but it was awesome anyway.

Things are purring along and are still great.

Update: 4/22/24

Yesterday from 8:50 to 10:51 AM, I had a power outage due to a broken power pole. My UPS kept the internet up the whole time. Was one bar away from the UPS dying, but eh. Kudos to AT&T for keeping things up on their end. It's been almost 6 months and I've not been down once due to outages.

Update: 6/10/24

So today marks my 6 month anniversary of getting Fiber. It's been great, solid and an absolute blast. Still at 1 Gig for 60 bucks.

jtorre69 join:2005-12-26 Hollywood, FL 3 recommendations jtorre69 Member 2022-Dec-23 9:58 am Fraudulent Review How can you post a review for a service you don’t even have, and to top that, give it a “mixed review”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2022-Dec-23 9:58 am: · hey mods ·
	Chris 313 Because It's Geekier Premium Member join:2004-07-18 Houma, LA ·AT&T FTTP ·Comcast XFINITY Chris 313 Premium Member 2022-Dec-27 1:50 pm Re: Fraudulent Review The service is coming. I'm surrounded by it. This is my pre-review. And as for it getting a mixed review, it did that because I didn't leave any ratings on anything yet, because I don't have anything to judge besides how/where they stopped. When I get service, this review will be revisited and edited to include all the juicy bits. So, I don't see how this could be considered a fraudulent review. 2022-Dec-27 1:50 pm: · hey mods ·
		nathilliv join:2016-11-08 Bloomington, IN 1 recommendation nathilliv Member 2023-Jan-13 12:11 pm Re: Fraudulent Review They ran fiber 800 feet to my home, but I was in the area they claimed would have service. I have better luck going to their retail office than trying to do anything by phone. 2023-Jan-13 12:11 pm: · hey mods ·
		tc1uscg join:2005-03-09 127.0.0.1 3 recommendations tc1uscg to Chris 313 Member 2024-Jan-31 12:07 pm to Chris 313 I think the review is spot on. But I had a little different experience. I purchased a home in the Gulfport MS area (out in the country). At the time, it had AT&T FTTP and Sparklight (aka, cable one) had coax service to my area. Though I purchased the house in 2022, I had a relative "house sit" till we sold our home in mid summer 2023. I signed up for AT&T fiber for it to go live the day we closed on the house (I had security cam's to install before heading back north). House already had AT&T service before we bought it so the ONT was already installed. AT&T sent me a new modem/router and the system was online the day I requested. And they even sent t he hardware to my OLD address so I could bring it with me (to close on the house). So, up to that point, I'd give them a 5 stars out of 5. Self install went just fine. Online experience was what I expected out of a fiber hookup. Speeds were almost 1gig both ways. Cost was $80 a month. Fast forward a year. Still, service rock solid. HOWEVER, there was new provider in the area, CoastConnect (a branch of the electric company serving this area). $85. Signed up just to try them out. Though they were ok, the speeds were not as fast as I had what I was paying for. If I wanted to change my router, I had to text the install tech to remove the OLD MAC address so it would register the new one. I'm a retired IT guy so I like to change things now and then. I used CC for 4 months, just switched back to AT&T. Easy transition. Still $80 a month, got a newer ONT/Router and they used the existing wall drop (fiber) so now it's fiber all the way to the SPF adapter in the router. I did not have any issues with any CSR's. The tech was great. The only complaints was the lady who came right after the tech left and tried to sell me Wireless Phone service. The up sale on other services no matter what they call it. I'm happy with AT&T. I worked for Sprint as a switch tech at our Long Distance Division's CO in Detroit for 10 years where I had a distain for AT&T's wireline side. But so far, their fiber to the home group has been great. What cracks me up is, I'm in the north west end of the county. in a small sub of 70 or so houses. We have 2 fiber providers and 1 coax provider. There are people in large cities don't have any of that. Great write up and could help people navigate any bumps in the road they encounter. 2024-Jan-31 12:07 pm: · hey mods ·
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