AT&T gigabit residential fiber can't do 4K streaming?

[timeshifter]

Was talking to a guy tonight who got AT&T fiber in his newly built home. AT&T is busy rolling it out in my area. I've been excited by the prospect of being able to get it too, but it's not in my part of town yet.

I asked him how it was going. He said he's been having trouble with getting 4K video streaming. Was only able to get 24 megs (I'm paraphrasing how he said it) and he needed 26 megs. He had to call AT&T several times to get them to adjust to give him the additional speed.

He's not a customer, I think he's a retired IBM guy, so he's not a tech dummy and I somewhat trust what he says. Didn't have time to talk too much when I saw him, but I wish I had.

Anyway, in my mind I'm like WTF! Gigabit Internet should mean 1,000 Mbps speed, right? Well probably not exactly but it should be close. But it should NOT struggle to deliver 24 Mbps vs 26 Mbps.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

Makes you wonder if he ordered the Gigabit package or something smaller.

 

[GTP]

Like most people he probably went for the cheapest package available.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I think some info is missing here. You don't even need a 20 meg connection for 4k..just need mid teens. Allow for overhead and other background use...OK, so you need just under 20 megs for yourself (assuming sharing the house with other people and things).

Technically when I first signed up with AT&T U-Verse I had the 18 meg package..it could satisfy that. I'm on the 45 now...they have 90, and faster. Certain areas have the 500 and gigabit..not my area.

Anyways..wonder if his issue is internally, wireless smart TV?

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

yeah probably a wifi speed issue


Edit: I forgot to mention, doesnt fast.com use netflix servers? easy way to test download speed from netflix server

 

[Blues]

@YeOldeStonecat what I have seen and researched the needs for 4K streaming will vary with the streaming service as the often use different systems to compress and transmit. I don't recall the highest bandwidth of any specific streaming service to know what the most needed is.

But on the main topic I agree he likely got a non gigabit package and thought he was their advertisings are so misleading I can see anyone falling victim to misdirection advertising.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Yeah we're all just drumming our fingers on the desk and guessing. One way to "find out for sure"...is
*See exactly what speed package he signed up for (see the order number and exact package bundle...not word of mouth)
*See exactly what speed package the ATT guy setup on the day of the install (the signed paperwork upon completion of the install that the installer person makes you sign)
*Run online speed tests direct from the ATT gateway..with nothing else plugged in.

Once that intel is gathered....move on from there.

 

[timeshifter]

I’ll call him and find out. For now I’ll say this: with fiber to the best of my knowledge they offer 300 and 1,000 here. But it is AT&T, the same company who tried to sell my client two 6 Mbps DSL lines when the client required 10 Mbps.

 

[timeshifter]

UPDATE: he does have gigabit Internet. Speed tests confirm 953 Mbps over Ethernet, 350 Mbps over 5GHz wireless, CAT6 to TV, etc.

He has a nice $3,000 Sony 4K TV, a model with Android. Netflix wouldn't play 4K content initially due to bandwidth. When he started on the journey he was only able to pull about 24 Mbps from Netflix. He complained to AT&T and others. At some point that was upped to 60 Mbps. He's not sure if it was coincidence or his griping that caused the increase.

He also saw other reports where AT&T was throttling Netflix data. So bottom line I think is that. Even with Net Neutrality as the law of the land, AT&T was restricting the speed of data flowing from Netflix to AT&T customers.

 

[NETWizz]

UPDATE: he does have gigabit Internet. Speed tests confirm 953 Mbps over Ethernet, 350 Mbps over 5GHz wireless, CAT6 to TV, etc.

He has a nice $3,000 Sony 4K TV, a model with Android. Netflix wouldn't play 4K content initially due to bandwidth. When he started on the journey he was only able to pull about 24 Mbps from Netflix. He complained to AT&T and others. At some point that was upped to 60 Mbps. He's not sure if it was coincidence or his griping that caused the increase.

He also saw other reports where AT&T was throttling Netflix data. So bottom line I think is that. Even with Net Neutrality as the law of the land, AT&T was restricting the speed of data flowing from Netflix to AT&T customers.

I would have ran the data through a Palo Alto firewall and did an analysis to detect QoS characteristics.

 

[Mercenary Roadie]

DSLReports.com have a great new speed test and also a streaming test. Check them out.

 

[brandonkick]

As far as I understand it... Net Neutrality's days are numbered and it's a crying shame. This type of thing is going to happen a LOT more often if it does get repealed.

What is the most likely outcome if it does get repealed, all these companies are going to have to charge more for their subscription fee's because the ISP's are going to strongarm them into paying and that will be passed on to you.

BUT as of right now, Net Neutrality IS in effect and what AT&T is doing is illegal on a federal level.