Two points:
1. I don't trust performance data as reported by tools provided by either telcos or service providers. I do trust Argonne because they have nothing to gain or lose by biasing their metrics.
I'm not suggesting anything other than that our opinions about which broadband performance metrics are "trustworthy" differ substantially. You have your rationale for your beliefs, and I have mine.
2. When I signed up for AT&T DSL, things worked "right" for about 30 days. The line speed stabilized and "settled in" at a downstream speed of about 2.8 Gbps. Then my neighborhood experienced a 72 hour power outage and when the DSL came back up it's performance was at best "inconsistent."
I'd known about DSL reports for some time. But since I didn't at the time have a DSL, I didn't create an identity or post in the forums. But READING the forums I learned that AT&T "lurk" her and do "damage control" if any customer publicly says too many negative things about their QOS; in ways that can't be dismissed or demeaned.
Hence, I began posting detailed accounts documenting my poor QOS in this forum for all to read. Over time, my "strategy" has either made a difference or the appearance of an AT&T service crew in my back yard, and the recent "independently measured" improvement in my downstream speed was only a coincidence.
My advice to AT&T DSL subscribers is simply this:
High speed internet access is a VERY competitive marketplace. Comcast, AT&T and ALL the major telcos & providers are justifiably sensitive about well documented and articulate public criticism.
IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH YOUR AT&T DSL QUALITY OF SERVICE, YOU PROBABLY DO. In that case, you should start posting "DETAILED" and authoritative accounts describing those problems here and don't let yourself be intimidated, dismissed, or "laughed out of it" by forum readers who may be AT&T employees doing "damage control."
Remember, it's much cheaper for AT&T to discourage complainers than it is do the work needed on their infrastructure to fix most of their inherited network problems.
People DSL subscribers probably don't know the difference between good and bad service, don't know how to document or describe it (one way or the other), or who to report it to if they did.
Most subscribers with poor QOS probably might use the "trouble shooting" tools on the CD AT&T sends with the "self installation" package. Those diagnostic reasings are (in my opinion) probably "biased" (spun) to convince consumers that everything is JUST FINE... when it probably isn't.
That's all about AT&T keeping their customers "pacified," but without investing the big $$'s required to REALLY solve the infrastructure problems they're encountering during the transition between an analog POTS network; with lots of "dirty," spliced, and unterminated copper pairs underground.
I honestly tried calling those "support numbers" before I began posting the detailed public accounts here describing my variable and unreliable QOS. I talked to lots of nice young people in India (outsourced support) who knew considerably less about infrastructure design and troubleshooting network problems than I do myself.
Accounts of some of those useless and even "laughable" interactions were posted here when I first started. My interactions with "outsourced" DSL "technical support" personnel from Bangalore and New Delhi were the precipitating events that caused me to begin posting detailed accounts here.
A quote comes to mind that perfectly fitted my attitude at the time, from the classic cartoon Popeye:
"I'd had all I can stands. And I can't stands no more!"
When I first posting documented complaints here, a few "forum regulars" tried suggesting I didn't know what I was talking about, used humor to blunt my criticisms, and generally used all the rhetorical tricks available in a synchronous forum to intimidate a newby and shut 'em up.
It didn't and won't work with me. I'm still here and STILL POSTIN'! And I'll continue to "be here" until I have the fully reliable and "robust" broadband performance I was implicitly promised when I signed up for DSL with AT&T.
I'm a critic, but I'm also honest and I try to be "fair." It's important to me that I could publicly report (last posting) there was an "apparent" improvement in my QOS since AT&T technicians appeared at my door, and subsequently repaired the "distribution box" "on the back of my property (easement), and probably "cleaned up" the copper pairs inside.
That's done. Thanks AT&T for fixing something that needed to be fixed. I'm even hopeful now that someday in the foreseeable future (before I move or die...) a tan VRAD might appear next to the new, shiny green distribution box.
If and when that ever happens, I'll explore switching over to AT&T's mythical U-Verse. That "6 down/1 up (elite)" service joe_washu described sounds tempting.
Here's a suggestion for AT&T's "marketing people." I currently get all the hi-def TV signals I need off air. The quality of that service is so astoundingly good that I can only think of ONE THING that could possibly swing me to purchase television programming from AT&T, Comcast, or anyone else who is currently in our market.
That would be for AT&T to purchase the syndicated rights to current BBC programming; specifically to Doctor Who (Season 4) and to Torchwood (just finished Season 2).
Yes... I'm a geek who LOVES GOOD SCIFI! (You suspected it anyway, right?)
Both the current (David Tenant) Dr. Who and the Torchwood series is probably the best TV sci-fi television series that's ever been produced in the English language. It is too expensive for PBS to purchase broadcast right till YEARS after episodes are premiered in the UK.
No one in the Chicago market carries either series till years later. But Warner cable in Ohio and some other cable companies in the US DO syndicate this first rate BBC programming after not much more than a weeks delay.
I'm presently going to a "lot of trouble" to obtain copies of Who and Torchwood after they're broadcast in the UK.
If AT&T were to syndicate BBC's current programming and distribute Dr. Who, Torchwood, and other examples of their clearly superior TV programming, I'd happily disconnect my off-air antennas & signal boosters and become an AT&T television programming subscriber.
Don't say ever say rblomeyer hasn't done any favors for AT&T. If you lurkers pass on my suggestion to someone in Marketing, they'll probably end up with a big promotion.
If you do, send me their e-mail address so I can submit an invoice.
I feel better. This was fun! We should do this again sometime!! (unpack & play attachment)
BobBl