AT&T: Tower issues- Consistent 800ms+ Pings/Slow d/l-u/l. Possible Causes?

[Jraye]

Hi! Let me preface this by saying I’m not extremely tech savvy, but I want to learn.

Have a wireless LTE internet modem/router directly from AT&T. I live in a very rural area that is serviced by AT&T who has a cell site in my town.

Roughly a week ago speeds tanked and will not get over 2/3 Mbps. Even more concerning is pings are now in the consistent 800+ms range and I’ve seen them spike to over 3000ms. This does not change or get lower. This makes this internet useless for most applications I need it for. I mean when you’re worse than satellite internet there are issues!!!

When running speed tests, closest servers to me are being shown in Louisiana when I’m in Alabama. Apps that use location services such as a weather app show me in Louisiana as well.

Here is a trace route I ran to show you guys what I’m talking about.

traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) , 5 relative hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 3.432 ms 12.948 ms 17.048 ms
2 10.200.183.10 (10.200.183.10) 4.317 ms 770.738 ms 774.232 ms
3 172.26.96.169 (172.26.96.169) 704.263 ms 2620.746 ms 2622.463 ms
4 172.18.136.228 (172.18.136.228) 868.002 ms 1536.478 ms 1539.048 ms
5 * * *
6 12.83.186.145 (12.83.186.145) 970.924 ms 1895.898 ms 1899.299 ms
7 12.122.133.45 (12.122.133.45) 912.890 ms 2777.838 ms 2781.482 ms
8 12.255.10.54 (12.255.10.54) 690.101 ms 1712.651 ms 1716.015 m

Also, this problem coincides with everyone in my town as well as myself losing reliable AT&T cell service. Can’t call out, can’t use data on phone, etc. Calls to AT&T tech support directly are just a frustrating mess because we’re being told ‘oh everything looks fine on our end!’

Another piece of the puzzle is there is a new AT&T tower that has been built in the the same field of our current tower and just last week there was activity there- workers on the ground, installing dish antennaes on the tower, etc. Brought this up to tech support thinking that possibly this is the cause of our problems, and I’m told ‘we’re not even showing a new tower for your area in our system!’

I guess I’m hoping you guys that are extremely knowledgeable could tell me what on the backend could be causing this? Would it be related to that new tower and switching us over to it? Basically I want to be armed with enough knowledgeable insight that when I call back to tech support I can give them enough information that they’ll take this seriously enough to acknowledge a problem here.

I’d be grateful for any insight you could give me. Thanks so much in advance.

[Dr-BroadBand]

Sounds like they replace fiber with a microwave dish for the back bone

Not sure why they would do that??
Maybe they had a fiber cable get cut?

AT&T has the best fiber net work

I guess AT&T is your only option?

Do a speed test and tell tech support the results are acceptable. And you are going to get on the StarLink waiting list

Maybe report this to the FCC this is a safety issue, first responders use AT&T band 14.

When they tell you it’s ok on there end Ask if they can send a technician tested on your end!?

Is there an AT&T store in your town?

[Jraye]

Thanks for the reply!

Already paid the down payment on Starlink! Just waiting for them to open the beta for those of us way down south in the lower latitudes.

Funny enough for a brief period of time midday today, things were fixed for the first time in over a week. Able to call out and connect, ran a speedtest with 50ms ping and 25Mbps d/l (which is normal average for me)! However, this fix lasted maybe 30 minutes and now we’re back to the issues I spoke of in my first post. *sigh*

I spoke to someone today who was told by AT&T tech support last Friday they’d have it fixed by this Wednesday. Normally, I’d be extremely happy to hear that but after a week personally speaking with numerous tech support personnel I learned with a quickness that many are just telling you things to get you off the phone. So whether or not they were actually acknowledging a problem and deploying someone to fix remains to be seen. The fact that it worked properly for a moment today a positive sign that they are working on it? We’ll see.

If things aren’t fixed after Wednesday, an FCC complaint is next on the list. I’ll file a complaint personally as well as bring it up to the mayor/council to do one for the town as a whole as well. In a situation like this, having an extremely small town where you know everyone personally helps.

In an act of desperation, I ordered a T-Mobile hotpsot/sim card this afternoon. According to the coverage map and T-Mobile documentation, my town is one that T-Mobile has deployed Band 71. May be unusable service, but I’m desperate to find a stopgap.

[Dr-BroadBand]

Best of luck.

See if T-Mobile home internet is an option
https://www.t-mobile.com/isp

Would try to talk with the Tech's on the ground.
To get the real story. Sounds like there is hope

I thought StarLink was a pipe dream but looks like it going to happen!!
https://satellitemap.space

https://youtu.be/XPI-255tHLI

Cheers

[Jraye]

I wanted to add an update to my post to provide more information with my problem to see if this might help find answers.

As stated in one of my posts above, I ordered a T-Mobile hotspot to try since it showed coverage in my area and I was having severe issues with AT&T.

With only one known active cell site (tower) in my town any carrier that provides service will be leasing off of that one tower.

Keeping that in mind I activated my hotspot with T-Mobile. Shows full LTE signal strength. However, running a speed test what do I see? The same 800+ ping that I’m getting with AT&T.

So that’s further proof there’s an issue with that tower in town as it’s too much of a coincidence for different carriers to have the same exact issue, right?

Another thing you can go within 300 yards of the tower and have full LTE coverage on your phone and you can’t call out. Sit in the same spot for a few minutes and suddenly your phone will show one bar of 3G coverage and then your phone will dial out. Any ideas?

Thanks!

[Dr-BroadBand]

Could the the back bone is broken (The Fiber) that connects the tower to the
internet.

You talk about a "Dish" on the tower, sounds like a microwave connection to the internet.
Looks like the tech's are having a problem getting it up and running!!

Time to file a FCC complaint

[Jraye]

The “dishes” I was seeing being installed like week were on the recently constructed tower that is supposed to be for AT&T to transfer their services to.

I’m assuming just based on what I’m learning as days pass that our current AT&T service is still on the *old* tower along with T-Mobile. I have not seen any activity on the ground at the old tower site even after daily calls to AT&T escalated tech support.

And you’re right. An FCC complaint is next. Just hope it makes something happen.

Appreciate the replies!

[cooltech6]

Hi! Let me preface this by saying I’m not extremely tech savvy, but I want to learn.

Have a wireless LTE internet modem/router directly from AT&T. I live in a very rural area that is serviced by AT&T who has a cell site in my town.

Roughly a week ago speeds tanked and will not get over 2/3 Mbps. Even more concerning is pings are now in the consistent 800+ms range and I’ve seen them spike to over 3000ms. This does not change or get lower. This makes this internet useless for most applications I need it for. I mean when you’re worse than satellite internet there are issues!!!

When running speed tests, closest servers to me are being shown in Louisiana when I’m in Alabama. Apps that use location services such as a weather app show me in Louisiana as well.

Here is a trace route I ran to show you guys what I’m talking about.

traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) , 5 relative hops max, 52 byte packets
1 192.168.1.1 (192.168.1.1) 3.432 ms 12.948 ms 17.048 ms
2 10.200.183.10 (10.200.183.10) 4.317 ms 770.738 ms 774.232 ms
3 172.26.96.169 (172.26.96.169) 704.263 ms 2620.746 ms 2622.463 ms
4 172.18.136.228 (172.18.136.228) 868.002 ms 1536.478 ms 1539.048 ms
5 * * *
6 12.83.186.145 (12.83.186.145) 970.924 ms 1895.898 ms 1899.299 ms
7 12.122.133.45 (12.122.133.45) 912.890 ms 2777.838 ms 2781.482 ms
8 12.255.10.54 (12.255.10.54) 690.101 ms 1712.651 ms 1716.015 m

Also, this problem coincides with everyone in my town as well as myself losing reliable AT&T cell service. Can’t call out, can’t use data on phone, etc. Calls to AT&T tech support directly are just a frustrating mess because we’re being told ‘oh everything looks fine on our end!’

Another piece of the puzzle is there is a new AT&T tower that has been built in the the same field of our current tower and just last week there was activity there- workers on the ground, installing dish antennaes on the tower, etc. Brought this up to tech support thinking that possibly this is the cause of our problems, and I’m told ‘we’re not even showing a new tower for your area in our system!’

I guess I’m hoping you guys that are extremely knowledgeable could tell me what on the backend could be causing this? Would it be related to that new tower and switching us over to it? Basically I want to be armed with enough knowledgeable insight that when I call back to tech support I can give them enough information that they’ll take this seriously enough to acknowledge a problem here.

I’d be grateful for any insight you could give me. Thanks so much in advance.

It sounds like your tower is using satellite backhaul... was it always like this? Or was this a recent change?

Also, you can tell if a T-Mobile tower uses satellite backhaul (usually) if it broadcasts only band 12 and 71, but no 5G band 71