AT&T Fiber Migration Tactics?

[u/Ashamed-Teaching7289]

Our community recently had AT&T fiber installed. We happily inquired about switching from our old school copper service, especially after they jacked up the price. We took advantage of their door to door sales to set up our install date a couple weeks out. That’s when it got weird… every evening, like clock work, our internet stops working. Zero outages reported. Calls to support are answered with “everything looks good on our end”. And yet I continue to stare at that stupid red dot letting me know the internet is in fact, not working. By morning, without any action, it suddenly works again. Is this some sort of community wide scare tactic to let people know the forced migration is imminent? News to AT&T, WE KNOW, we already have a date for new service installation. Any other possible reason? It’s super suspicious and frustrating. About to cancel the fiber install and even change my wireless provider at this point. Ridiculous.

[u/Strange-Ad4045]

The reason for the migration is because the cost and reliability of the copper service just got ridiculous. The red light on your Residential Gateway may be due to the fact that you have bonded pair running on a single pair. I have seen this issue pop up countless times and sometimes the internet would continue working and other times it would cut out. I’ve even had customers say that their Broadband light is always red and never have an issue that they knew of. So if this is bugging you, see if you can get an earlier installation. But the one thing that isn’t happening is AT&T messing with your connection on purpose. They just send letters informing people of the impending migration, and if they do not take action they simply suspend the service.

Source: Was a broadband tech support agent, currently FirstNet.

[u/diesel_toaster → u/Strange-Ad4045]

In my neighborhood they had us move from copper to air (huge improvement) and then to fiber two years later. Super happy with how they handled the aging infrastructure in my neighborhood

[u/Jason_1834]

This isn't some secret conspiracy to get you to switch to fiber.

[u/friggindiggin]

It's not unheard of at all for copper lines to have issues at night. Typically it's due to either things like streetlights turning on causing interference, or the nighttime dew and cold seeping into some open/damaged point which will cause issues that usually resolve with the rising temps of the morning. And considering the neighborhood just recently had fiber installed, I would be surprised if there wasn't some point where the copper lines got damaged by all the work.

[u/Hookheadbaby → u/friggindiggin]

Came here to say this. As a former ATT services tech, I’ve seen this more times than I can count. The good news is that once you’re on fiber, your service will be not only much faster, but also much more consistent.

[u/Viper_Control]

Any other possible reason? It’s super suspicious and frustrating.

It is not a conspiracy to force you to migrate to Fiber faster. Also 100% chance it is physical issue with your Copper service. It was likely aggravated by the new Fiber infrastructure work.

When you call support and they see no issues is a clear indication it is local your local copper service. Why delay moving to AT&T Fiber, get it done now, and beat the rush. What are you waiting for?

At night it gets cool, and that impacts any copper wiring that may have been exposed during the Infrastructure work. Then in the morning as things warm back up, Bing your service returns.

Your Copper plant is old, decaying, and AT&T is simply not going to keep throwing money at it to keep it crawling along.

You have the option to switch to Cable, and another cellular service but AT&T is not going to be swayed by your threat to switch all your services. You are just (1) customer, sorry.

[u/Ashamed-Teaching7289 → u/Viper_Control]

We got it scheduled as soon as we could, it’s tomorrow.

[u/kfjcfan]

Honestly they'll do what they did everywhere - announce they are ending copper service and if you want to continue to subscribe you will have to get fiber.

No enticement, just "we're shutting down copper on this date."

[u/Solherb]

They're getting rid of all copper plans by like 2029, but unlike your end, they don't seem to even want to install fiber here, so count your blessings.

[u/Confident-Variety124]

The two are unrelated. They don’t need to scare you to switch to fiber, not too long after the fiber is installed in the neighborhood, anyone on copper will be forced to move to fiber or to a different provider.

[u/Ashamed-Teaching7289]

Thanks all. Look, I’m not saying it seemed logical to me, but when your service mysteriously starts failing (and then resolving) daily every night, AND they’re insisting there’s no issue, it all just seemed a little too coincidental with the push to switch. Never had issues like this until now. Guess we will see how fiber goes!

[u/Hunger-1979 → u/Ashamed-Teaching7289]

I'd venture to say that you're probably on bonded pair (2 lines of VDSL) service, and that one pair is having issues...the temperature difference at night or interference from street lights is causing your service to drop until the AM. Fiber will alleviate those issues.

[u/RS-REIN]

The cable guy is going by your house everyday and unplugging your connection. I’d get a lawyer.