At&t Plan not what it seems

[fmcastaff]

Wanted to share some facts about the new AT&T plan:

- Unlimited data...network managed in congested areas at 75GB. No throttling.

- Download speed is 12mbps guaranteed. Some experience higher speeds. FMCA has never promoted the plan as uncapped download speeds.

- The Moxee is the only device we could have included in the plan at an affordable price. Luckily it is bring your own device, so if the Moxee does not fit your needs, the member has other options.

- In the very near future, FMCA will be offering the same plan as listed above, but with a 25mbps download guarantee. Price will be $64.99. Double the download speed for only $5 more per month. More to come as details are finalized.

Thank you for your patience with our Tech Connect. When you have three full time employees trying to migrate 6,000 lines, it can be a bit overwhelming.

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by fmcastaff

[cwswine]

7 hours ago, fmcastaff said:

Wanted to share some facts about the new AT&T plan:

- Unlimited data...network managed in congested areas at 75GB. No throttling.

- Download speed is 12mbps guaranteed. Some experience higher speeds. FMCA has never promoted the plan as uncapped download speeds.

- The Moxee is the only device we could have included in the plan at an affordable price. Luckily it is bring your own device, so if the Moxee does not fit your needs, the member has other options.

- In the very near future, FMCA will be offering the same plan as listed above, but with a 25mbps download guarantee. Price will be $64.99. Double the download speed for only $5 more per month. More to come as details are finalized.

Thank you for your patience with our Tech Connect. When you have three full time employees trying to migrate 6,000 lines, it can be a bit overwhelming.

 

Here is what it says on your FMCA page and I quote..".No overages or data caps apply on their network".  As of 10:00 Central it still states that.

"After 75GB, you still get unlimited LTE data but may at times notice reduced speeds in areas with network congestion. At AT&T unlimited is truly unlimited. No overages or data caps apply on their network. Data prioritization will only be noticeable when you access a congested tower and have used over 75GB of data in a particular billing cycle. You will continue to get unlimited high-speed data on your mobile hotspot when you aren’t accessing a congested tower. In that way it’s different from data throttling, which slows you down for the remainder of your bill cycle regardless of network conditions, all the time. Their policy is also in line with common industry standards for network management, which are designed optimize network performance and service."

 

How do you "Download speed is 12mbps guaranteed."?  I have AT&T phone and at River Bend RV park in CO I get NO SERVICE on my AT&T phone.  How do you "guaranteed" any amount of speed?  My speed varies depend on location and no way to guaranteed any amount of download speed.

 

Edited June 28, 2022 by cwswine

[odocamper]

16 hours ago, fmcastaff said:

- In the very near future, FMCA will be offering the same plan as listed above, but with a 25mbps download guarantee. Price will be $64.99. Double the download speed for only $5 more per month. More to come as details are finalized.

Thank you for the update.  I look forward to the new tiered pricing and if there are more options in the future I would definitely be interested.   Will this communication be coming via email?

 

 

[fmcastaff]

10 hours ago, cwswine said:

 

Here is what it says on your FMCA page and I quote..".No overages or data caps apply on their network".  As of 10:00 Central it still states that.

"After 75GB, you still get unlimited LTE data but may at times notice reduced speeds in areas with network congestion. At AT&T unlimited is truly unlimited. No overages or data caps apply on their network. Data prioritization will only be noticeable when you access a congested tower and have used over 75GB of data in a particular billing cycle. You will continue to get unlimited high-speed data on your mobile hotspot when you aren’t accessing a congested tower. In that way it’s different from data throttling, which slows you down for the remainder of your bill cycle regardless of network conditions, all the time. Their policy is also in line with common industry standards for network management, which are designed optimize network performance and service."

 

How do you "Download speed is 12mbps guaranteed."?  I have AT&T phone and at River Bend RV park in CO I get NO SERVICE on my AT&T phone.  How do you "guaranteed" any amount of speed?  My speed varies depend on location and no way to guaranteed any amount of download speed.

 

The contract AT&T and FMCA has is their 12mbps down plan. That obviously depends on service availability where you are.

No data cap refers to the unlimited data, which is only network managed in congested areas after 75 GB. It does not apply to download speed.

53 minutes ago, odocamper said:

 

We will send notice to current users once the plan is active. That should happen soon.

[cwswine]

Here is what "Mobile Internet Resources Center" sys about the FMCA plan.

 

 

[larrylamb]

On 6/27/2022 at 3:08 PM, fmcastaff said:

Wanted to share some facts about the new AT&T plan:

- Unlimited data...network managed in congested areas at 75GB. No throttling.

- Download speed is 12mbps guaranteed. Some experience higher speeds. FMCA has never promoted the plan as uncapped download speeds.

- The Moxee is the only device we could have included in the plan at an affordable price. Luckily it is bring your own device, so if the Moxee does not fit your needs, the member has other options.

- In the very near future, FMCA will be offering the same plan as listed above, but with a 25mbps download guarantee. Price will be $64.99. Double the download speed for only $5 more per month. More to come as details are finalized.

Thank you for your patience with our Tech Connect. When you have three full time employees trying to migrate 6,000 lines, it can be a bit overwhelming.

 

I must say that I wish this was better communicated from the onset. It's quite limiting for those that work remotely a lot of the time.   I'll look forward to the 25M option.  What about the reports of not being able to video stream?  Is this the case?  

[charlesmoore03]

AT&T is non-existent in our area where I am for 6 months.  I sent the modem back to Tech+Connect.  The more I hear, the more I am glad to be rid of this service.  Thank you for your reports.

[faiello]

I also returned the AT&T hotspot this week and went with Calyx, I had no issues with the T-Mobile plan from FMCA but not impressed with the new AT&T plan.

[ifallsguy]

Quote

Quote

According to MobileInternet.com, this service is an ATT Business account and will not support streaming video.  Not sure if that means all video streaming or HD.  I do know we cannot use video streaming of any type (Zoom, etc) at work because of that restriction.  Manager asked if he could use my T-Mobile M2000 (5g) so he could get into an important conference meeting.  It was he could get in without major issues.  Really sorry they couldn't make an agreement with T-Mobile.  Due to that, I opted out of the ATT plan and when to the $50 T-Mobile plan.  If they go back to T-Mobile, I'll sign up with TechConnect again.

 

 

[cwswine]

On 6/28/2022 at 7:31 AM, fmcastaff said:

The contract AT&T and FMCA has is their 12mbps down plan. That obviously depends on service availability where you are.

No data cap refers to the unlimited data, which is only network managed in congested areas after 75 GB. It does not apply to download speed.

We will send notice to current users once the plan is active. That should happen soon.

 

So we not calling it a CAP but still speed limited to 12MB and that should be stated up front so we don't have to order one just find it there is enough data speed to do Zoom and up and download files at the same time.  Claiming High Speed doesn't register with me when it limited to 12mb..

I do find it interesting that "Internet Resource Center" got the plan number off of one FMCA SIMS and had a contact  person within AT&T and was told the plan blocks streaming.  My neighbor at the campgrounds had the plan and was getting the full 12 MB but stream was buffering and unusable.  

So is this plan also limiting streaming like "Internet Resource Center" claims in the video I posted above or are they incorrect about it? 

 

Edited June 29, 2022 by cwswine

[larrylamb]

7 hours ago, cwswine said:

So is this plan also limiting streaming like "Internet Resource Center" claims in the video I posted above or are they incorrect about it? 

I was able to stream youtube and motortrend, but lots of buffering to the point it might as well be no streaming.  I ended up miracasting from my tablet for the night.  It's alright for basic work stuff, but that's about it.  

 

7 hours ago, cwswine said:

Claiming High Speed doesn't register with me when it limited to 12mb..

I guess if you're used to DSL this is high speed, but agreed.  In today's typical day and age, it's far from it.  According to the FCC, High Speed Internet is at least 25M Down/3M Up.  So it really doesn't qualify for that title.  Seems that they're wanting to shift that to 100M service to be called High Speed as well.  

Overall I'll take the first year of full time living was pretty cheap for my internet access.  The coming years will be more diversification and as such, more costly.  Not being connected is not an option for me.  

[ttbikes]

This Plan is of no use to me if I can not stream.

Edited July 3, 2022 by ttbikes
sp

[C-923677]

Wow.  There are some in modern society that I would have a difficult time wanting  to answer...

For the others, I've found that the plan is definitely a 12MB plan.  It does not block streaming.  The problem with streaming is the Moxee hotspot.   I moved the SIM to a Nighthawk 1100 and the plan works approximately 10000000 times better so far.  Not great but better.  The Moxee is pretty bad in my experience.   I have an AT&T prepaid SIM in that thing and it effectively rendered that plan worthless too.  I suspect much of that issue is location based in combination with low end hardware.

I gotta say that I truly miss my Sprint FMCA plan.  I found it to be ridiculously reliable.   I'm sure FMCA will get the kinks worked out with this one also or they move on.  I think some patience is in order...

Darrell

[ldowning]

I agree with several of the others who commented that this service is no good to me if I can't stream.

I know FMCA tried their best, but this can hurt them they might be better off not offering this at all.
I'm going to try it out for the next month and if it doesn't improve, I'm going to call it quits.

[sklass]

Streaming is fine HBO, Bally Sports, Hulu, Amazon Prime. Haven't yet tried Netflix … it can be flaky. But all the other streaming sites we use have worked fine. Not necessarily the way I want to gobble up 75GB, though, so I'll keep those streams on Starlink. Redundancy helps here. Paid the extra $5/mo for 25Mb.

DL/UL speed is as advertised – only 2 bars AT&T – I can't complain.

Edited August 20, 2022 by sklass

[Ahwalisz]

On 6/19/2022 at 11:48 AM, cwswine said:

One of the fellow campers got the AT&T Sim from FMCA and was getting the same results as you.  We stood side by side and run Speed Test on AT&T phone I was getting around 50 and his Speed Test would jump to around 40 then stabilize  at 12.   Just for reference I'm getting around 80 to 90 on my grandfathered Version plan which is rare these days.  My Calyx T-Mobile plan is getting between 350 and 400.  I have only used the service west of the Mississippi and the T_Mobile plan (either FMCA or Calyx) have been faster than Verizon or AT&T.  

 

I had the T-Mobile MIFI and tried using it from Illinois to the Northern half of Florida. I had little to no service for 6 months, then about the time I got back home FMCA changed to AT&T.
I'm now going to try the AT&T Moxee this winter to see if it works any better. I'm going to pay the extra for 25mbps so downloading should be Ok.
In the FMCA literature it states 12 down unless you pay for the upgrade. 

[rleach4545]

Is your picture blurry? I too get the 25 down. Which should be plenty fast enough to stream but my picture is blurry or pixelated most of the time. I also have T-Mobile home internet and it has been outperforming FMCA. 

[burtbick26]

This is a fairly old thread, but thought I would add my experience with the latest (as of March 2023) FMCA AT&T plan.

Back home it was working to the limit of the basic plan 12 Mbs.   And even a couple of hundred miles from home.

But at the FMCA rally in Perry Georgia (March 2023) I was getting downloads of less than 1 Mbps.  Uploads were usually at about 12 Mbps.

OK, figured lots of people using it.   But when we got to Bushnell FL it worked OK for a bit but then speeds dropped without moving, even late at night.  In some cases back down to the 1 Mbps range.   Totally unacceptable.

At Seffner FL it's all over the place.  Most of the time totally unusable.  TechConnect support suggested doing a factory reset to pick up a change they had tried.  Before the reset I was getting about 6 Mbps after the reset under 2 Mbps.   It comes and goes.

Cell signal strength is 4 bars...

Pretty much a waste of my money and time.

Previously I had T-mobile based service from a different 3rd party vendor and never had these issues.  But they were jacking the price up to over $130 per month, for capped data, and that was the cheapest T-Mobile plan they offered.

I got a general SIM at the Rally and before I return and cancel the plan I'll try that SIM with my previous cell gateway which is approved for AT&T.  If that is still crap I'll cancel this and probably bite the bullet to get Starlink.  If I have to pay >$130 to get cell data with all the issues then I might as well go all in for Starlink.  It's not that much more in the scheme of things (other than the initial HW hit).

 

 

[orion7144]

3 hours ago, burtbick26 said:

This is a fairly old thread, but thought I would add my experience with the latest (as of March 2023) FMCA AT&T plan.

Back home it was working to the limit of the basic plan 12 Mbs.   And even a couple of hundred miles from home.

But at the FMCA rally in Perry Georgia (March 2023) I was getting downloads of less than 1 Mbps.  Uploads were usually at about 12 Mbps.

OK, figured lots of people using it.   But when we got to Bushnell FL it worked OK for a bit but then speeds dropped without moving, even late at night.  In some cases back down to the 1 Mbps range.   Totally unacceptable.

At Seffner FL it's all over the place.  Most of the time totally unusable.  TechConnect support suggested doing a factory reset to pick up a change they had tried.  Before the reset I was getting about 6 Mbps after the reset under 2 Mbps.   It comes and goes.

Cell signal strength is 4 bars...

Pretty much a waste of my money and time.

Previously I had T-mobile based service from a different 3rd party vendor and never had these issues.  But they were jacking the price up to over $130 per month, for capped data, and that was the cheapest T-Mobile plan they offered.

I got a general SIM at the Rally and before I return and cancel the plan I'll try that SIM with my previous cell gateway which is approved for AT&T.  If that is still crap I'll cancel this and probably bite the bullet to get Starlink.  If I have to pay >$130 to get cell data with all the issues then I might as well go all in for Starlink.  It's not that much more in the scheme of things (other than the initial HW hit).

 

 

I had similar issues except I did the upgraded plan so it is a bit better but I ended up going the Calyx institute and it is more reliable. 

[AverageGuy]

I received a Moxie with AT&T late last year.  We spent 2 months in FL and GA.  I never got over 6 Mbs.  We left home and have traveled in GA, NC, SC, TN and are now in PA. Only once I got 6 Mbs.  Right now in the Poconos we are getting about 2 Mbs. I see the signal strength is 4 bars, which is common.  It shows a 4G LTE connection. I also have a zte hotspot with T-Mobile.  It is currently giving me about 20 Mbs.  It's been quite consistent in most places.  No service near Johnson City, TN but good enough to stream everywhere else we've been.  As far as I'm concerned, it is garbage.  I've never seen anywhere close to the advertised 12 Mbs.  I can honestly say I don't recall ever using it for streaming.

[moonwink]

I'm not sure if will help anything but if you complain about the Moxie to the TechConnect staff, you'll receive a Franklin as a replacement.  Is the Franklin any better?  I have no idea because my account was on vacation pricing ($13.99/month) when I received mine and it won't end till the end of the month.  I'll try it out after that. 

[AverageGuy]

18 hours ago, moonwink said:

I'm not sure if will help anything but if you complain about the Moxie to the TechConnect staff, you'll receive a Franklin as a replacement.  Is the Franklin any better?  I have no idea because my account was on vacation pricing ($13.99/month) when I received mine and it won't end till the end of the month.  I'll try it out after that. 

I'll give them a call.  Thanks,

Jim