DSL Stability / Line Sync speed question

[plwww]

Hopefully someone at Sonic can help me understand this issue. I've been dealing with line stability issues for a while, and AT&T is here right now to (not) fix it. We're on a long loop, over 9k feet, but have been relatively stable for quite some time getting 6mb+(we had 3mbps for years, then they upgraded our service to ADSL2+ around 2015 iirc and we went to 6mb). Last few months it has been dropping pretty heavy. AT&T says we're "too far" and have to drop us to 3mbps. Since the house across the street went through this same issue and was dropped to 3mbps with only mild improvement at best, I'm reluctant to accept a crippling reduction of our already languishing speeds. One reason I'm skeptical this will help is that when the line drops and re-syncs, it often will come back well below 3mbps(I've spotted it as low as 244kbps, according to the broadband status page). The tech is suggesting that because they're "pushing" 6mpbs, it will be unstable and cause it to connect even lower than if they were only "pushing" 3mbps. Doesn't the link renegotiation figure out the maximum the line could support regardless of speed profile? I understand why a noisy line would cause a 6mbps connection to drop while a 3mbps wouldn't, but shouldn't any line that's going to be stable at 3mbps, also reconnect *back* to at least 3mbps?

[plwww]

I still hope for an answer on my question, but I'll add that after a bit of arguing with the guy they decided they'd check the line again anyway. He "found a problem" so they're dispatching a line maintenance tech to see if it can be fixed; though he said due to our distance they may still end up needing to drop the speeds.

[brandonc]

Typically, the speed should be reprofiled back to the maximum available speed, while leaving headroom for the noise on the line. However, when the copper quality in the area is poor and it's trying to travel a far distance, then it could run into a lot of impulse noise, which would explain why they needed to cap your line down. If there is high impulse noise on the line, then the line might profile itself even lower to compensate for high noise spikes.

The service you currently have is a very old product that has been grandfathered in for at least a decade and AT&T barely supports/maintains it due to the lack of customers still using it, so unfortunately we are very limited on what we're able to get AT&T to do on these services. They moved most of their resources towards building out newer Fiber infrastructure since that has far better performance and longevity.

I checked your area for possible upgrades, but it looks like we no longer offer any services in that area right now. It might be best to look at other options and see what else is available there with other ISP's, then switch back to Sonic when we can offer better service in that area.