I have had Sonic.net DSL service over my AT&T telephone lines for about 3 years.
My "Express-R" service crawls at 100K -350K (BPS), EVERY evening (5:30 pm to 12:30 am).
Nominal speed is 1290K (download) during the morning and afternoon.
Upload is always 300K-325K. I reported this to Sonic tech support in April 2011.
Sonic and I thought this had been fixed by May 2011.
Sonic said that AT&T had changed my "virtual path" on their ATM network.
This "fix" was per Sonic's request to AT&T, after Sonic reported network path congestion.
I didn't use my DSL during the summer evenings, so I can't say for sure it was fixed then.
Well, the problem is back for sure since mid August (maybe never really fixed).
AT&T line technicians have investigated my connection 3 times since April.
They told me my phone line tests good enough for ADSL at 3000K+ (even at 7 pm).
My telco wires are 2 years old; homerun is new, no bridges/taps, modem has 30db SNR.
In October AT&T changed me to a spare port on their RT, no help, same problem.
Line quality tests still show 5%-17% packet loss, ONLY between 5:30 pm and 12:30 am.
The tests show this occurrs ONLY on the last hop inbound to me (AT&T's ATM net/RT).
Now, Sonic tells me AT&T won't commit to any time frame for resolution of this problem.
I am located in San Francisco (94116-western edge), not some outlying rural area.
It appears to me that improvement will only be by a newer technology, i.e. cable, etc.
Or, now that their T-Mobile deal is off, AT&T could concentrate on better service. HAH!
My "Express-R" service crawls at 100K -350K (BPS), EVERY evening (5:30 pm to 12:30 am).
Nominal speed is 1290K (download) during the morning and afternoon.
Upload is always 300K-325K. I reported this to Sonic tech support in April 2011.
Sonic and I thought this had been fixed by May 2011.
Sonic said that AT&T had changed my "virtual path" on their ATM network.
This "fix" was per Sonic's request to AT&T, after Sonic reported network path congestion.
I didn't use my DSL during the summer evenings, so I can't say for sure it was fixed then.
Well, the problem is back for sure since mid August (maybe never really fixed).
AT&T line technicians have investigated my connection 3 times since April.
They told me my phone line tests good enough for ADSL at 3000K+ (even at 7 pm).
My telco wires are 2 years old; homerun is new, no bridges/taps, modem has 30db SNR.
In October AT&T changed me to a spare port on their RT, no help, same problem.
Line quality tests still show 5%-17% packet loss, ONLY between 5:30 pm and 12:30 am.
The tests show this occurrs ONLY on the last hop inbound to me (AT&T's ATM net/RT).
Now, Sonic tells me AT&T won't commit to any time frame for resolution of this problem.
I am located in San Francisco (94116-western edge), not some outlying rural area.
It appears to me that improvement will only be by a newer technology, i.e. cable, etc.
Or, now that their T-Mobile deal is off, AT&T could concentrate on better service. HAH!