Is ATT Fiber 1 GB plan worth it if using only for WiFi (no hard wires)

[Juicy Box]

Hold on a sec, you _might_ make good use of that 1GBps if you have a lot of 500MBps devices all downloading at the same time.

I understand what you are saying, but unless someone is downloading an extremely large amount of data for a very long period of time, any temporary slowdowns in network speed would probably go unnoticed.

Not saying it never happens, but how often to most home networks have over 500Mbps downloading?

Streaming is the biggest draw of bandwidth for most people, and 500Mbps would be overkill for streaming even for a very large family.

The OP still hasn't stated what his family's internet usage looks like, but if it is mainly streaming, even as low as 100Mbps internet service would probably be fine without any noticeable slowdowns.

 

[patrick0brien]

I understand what you are saying, but unless someone is downloading an extremely large amount of data for a very long period of time, any temporary slowdowns in network speed would probably go unnoticed.

Not saying it never happens, but how often to most home networks have over 500Mbps downloading?

Streaming is the biggest draw of bandwidth for most people, and 500Mbps would be overkill for streaming even for a very large family.

The OP still hasn't stated what his family's internet usage looks like, but if it is mainly streaming, even as low as 100Mbps internet service would probably be fine without any noticeable slowdowns.

Understood. I'm illustrating a possibility.

 

[Juicy Box]

Understood. I'm illustrating a possibility.

Yeah, it could be a possibility, but probably not for the huge majority of people.

In my experience talking to people, it is very common for people to pay for internet speeds that they would hardly ever or never utilize.

I posted a poll in a local forum 4 or 5 years ago asking what people in my area was paying for internet and cable, and over 30% of the people responded that they were paying $200+. Many of them commented that they were on the Gigabit service, and used their internet for mostly Netflix and Facebook.

At the time, the ISPs in my area has lower-speed internet deals, such as 100Mbps for only $29, but after talking to others, many thought that 100Mbps speeds wouldn't be enough for their 1080p Netflix streams. So, they were paying close to $100 a month for Gigabit speeds for Netflix.

A lot of this had to do with the silly questions ISPs would ask their customers to upsell internet tiers, the average Joe just didn't know any better.


To the OP: To better answer questions like yours about internet speeds and and to give better advice for equipment recommendations, it would be better to let us know what you and your family typically uses the home internet for.

 

[jav6454]

We are moving into a rental home next week, and the owner of the home has stated he doesn’t want ATT to do any drilling, so I’ll have to be satisfied with the ATT gateway in the garage (or at best, he did drop Ethernet into the kitchen). Either way, my PC and all other devices will have to be connected using WiFi.

Is the ATT 1 gb plan worth it over the 500 mbps plan in this case? I have a Dell PC I bought a year ago, my wife’s MB Pro that is a few months old, LG tv that is from 2017 - OLED, Apple TV 4K from about 3 years ago, Roku and fire sticks from about 3 years ago. Oh, and my daughter’s iPad is about years old. If the max these devices can handle is say, 500 mbps, I guess there’s no need to pay ATT an extra $20 a month for the 1gb.

Any tips as far as equipment, placement of the ATT gateway for the technician, or other suggestions?

Thanks

500 Mb/s transfer should more than suffice.

 

[Soondae]

We are moving into a rental home next week, and the owner of the home has stated he doesn’t want ATT to do any drilling, so I’ll have to be satisfied with the ATT gateway in the garage (or at best, he did drop Ethernet into the kitchen). Either way, my PC and all other devices will have to be connected using WiFi.

Is the ATT 1 gb plan worth it over the 500 mbps plan in this case? I have a Dell PC I bought a year ago, my wife’s MB Pro that is a few months old, LG tv that is from 2017 - OLED, Apple TV 4K from about 3 years ago, Roku and fire sticks from about 3 years ago. Oh, and my daughter’s iPad is about years old. If the max these devices can handle is say, 500 mbps, I guess there’s no need to pay ATT an extra $20 a month for the 1gb.

Any tips as far as equipment, placement of the ATT gateway for the technician, or other suggestions?

Thanks

The short answer is No. Best WiFi routers at this time will give you at best on 5Ghz close to PC or any device, 500 - 600 Mbps, the further you are away and performance decreases (as many have suggested, a Mesh network is best way to get the 5Ghz signal throughout the home). Best you'll get at the longer range 2.4 Ghz will be 90-100 Mbps. Only way you'll see the 900-1Gbps speed is over ethernet. So I suggest you save money and go with the 500 Mbps fibre plan.

 

[HDFan]

but how often to most home networks have over 500Mbps downloading?

There are very few download sites that will provide a 1 Gbps download. Other than Apple, which will approach that number (~800-900 wired) with OS updates, don't remember any other sites that do.

Best WiFi routers at this time will give you at best on 5Ghz close to PC or any device, 500 - 600 Mbps,

My best is 792 Mbps, but that was like 4 feet away from the router. Once.