AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet Review

Almost 14 percent, or 46 million Americans, are living in the nation’s rural counties. From vast farmlands to ranches and dense coniferous forests, nearly 97 percent of the land area in the country is referred to as rural America. As four-fifth of the U.S. population resides in urban areas, the small settlements or isolated houses in the countryside are often forgotten and left unconnected from the main grid. 

The absence of traditional cable networks in the area leaves rural communities at the mercy of expensive satellite internet providers, making a necessity like the internet a luxury for most. But AT&T decided to break the status quo. AT&T’s Fixed Wireless Internet service is bringing fast and affordable broadband to eligible rural households and small businesses. Now with the fixed wireless internet, you can enjoy the perks of urban living at the convenience of your quiet country cottage. 

What is AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet?

In the April of 2017, AT&T rolled out its fixed wireless internet technology in the countryside of Georgia where AT&T internet services were unavailable. This was done to bridge the digital divide and provide equal opportunities to those living in remote parts of the United States. 

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Today, the AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet service is an affordable and reliable option for broadband connectivity in selected rural areas. The breakthrough technology reduces reliance on the limited coverage of cable networks and expensive service of satellite internet providers. It allows rural communities to go cordless and experience high-speed internet service. 

Pros

• A reliable alternative for rural connectivity
• A good option for rural homes & businesses looking for a basic internet service
• Speeds are not throttled during peak hours
• The service comes with free expert installation
• The equipment fee is included in the monthly rental
• You can bundle the service with a DirecTV subscription plan
• No price hikes after 12 months

Cons

• Pricier than DSL internet
• Download speeds max out at 25 Mbps
• Upload speeds are not more than 1 Mbps
• Data cap on 350 GB
• Data overage charges after you exceed the monthly data limit
• The service is only available for eligible customers living in the countryside of 18 states

AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet Plans & Pricing

• Download Speed: 25 Mbps
• Upload Speed: 1 Mbps

$59.99/mo.

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Currently, there is only one plan for the Fixed Wireless internet service. The plan costs $59.99 per month and the price remains the same in the second year. Users can rest assured that there will be no sudden price hikes until the company formally announces rate adjustments in accordance with the growing inflation around the globe. The flat rate of $59.99 per month for this service does not include taxes and data overage charges. 

Speed

Unlike AT&T’s fiber internet service, the fixed wireless connection does not offer symmetrical upload and download speeds. The download speed tops out at 25 Mbps and the upload speeds can only go as high as 1 Mbps. Now, the internet speeds may not be as fast as those on the fiber-optic network, but neither are they painstakingly slow to not get any work done. 

The 25 Mbps of download speed allows you to stream HD quality videos on up to 5 devices, instantly download several MP3 and MP4 files, browse many social networking platforms, and stay connected with friends and family through video calls. However, the slow upload speed of 1 Mbps may make uploading and sending files a tedious process. 

Data Caps

The plan does not include unlimited data. The service comes with a soft data cap of 350 GB. After you exceed your monthly data limit, you will be charged $10 for every 50 GB of extra data in the same billing cycle. The catch deepens further when you realize that you are not allowed to exceed your data limit by more than $200 or 1,000 GB of additional data per month. 

While many internet users consider data caps to be a nuisance, those with basic internet usage find 350 GB of data to be more than sufficient for their needs. In fact, with 350 GB of data per month, you can scroll through your social media accounts for up to 4,000 hours or stream 500 hours of your favorite TV shows.

Installation

The service requires an expert installation. For first-time customers, AT&T waives the $99 professional installation fee, but this generosity is not extended to existing customers. If you are moving your AT&T Fixed Wireless Home Internet connection from one home and installing it in another one, you will be charged the standard installation fee of $99. 

In most cases, an expert installation is a same-day event. After you have subscribed to the service and an AT&T account has been created for you, the customer service staff will ask you for a suitable installation date. A technician is sent to your house for assessment (to decide the best place for installing a router and mounting an outdoor antenna), and if everything works out, your equipment will get installed, and the internet connection will activate on the same day. In most cases, professional installation takes less than 2 hours.

Required Equipment 

You only need two pieces of equipment for your AT&T Fixed Wireless internet; an advanced modem + Wi-Fi 6 router gateway and a wireless antenna to intercept the radio signals from the nearby AT&T LTE tower. 

Contract

You don’t have to sign an annual contract. You can cancel the service, return the equipment, and walk free. However, if you decide to bundle your service with the DirecTV Entertainment package, you must sign a 2-year-long programming commitment. Since the contract comes with exciting discounts and fee waivers, it might not be such a bad deal. 

Reliability

AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet is the most reliable option for connectivity in the remote and rural areas of the USA. The radio signals are emitted from a nearby AT&T tower and intercepted by the antennas mounted on the subscribers’ roofs. The proximity of the AT&T towers (usually within an 8 miles radius of your location) reduces data loss resulting in consistent internet speeds. Moreover, the fixed wireless technology is designed to withstand extreme weather conditions such as heavy rain and storms. So, it is rare to experience connection loss on fixed wireless internet. 

The uptime of fixed wireless connections is said to be 99.99 percent, meaning most of the time, the network is up and running, and therefore, the reliability shoots up to 99.9 percent. 

Additional Charges

The flat rate of $59.99 per month for a reliable rural internet service is an attractive deal. And to be honest, nothing changes much because the additional costs associated with AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet are not as steep as those of other internet providers. We have already mentioned the one-time installation fee of $99 and the $10 per 50 GB of data overage charge for exceeding your data cap. Apart from this, you must be mindful of the service cancellation fee. You are given 21 days to return the equipment when you cancel your service. Failing to do so results in a fine (non-return equipment fee) of around $150. The amount will be automatically deducted from your credit card, and AT&T will hold on to any deposits or balances under your name. Therefore, returning the equipment in good condition is best upon service termination. 

AT&T Fixed Wireless & DIRECTV Bundle

AT&T is deeply considerate of the connectivity issues in the remote and rural areas of the country. People living off the grid or those with limited options in terms of cable broadband and television service providers will love DirecTV and AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet bundle. It is the ideal beginning to a cordless life. The DirecTV service is a satellite pay-TV service that is available in 96 percent of the country. We are not exaggerating here when we say that even if you chose to live in a cave in the Yosemite reservation area, the DirecTV television service would be accessible to you. It is satellite payTV for crying out loud! The data signals are directed right on the satellite dish that you have installed on the roof of your house, without having to rely on miles and miles of cable networks. 

Bundling your Internet with the DirecTV Entertainment package is the best solution for complete home entertainment. Firstly, DirecTV is owned by AT&T so you can rest assured that the service is authentic and of top-notch quality. Secondly, when you combine your Fixed Wireless home internet with the DirecTV Entertainment package, the total bill becomes $134.98 per month. You save around $27 per month by bringing the two services under one cost-cutting plan. Buying a DirecTV Entertainment pack subscription separately would have cost you $102 per month, but now with the AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet service, you get a discounted price of $75 per month for your DirecTV plan. 

But that’s not all. Bundling the two services is like opening a treasure box. You keep getting more for less. For instance;

• You get access to more than 160 live TV channels including regional and local sports networks. 
• You get access to more than 45,000 most in-demand movies and shows.
• You also get exclusive access to all the premium channels like HBO Max, EPIX, STARZ, SHOWTIME, and Cinemax for the first three months. 
• You can record 200 hours of your favorite shows and movies with the Genie HD DVR box. 
• You get one free ticket for the NFL Sunday game.

AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet for Gaming

Users need at least 50 Mbps of download speeds for lag-free gameplay. Serious gamers who regularly live-stream their online gaming sessions need a minimum of 100 Mbps download speeds and at least 50 Mbps of upload speeds. Apart from the fast upload and download speeds, gamers frequently need a ping rate of fewer than 50 milliseconds. Ping rate denotes the time it takes for the data signals to leave the device, reach the servers at the end of the internet provider, and come back to the user. The ping rate is said to be excellent for glitch-free gameplay if the journey is completed in under 50 milliseconds. 

So where does AT&T’s Fixed Wireless internet stand in all this? The maximum download speed is 25 Mbps, and the upload speeds can only go up to 1 Mbps. Such speeds can be frustratingly slow for online gaming. Moreover, the ping rate ranges between 50 ms to 100 ms, causing an increased lag time and screen freezes. 

Another major disadvantage of using fixed wireless internet for gaming is that the service comes with a 350 GB data cap. Most online games use between 40 MB and 300 MB of data per hour. So, playing an online game for a couple of hours every day is not viable if you have limited data per month. A better option would be to look for a rural cable internet provider with unlimited data, such as Spectrum Internet by Charter Communications. Starting at just $49.99 per month, it is popular for delivering consistent speeds of up to 1,000 Mbps to America’s best online gamers.  

AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet Availability

Currently, AT&T’s Fixed Wireless internet service is only available in the rural areas of the following 18 states:

When we talk about availability, they specify that the AT&T Fixed Wireless Internet service is only available to the ‘eligible’ rural households and small businesses that are within the coverage areas of its LTE towers. From a bird’s eye view, it may seem like the availability is quite limited, but on a ground level, the internet service can be accessed at nearly 160,000 consumer locations. It means that thousands of farmlands, ranches, and small villages in the Midwest and the South can ditch the unreliable satellite internet providers for AT&T’s internet service. 

Customer Service Review

Since the early 1980s, AT&T’s award-winning customer service has been building trust and long-lasting partnerships with its consumers. For five consecutive years, AT&T has been winning the top spot in the J.D. Power Customer Satisfaction Study in the residential and business internet categories. With a score of 895 on a 1000-point scale, AT&T’s fixed wireless internet service was recognized as the best in J.D. Power 2021 U.S. Business Wireless Satisfaction Study. Both, large and medium enterprises believe that AT&T’s prompt response to their online and on-call complaints has helped them move their business in the right direction. 

Residential customers observed that they rarely faced speed throttling, internet outages, or billing issues with their fixed wireless internet service. And on occasions when such issues did occur, AT&T technicians were sent to their homes to fix the problem. All customers can reach the customer service representatives either via 24/7, toll-free helplines or through their myAT&T phone applications. The app is available for download on all the latest versions of Android and Apple phones. 

Conclusion

The AT&T Fixed Wireless internet service is powering thousands of homes and workspaces in remote areas of the country. Available at an affordable price of $65 per month, this technology by AT&T is ideal for basic broadband access, especially in the absence of traditional options. Subscribers can enjoy multi-device connectivity, smooth Netflix streaming, and 24/7 web browsing with reliable 25 Mbps download speeds. AT&T is closing the connectivity gap by delivering high-speed and reliable broadband in nearly 160,000 underserved rural locations. 

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