AT&T DSL Drama - Part 3June 9, 2008
This morning, Tom, the most senior—and helpful—AT&T Tech so far, came to the house and began working on my continuing problem with upload speeds. After nearly six hours, the problem is finally resolved!
Turns out, there was a mismatch of VPI/VCI cards on either end of my line. There was a 768 kbps card on one end, but a 512 kbps on the other end. The mismatch should have simply resulted in lower upload speeds altogether, but apparently they also use slightly different protocols, which resulted in abnormally high packet loss.
Here’s what I’ve learned through this ordeal:
- Once you get past the first level of “script readers”, the level two support folks at AT&T are quite knowledgeable, attentive and friendly.
- Contrary to the rumor mill, AT&T does NOT throttle upload speeds.
- If you’re experiencing slow upload speeds and have eliminated line trouble, ask about your VPI/VCI card.
Now, I have no idea how the problem occurred in the first place, since I was getting great upload speeds up until two weeks ago. Apparently, somebody swapped in the incorrect card at some point. But, I’m back to my happy uploading self, and ready to get back to work. I’m sure my clients will be happy as well! 
What an amazing story! Helpful . . . I am going through a similar nightmare with Comcast at the moment. During my typical 1 hour phone calls with clients (using Voice-over-IP / Digital phone) I am having tremendous numbers of call dropout, where I can hear them, but they can’t hear me. A HUGE issue for many reasons. Recently I met with a Comcast ‘Business Program” consultant and she promised me that an upgrade to business class would solve all that because I would have a “dedicated server” for my lines.
That was about 8 days ago . . . and after sending in my paperwork, and confirming its receipt, I have heard nothing about when the upgrade is “official” or any phone calls regarding installs, reroutes, as they were promised. So I’m getting a bit skeptical already. Worst of all, I spoke with one of my clients who basically said, “Oh, yeah, you’ll still have problems after the upgrade; we experience the same thing.”
WUNNNNNNDerful. I’ll let you know how it goes.