Active wired or wireless TV receivers reduce Internet download by 5 Mbit / second ?

Hi @EdOfTheMountain,

We apologize about the issues, but we will be glad to help. The receivers do have the potential of reducing the speed, but it has nothing to do with the gateway. The reason for the reduction is the overall bandwidth going to your house. Due to distance and equipment, there is only so much bandwidth going to your house that can support all your services. We usually allow for additional bandwidth, so it does not eat into the internet, but only so much bandwidth is available. If you do notice a huge drop in your internet speeds, we can see what can be done to increase the bandwidth to your house.

-ATTU-verseCare

Thank you for your reply.

My concern is that I am to be locked into a 24-months of service for 4 TV receivers plus Internet.

I am a sofwate engineer with an electroncis background and I understand there are technical limitations of DSL.

However, It does not feel fair to be charged for an Internet data rate that I do not get once two or more receivers are active. 

Is it possible to either:

1) Install 2-bonded DSL pairs to give my home's DSL more headroom so that data rate does not fall below minimum I am paying for when 4 receivers are actively playing HD content?  Or perhaps use one DSL copper pair for data only?

2) - Discount my Internet cost to the equivalent cost of a lower data rate monthly cost for 2-years ?

Thank you for your quick response,

-Ed

You have a single communication channel between your Gateway (modem/router) and the upstream AT&T equipment.  This carries all the data for your U-verse services (VOIP, TV, Internet).  The services are prioritized in the order listed.  Normally if you have 24 Mbps HSI, you have a 32 Mbps communications profile (and can actually get more than 24 Mbps bandwidth for HSI, which it appears you are getting, when not using higher-priority services).  This is the way U-verse works.

There are higher bandwidth pofiles available, if you're close enough to the equipment and/or you can get bonded pair VDSL.  However, you would have to upgrade your HSI service to a higher level to qualify.  For example, if you were capable of getting 45 Mbps HSI, then you'd get a 55 Mbps profile, giving you 10 Mbps of TV headroom instead of only 8.  I believe that the profile for 75 Mbps HSI is 90 Mbps, meaning 15 Mbps of TV headroom.

Actually, I'd expect that each HD stream would consume closer to 6 Mbps instead of 5.  You could use SD channels, which cut your stream by only 2 Mbps each. 

Also, the Gateway is actually pretty smart about the Multicast traffic.  The TV Receivers use IGMPv3 to subscribe to the Multicast streams and only Gateway LAN ports that need that traffic get it.  Note, however, that the DVR port will read the multicast streams of all TV receivers inorder to provide Whole Home DVR functionality.

A little more detail to assist in visualizing:  In CATV, all the channels are simultaneously broadcast on the cable and the High Speed Internet IP traffic is basically another set of channels in parallel.  In U-verse, all the traffic coming in to the home is IP traffic.  The video streams are only sent into your home when subscribed to by a receiver, thus using that much bandwidth only when in use. Your HSI traffic is mixed in with the TV IP traffic.

Thank you for the details.  Your explanation matches my understanding of how IP TV and CATV work.

In SuddenLink CATV my wire is being shared with others in my neighborhood.  Yet download speed tests are consistent at about 50 Mbit/s.  CATV TV watching activity has no effect on Internet bandwidth unlike IP TV.  

My issue with ATT UVerse is that I expected to receive the *miniumum* advertised Internet speed that my ATT Internet package advertises regardless of active HD TV activity.  

-Ed

I assumed the advertised ATT 24 package min-to-max speed range was what a customer would receive.  But I know what they say about assumptions and it is not just a cliche.  My fault, I did not read the fine print in the service agreement, however, I am not surprised.  

It has been probably 10 years since I last had ATT DSL and SuddenLink CATV Internet had increased my expectations.

Thank you for the informative reply.  This will help me decide if I wish to cancel SuddenLink or not.