Questions about Fixed Wireless to AT&T Air forced migration.

Not official reply just some of my thoughts to your questions…

* Why? ATT Fixed Wireless is 4G LTE using band 30 only, limited to 1.1 million possible addresses within selected areas of 18 states. Require a tech dispatch for installation and maintenance issues, at the time ATT owned DirecTv and used their contractors primarily as the service is rural not urban.

ATT AIR as FWA product similar to T-Mobile 5G and Verizon 5G requires no tech dispatches, immediate lower cost as customer installs using 5G or 4G LTE allows for faster speeds with more bandwidth available. Additional the service has a wider footprint (more locations) with potentially more subscribers possible 2 million to 4 million thus place all on one platform instead of supporting a 2nd limited Fixed Wireless product.

The gateway 5268 is likely to be soon discontinued meaning software changes would be needed to upgrade 5268 to BGW- 210… more cost and expense in time (call center) on a limited product.

Time Frame I would guess before end 2025 as that meets other company statements for completion fiber build out to 30+ million….

Trial period would allow you to compare for 14 days before cancelling existing service…. Of course the product being FWA tower signal strength and weather conditions are two main cons.

Will only need to return the gateway, any equipment physically attached is yours so the antenna stays till you take it down.

Concerning satellite internet  there is now StarLink offering several different plans with many reporting satisfactorily expectations.

I am also a rural Fixed Wireless (FW) customer. I have posted a few other comments during my experience trying to make the transition to the new Internet Air (IA) All-Fi device, sometimes called "The Egg."

I received what sounds like the exact same letter from ATT. I contacted ATT using the phone number given and was assured that the new IA would be a much better solution to provide much needed RURAL internet access. Two main points, it should be faster 100+Mbps vs 25-50Mbps (downloads) and it would be unlimited data (we have 350gb with FW and since they have overloaded our tower we exceed the limit every month). We were easily under 250gb prior to their 'business decisions" and never had to endure the slow connections we now experience. We agreed to try the IA. It arrived via UPS, after 6 days, the box looked like it had been in WWII. I took photos. The next day I began my tenure as an unofficial ATT employee. I spent 5 days trying to get a signal. I walked the perimeter of our cabin (1200 sq ft) at least 100 times. I rebooted/retried the device at least 500 times. The ATT lights lit up, the 'signal wave' 6 bars would just blink on/off. Upload and Download numbers would appear, then the RED light would come on and the Smart Home app would indicated a problem with the signal. Call the number--800-288-2020. I spoke to 6 different 'CS' reps over the next 5 days. I heard so many different stories it should be laughable (after 2 hrs with Amica she told me the tower was down but I would have a very strong connection in the morning at 6am--never happened) (after another 2 hrs with Frankie the next day, he told me that the tower was just too congested but after 5 hours the IA would miraculously connect and the connection would then be stable/permanent, really??) I followed the advice of each one of these "ATT Tech Experts" but still NO connection to a tower. BTW, we are not trying to connect to the tower north of us, the one we have used for 4 years. We are instructed by Smart Home to use a tower south of us. Finally, I found Shaun on the last day. After 2 hrs and 45 minutes, he admitted the IA was never going to work in my location. The 'south' tower did not have a signal strong enough. He seemed honest enough and we agreed I would send the IA back to ATT via UPS and he was writing, even as we spoke, a very detailed note to FW technicians explaining our situation and making sure we would not lose our only rural option, FW via the north tower (congested but usable). I would be contacted by FW in a few days and all would be resolved. Really? I waited 8 days. Nothing. Yesterday I went through 8 phone attempts, two 'agents' hung up on me, when I finally reached Kevin at Fiber (complicated story, we have fiber at another location). He quickly determined I needed someone from FW and made the call to transfer, he waited on the phone with me, what a trooper, and when we finally (15 mins) got someone to answer, another Kevin but Spanish-speaking, Fiber Kevin explained the situation. I thanked him, he hung up and the ridiculousness began again. Kevin actually said that he had been trained to tell anyone with FW that there was NO option to keep using it. NO discussion needed. I asked for his supervisor, after another 10 mins, Mauricio arrived. We never spoke about the IA, he spent the entire phone call looking at the towers near our location (confirmed the congestion on the 'north' FW tower) and made a 'management' decision to assign my problem to a F2F tech appointment, I would need my FW changed to a 'south' tower with only 4 other users. I agreed, and a tech is supposed to arrive in a few days. I have no idea how it can be moved or if it will work. I still have The EGG and am still trying to figure out where/how to return. Do you think there are others out there have this same kind of experience? What is ATT even thinking?

Att wants to move with the technology and stop maintaining and supporting older tech.  Just recently there’s a fight going on in California over rural areas wanting to hold onto their copper service because no other options exist for them and there is legislation involved.  
Others on DSL services are being force marched to AIA as well.  
Most of what’s written about AIA seems negative to me, but I suppose anyone that’s having a good overall experience isn’t going to come to the forum to laud its virtues.   

FWA, of which ATT AIR,  is the darling of public support.

Since start of Covid FWA Home Internet from T-Mobile has over 5 million subscribers adding 400,000 to 500,000 per quarter and Verizon has over 3.2 million while ATT recent product release has 200,000 in less than 6 months.

FWA allows companies like ATT and Verizon to offer home internet outside their traditional hardline service areas of 9 states for Verizon and selected areas of 21 states for ATT.

The product is using cellular spectrum the companies have purchased at various government auctions for their interested areas. 

FWA is accounting for 80+% of all new internet connections and cable companies offering coax internet have been losing internet subscribers in addition to tv subscribers for last 2 quarters. The trend will likely continue until the towers can support no new subscribers. 

If ATT AIR does not work for your address try T-Mobile or Verizon as they use different towers otherwise StarLink satellite is seeing new growth with good customer satisfaction reports.

If you read the other responses you have an idea why they are doing it.  They seem to think it's going to be some one-size-fits-all solution to updating old technology.  Unfortunately, a few of these companies don't seem to understand that rural customers are going to have different issues from urban and suburban customers in regards to signal strength, distance, obstructions, etc.

I only switched because I had no choice and it wasn't going to cost anything.  It was either that or switch to Verizon or T-Mobile or some satellite service (gag).  I wanted to see how Internet Air worked before doing anything else.  It has been a bit erratic at times.  It's reset itself more times in the last 2 months than I recall the Fixed Wireless doing in the 3 YEARS we had it.  (I'm not talking about major outages, those would hit this regardless.)  But these are random restarts while I'm in the middle of something.  I've wondered whether it's related to the triple digit signal we get.  Right now the RSRP sits at -109.  When I installed it, depending on where it sat it was -96 and -102 next to the window I had to use (limited options here).  But that was back in MARCH, before those things called "trees" decided to leaf out.  The FW was at -80 or so before I cancelled the service; though the service light didn't go red until about 10 days after the shutdown date in the letter.  Whether it was a delayed reaction to the service being cancelled or the equipment on the tower being shut down, I don't know. 

I understand after some reading elsewhere (see below for who) that more goes into the quality of your service than just your signal strength, but if you can't get a signal that's stable enough to maintain a connection, then that's a bit of a deal breaker.  I had Sprint Mobile Broadband for 7 years (2007-14), and I recall a triple digit signal being BAD, not the "good" or "great" the Egg says it is.  That used to be the equivalent of having 1 or 0 bars of service.  I've assumed the erratic issues I've had here is due to the signal popping in at out or being obstructed or interfered with.  Which is sad, because the tower we get our signal from SHOULD be the same one that the FW used, which is only 1-2 miles away in a straight line.  To bad there's a treeline between us.  It's not 100% obstructed, but I have no doubt it still affects it. 

Unfortunately one of the few solutions I've found (but not implemented) is getting an external antenna setup.  While googling the answer to a question of placement I had for the Egg, I found a company out of California called Waveform that makes MIMO antenna kits for these very services (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile).  They can get a bit expensive depending on your budget (mine is low, for example), but apparently can provide a lot of help maintaining a signal and boosting speeds - they don't guarantee it (a lot of variables involved), but it's worth looking in to.  There are guides on how to install the kits, and sadly the AT&T and Verizon ones are a (Edited per community guidelines) to a degree, because those gateways don't have external antenna ports, UNLIKE T-Mobile who does (the Arcadyan G4AR & G4SE).  So you have to open the cases to disconnect the internal antenna and install the external kits.  I have no idea what that does to any warranties or the TOS or whatever.  According to Waveform's website though, they've helped thousands of users do this, so...

My advice to upupandaway: if the box the Egg came in was as trashed as you say, then maybe the gateway was damaged... but I doubt it.  You'll never get the FW back or hold on to it if it's already been shut down, and it's probably inevitable that they will shut the service down.  Whatever the date is in your letter is roughly when it will happen.  You could try checking cellmapper.net for whatever tower - regardless of provider - is closest to your location and switch to them if possible.  Sometimes the same tower has multiple providers - the one I am supposed to get signal from has Verizon on it too, according to cellmapper.  Despite that phone apps show my father's and brother's phones getting their 5G signal from elsewhere.  Take it with a grain of salt.  I do get a laugh out of that stupid app telling you where to get your signal.  The Egg is an OMNIDIRECTIONAL antenna - doesn't help if the tower you want is a mile further away than the one it wants to connect to.  The only way to really choose your tower with an omni is by moving closer to it.  So hey, just pick up your house and move it closer, right?  Ugh.  (As far as I can find, there is not an option in the gateway to pick your cell site.  Correct me if I'm wrong.)  But seeing as you KNOW where you get decent service from with your FW, you might want to consider contacting Waveform with your problem and consider getting their big directional antenna (assuming you're willing to spend about 400+ dollars on the setup).  Just point it the same way your FW is pointed.  You could potentially use the same tripod or pole or whatever the FW is currently using, since that equipment does NOT need to be returned (they've never emailed me for the old FW gateway, either).  It's just dealing with the fact that the Egg still HAS NO EXTERNAL ANTENNA PORTS, forcing you to do the annoying work of opening it up, disconnecting, connecting, etc..  HINT.  HINT.  AT&T and VERIZON.  I won't go into why external antennae are important for these types of devices, as Waveform does it quite well already.  Google them.

Again.  External.  Antenna.  Ports.  T-Mobile has a model that does this.  It's one big reason I'm considering switching, since their towers aren't that much further away, and the same neighbor that referred us to the Fixed Wireless 3 or so years ago... switched to T-Mobile.   Also considering Verizon, since that would put everything under one bill.  Thankfully, those external MIMO kits are built to work with all 3.

I'm not going to comment on the tech support stupidity.  That's par for the course for WAY too many companies nowadays.

I'm in a similar boat.  I had AT&T fixed wireless and was told it was going to be discontinued.  AT&T suggested I go with Internet Air.  My main problem seems to be congestion in the evenings but my signal isn't the greatest either.  One thing I found is I could increase the signal strength by 6dBm if I opened the window.  I suspect I would have better signal if I could mount an antenna outside and connect it to the hub.  This brings up an interesting question, could the old fixed wireless antenna be hacked into and be repurposed as an antenna for Internet Air?  

I don't think the antenna can be used for the new service(s) at all or without extensive rigging (doubtful).  It just doesn't have the connectors for it - apparently only a single RJ45 port that runs to the antenna box (from a picture I saw someone else posted elsewhere).  The frequency and bands might be limited to LTE only, since that's what the tech was at the time.  The MIMO antennae the Waveform sells operate on ranges from 600 to 6000mhz and multiple bands.  I had to dig around just to find one post that stated their FW was LTE Band 30 at 2300mhz.  I can't find much else on technical specs for the FW antenna only. 

Only solution to congestion I remember is having an external directional antenna, knowing where your towers are, and having it on a rotor.  That's what we did with Sprint Mobile while we had it years ago.  We had two locations we could reliably get signal, and if one was slow we moved it to the other one.  Too bad both were 6-8 miles away - I had to have an amp to get the 3G signal down to the high 70's, low 80's.  I haven't looked to see if there are amplifiers available for this stuff, but with those things they amplify not just signal, but noise as well.  I'd direct link to some of the posts and guides at Waveform, but I don't remember what this forum's policy is on that.

Yea, I wasn't thinking about trying to use the old fixed wireless antenna with the existing connectors.  I was thinking about opening it up and bypassing whatever is in there and connecting some RG6 cables directly to the existing antennas.  I assume it has more than one antenna, I wonder if it has 2 or 4 antennas.  I already have some RG6 cables in that area from an old Dish Network installation.  

There is only one AT&T cell tower in my area that I can receive (and that is even a challenge, I currently run about -107 to -109dBm).  But I have found that increasing the signal strength during the congested periods (I'm assuming the slowdown in the evenings is due to congestion) that my download speeds also increase.  I've hit 100 Mbps download in the morning but sometimes slow down to 3 Mbps in the evenings with similar signal strengths.  I have a Verizon tower less than 1000' from me but they won't give me home internet, probably concerned that their network would get too congested.  

I considered a cell signal booster but I don't know if they would work with Internet Air:

https://forums.att.com/conversations/att-internet-air-equipment/can-i-use-a-cell-signal-booster-with-my-internet-air/66284680586efb2637c1f68c?page=1

But boosters get expensive if you want more than one channel.  And from the research I've done I'd probably be better off with a MIMO antenna.  

Yeah, I just read through that thread you posted, and it sounds like you've gone through everything you can to deal with the issue aside from actually trying the MIMO antenna.  I'd say shoot Waveform an email or call them and explain the situation you have and see if they would recommend whether an external antenna would help at all.  If you haven't read their guides, check them out.  Connecting the external is mostly just a nuisance, especially as the U.fl connectors inside the gateway can be delicate.  The trickiest part is still positioning the antenna, according to them.  Even their little Omni needs to be positioned well, as to minimize interference and noise.  But their guides are pretty straightforward and don't use a ton of unneeded technical jargon.

I'll post a link anyway (for anyone looking for this info).  Here's the one for AT&T Air:

https://www.waveform.com/a/b/guides/hotspots/att-5g-gateway-cgw450#installing-external-antennas-to-the-atandt-internet-all-fi-hub

Regardless, this whole issue would much easier for rural, or even sub/urban customers to try out if the bloody gateway had been built with antenna ports like T-Mobile's Arcadyan.  I will keep saying this until someone at either AT&T or Verizon actually LISTENS.  (Har. Har.)  I haven't gotten around to getting an antenna, because our service hasn't been utterly horrible.  As has been said by both of us, it varies.  Ours is a bit more stable than yours, however.  Usually it's the same 50+ mbps as the old FW.  I don't think we have a ton of congestion on our tower.  I'm mostly curious whether the antenna could stabilize the signal and whether it would increase the speeds on a more regular basis.

I think you should try the antenna route before any boosters.  I looked at the boosters that Waveform sells and they are far more costly than even the QuadPro kit (and their one booster that is MIMO doesn't specifically say that it would work for the Air gateway).

One thing interesting is the Internet Air for Business gateway has an optional external antenna.  But I can't tell if that external antenna is to improve cell reception or to relocate the Wi-Fi signal.