Is AT&T’s cheapest fiber internet plan enough? Here’s what I found when I tried it

When I moved into a home that was compatible with fiber optic internet, I jumped at the chance ditch cable for fiber. My roommates and I had spent the last three years living well with Spectrum (although frustrated by the occasional price increases and Internet outages). The move to fiber optic internet meant symmetrical upload and download speeds and better reliability.

I agree with you: $55 for a download speed of 300 megabits per second is not the best solution. best internet deal in the industry. If you and members of your household have Above-average internet usage habits300 Mbps probably won’t be enough.

In my home, with limited smart devices and typical internet usage, 300 Mbps is more than enough. Here’s everything you need to know about AT&T Fiber 300.

How does AT&T Fiber 300 compare to similar options in terms of cost?

Before signing up for AT&T’s Fiber 300 plan, I knew I wanted to keep my monthly internet costs below $60 per month. The average monthly cost of internet is around $63without counting hidden fees or equipment costs, and I didn’t want to exceed that amount.

The cheapest internet plan from any provider typically offers the lowest but highest speeds available. cost per Mbps, making it one of the least cost-effective options despite the low monthly costs. The same goes for AT&T Fiber cheapest internet planwhich has a cost per Mbps of around 18 cents.

This is the highest speed/price ratio of any AT&T Fiber plan. It’s also higher than entry-level plans from other major Internet service providers, including Spectrum and Quantum fiberboth of which offer speeds of up to 500 Mbps starting at $50 per month. These plans cost $5 less than AT&T Fiber 300 and offer significantly better speed.

Still, the AT&T Fiber 300 plan is a solid choice for home internet, especially if you’re limited on high-speed internet options and trying to stick to a budget. In my case, I wanted to avoid paying $80 a month for AT&T’s 1GB plan — speed that I was sure would be wasted in my house. The next speed tier, AT&T Fiber 500, was also a viable option at $65 per month, but I felt like a speed of 500 Mbps would also be too high for my internet usage.

AT&T Fiber 300 isn’t as cheap or as fast as some providers’ entry-level plans, but AT&T adds value in other ways.

AT&T Fiber 300: No data caps, contracts or equipment fees

The speed and reliability of a fiber internet connection exceeds the offers of Cable Internet — and I really noticed the difference. Compared to my 300 Mbps plan with Spectrum, I experienced much faster download speeds and none of the usual network congestion during peak hours.

I’ve highlighted the cost and speed of the AT&T Fiber 300 plan so far, and for good reason, but what else is there to the AT&T plan and service, in general?

AT&T Fiber plans come with unlimited datawhich means I don’t have to monitor my monthly data usage to avoid throttling speeds or overage fees. There is also no contract requirements and no additional monthly equipment fees.

Overall, I pay a monthly plan of $55: there are no additional fees for leasing a router (unlike Spectrum’s $10 router fee for its 500 Mbps plan) or fees for exceeding a data limit.

It’s a good deal, considering the speeds I’m getting. Speaking of which, let’s take a look at what 300 Mbps looks like at my house.

Is 300 Mbps a good speed?

You should know that when you subscribe to an internet package, your internet provider only guarantees speeds “up to” the value of the package. So even though I pay for 300 Mbps, I don’t always get that speed consistently. My speeds were as low as 273 Mbps, but I also saw them as high as 350 Mbps. Still, the speeds I’m seeing overall are much more consistent than what I got with a cable Internet connection.

According to the Federal Communications Commission300 Mbps should be more than enough speed for online gaming, streaming in HD or 4K, and taking Zoom calls on multiple devices simultaneously. The FCC’s official recommendation is a minimum speed of 4 Mbps for online multiplayer gaming, 25 Mbps for 4K streaming, and 6 Mbps for HD video conferencing, all well below 300 Mbps.

Additionally, while speeds of 300 Mbps can support multiple devices at once (10 or more depending on each person’s activity), be aware that each connected device will consume its share of bandwidth. The more devices you connect, the slower your actual speeds will likely be on each one.

Since I work remotely and my partner doesn’t, usually during the day only two to three devices are running at the same time. None of us play online and we only have one smart TV; 300 Mbps is more than enough for our Internet usage.

There is a few easy steps I took to optimizing that 300 Mbps by, for example, placing my router in a central, elevated location in my office and running a few speed tests to evaluate the connection in different rooms. Since my router is in my office, a room in the back of the house, I was initially concerned that my smart TV wouldn’t get consistent speeds. AT&T offers smart Wi-Fi extenderswhich I briefly considered, but for the cost of $10 per month, it would be more efficient to move to the next tier and pay $65 per month for 500 Mbps. I don’t plan on doing this upgrade yet. Surprisingly, when I tested the speed of my Internet connection with Ookla’s Speedtest, I found that the speeds in my living room (315 Mbps) were slightly faster than those in my office (298 Mbps). Although my smart TV do See the occasional lag, it doesn’t happen often and my work days are uninterrupted with smooth Wi-Fi. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)

Larger households with bandwidth-intensive devices like smart TVs, video game consoles, smartphones and tablets may need more speed to meet everyone’s needs, especially if multiple users are online at the time. If that’s the case and you want to stay with AT&T, consider upgrading to the AT&T Fiber 500 plan for $10 more per month or AT&T Fiber 1000, which starts at $80 per month.

So, is AT&T Fiber 300 fast enough?

This should be the case for most households. According to Speedtest.netThe average residential download speed tested in the United States for November 2024 was 262 Mbps, so you’ll potentially get speeds above the national average with AT&T Fiber 300. Again, consistent speeds of 300 Mbps are unlikely with AT&T Fiber 300, especially when using Wi-Fi but I’ve seen consistent speeds since signing up for the service. Still, the plan will likely deliver plenty of speed to the average user or a handful of users and most, if not all, of their devices.

AT&T Fiber 300 FAQ