The latest and greatest fiber internet plan from AT&T reaches dizzying new heights of 5000 Mbps. That’s spectacularly fast. In fact, most other internet providers across the globe can get nowhere near it.
Literally dozens, if not hundreds of people would be able to share this plan under heavy internet usage with no issues at all. It really is quite something, but is it right for what you want to do with it?
Well, only if you’re planning on setting up the internet for a massive workplace or public area. Otherwise, you’d probably be better off with one of the lower speeds from AT&T, which are still pretty quick.
We’ve been researching what 5 Gig would look like and what the AT&T Fiber 5 Gig offers in terms of values so join us as we break down our findings.
Let’s get started.
AT&T Fiber 5 Gig Price & Overview
At 5000 Mbps, AT&T Fiber 5 Gig is the joint second-fastest internet plan in the US. The only speed that beats it right now is Comcast Xfinity’s 6 Gig plan, but that costs almost double the amount.
And it’s brand new, having only been announced earlier in 2022. Before this, the fastest plans on the books were less than half this speed at a mere 2 Gig.
So what is the point of 5 Gig? Well, why not? Pretty much every internet situation in the world could be solved at this speed with hundreds of people being able to use the internet heavily. It’s pretty spectacular, really.
And it’s not actually super expensive. That being said, we don’t recommend it to any home users as it would be pretty much impossible to get the use out of it. That is unless you download lots of enormous files.
Right now, it costs $180 per month which is just too expensive for those at home. Don’t get us wrong though, this is still good value in comparison to the prices from some other providers. It’s just definitely more a commercial kind of plan. And a pretty heavy commercial plan at that!
Who Needs AT&T Fiber 5 Gig?
Because of the immense amount of capability of a 5000 Mbps download speed, it’s only really recommended for very specific users. They are people looking to set up superfast public hotspots or large office space locations.
No one really needs this kind of speed. But it would be pretty cool to share dazzling amounts of bandwidth with dozens of people. And in the future, when internet processes become more demanding due to larger file sizes etc., AT&T Fiber 5 Gig will come into its own.
It’s also important to note before we go any further that the upload speed cap for this plan is also 5000 Mbps. If you thought the download speed was unheard of, try that on for size.
What Can You Do With 5 Gig?
Maybe the question we should be asking here is ‘what can’t you do with 5 Gig?’ Because the answer to that would be ‘not much’.
But, to make this section a bit more fun, we did the math to find out the number of times over you’d be able to carry out some everyday internet processes simultaneously. And those numbers are pretty outstanding.
It should be noted that these numbers might be a little higher than reality for a few reasons: the limitations of the router, the distance of each device from the router and other interferences. Nonetheless, let’s take a look.
In a professional environment
A workplace is probably the most likely scenario for this kind of speed. So what do you do at work? Well, making video calls is a big part of a lot of office workers’ day to day activities.
And making lots of video calls would be pretty easy indeed at this kind of speed.
Let’s use Zoom as an example. Even the highest quality requires an upload speed of 3.8 Mbps [1]. And because the upload speed of this AT&T Fiber 5 Gig plan is also 5000 Mbps, you could make a lot of calls.
5000 divided by 3.8 is some 1315. We highly doubt 1315 people have ever made simultaneous video calls in the same building before but it would be quite a spectacle.
In fact, the most exhaustive work process we could find to internet bandwidth was Microsoft Team’s collaborative document sharing and video calling, which needs 4 Mbps [2]. 1250 people working on documents in video calls at the same time is peak productivity!
Other uses
You might want to use 5 Gig if you’re supplying Wi-Fi to a school or perhaps a public area such as a library. Even in that situation, you’d really need a lot of people using the Wi-Fi quite heavily to get anywhere close to the max bandwidth. Let us explain.
Netflix’s Ultra HD streaming needs 25 Mbps download speed [3], making it one of the most greedy internet processes out there for most people. But AT&T 5 Gig can take good care of it by allowing 200 users to stream in max quality at the same time. 200 HD movies at the same time sounds like a big party to us!
And then there’s downloading. We went back through the internet archives to find out what the biggest downloadable files in the world were to give some perspective here.
And according to some users, the answer is, randomly, a collection of all the matches of the 2022 World Cup of soccer. It’s 641.32 GB. But at 5000 Mbps, that will only take 7 minutes and 6 seconds to download!
Contract Terms and Costs of AT&T Fiber 2 Gig
If you also want to download many hours of soccer highlights at immense speeds, here’s a look at the terms of the AT&T 5 Gig plan.
Contract length
Good news: there’s actually no contract length here. You can sign up from as little as one month. That makes life a lot easier for those who are unsure of a) if they’re gonna be relocating within the next few months or b) whether 5 Gig might just be a little too much.
It’s also worth noting that there is no data cap for this plan at all. You might expect that given the insane amount of speed it’s supplying, but it’s always good to have the peace of mind!
Price per month
As you might expect, 5 Gig is going to cost you a fair amount of cash. With AT&T, it costs $180 per month [4]. That’s $70 more than the second fastest plan, AT&T Fiber 2 Gig.
It’s hard to really pinpoint how good value this actually is considering that there’s such a lack of competition for this kind of speed, but based on other speeds from competitors it looks pretty good to us.
Of course, $180 is quite a bit of money for an internet plan. But that’s because it’s immensely fast. That’s the key reason we don’t recommend this amount of speed to anyone looking to get online at home.
Additional perks and fees
The only price you’ll pay on top of the monthly payment and taxes is the Monthly State Cost Recovery Charge. And that’s only if you live in the states of Nevada, Texas or Ohio.
There are no fees to hire the equipment with this plan [5], or anything else for that matter. The price you pay is simply the price you pay!
One area in which AT&T beats most of the competition is with the additional benefits it gives to its customers. You can get a $200 gift card when you make the switch to AT&T Fiber 5 Gig from another provider, and AT&T will even pay your cancellation fee from them!
Plus, you’ll get all of the following…
Perks for AT&T Fiber 5 Gig
AT&T Fiber plans are often credited as being the best when it comes to additional perks for customers. If you choose to go with AT&T Fiber 5 Gig, you’ll get all of these cool things.
AT&T Hot Spot
AT&T customers will be able to stay connected when they go out thanks to unlimited free access to public Wi-Fi through AT&T Hot Spot. This cloud Wi-Fi service is available in a large amount of the US.
Sure, it’s not going to be 5 Gig internet, far from it. But it’s good to know you won’t always have to eat into your cell phone data in order to get online on the go.
AT&T Smart Home Manager
It’s always good to have control over your home network, and AT&T give that to you with their Smart Home Manager mobile app.
Free to download on the App Store and the Play Store, this app allows you to control all your internet settings without having to log into the network configuration site on a computer.
You’ll be able to change your network name and password, remove devices from the network and control a few other parameters.
AT&T ActiveArmor
Most people who take up the AT&T Fiber 5 Gig plan will be providing internet to a lot of devices at the same time. So, network security will be pretty important to them.
AT&T recognizes this and provides free antivirus technology to all customers of the Fiber 5 Gig plan. It’s regularly updated to keep your network safe from all the latest threats.
AT&T Gateway
With AT&T Fiber 5 Gig, you’ll get a pretty powerful Wi-Fi 6 router free of charge. And, it comes with a 5 Gig Ethernet port so you can max out the speed capabilities on a single device!
However, if you’re looking to use this plan in a large space such as an office or library, you might want to consider Mesh. It allows you to extend the range of your network seamlessly which is perfect for large buildings. Check out some of the best Mesh networks here.
Locations in the US
If AT&T Fiber 5 Gig is sounding pretty awesome right now, we’re not surprised. But don’t get too excited just yet. It’s only available for a limited number of people in the US at the time of writing.
That’s because AT&T is currently in the process of rolling it out across the US. It wants to supply Fiber to as many people as possible, but it is a logistical challenge to get that done for a number of reasons.
These include getting permissions from local authorities to build the infrastructure and then actually doing the building itself. This can be an expensive and time-consuming job.
You can check to see if you’re able to get AT&T Fiber by looking at the website. There, you’ll be able to enter your address, and this will show you all the plans from AT&T that are available to you.
Why Am I Only Being Offered AT&T Internet?
If you did the above check but are only being offered AT&T Internet plans as opposed to AT&T Fiber ones, that’s because AT&T Fiber isn’t with you yet.
The good news is that if you are currently being offered regular DSL internet from AT&T, the chances are that Fiber will be with you in the future. It’s just hard to say exactly when that might be.
Save Some Money With a Lower AT&T Fiber Plan
AT&T Fiber 5 Gig is, of course, the fastest one. But if you’re not sure if you need it, you could save some monthly cash by going for one of the other speed options.
Here’s a look at the other AT&T Fiber speeds available, the prices of the plans and an idea of who each of them is best suited for.
Every plan comes with the same perks we discussed just now. The only difference is that with the 300, 500 and 1 Gig plans, you’ll get a $150 giftcard for making the switch from another provider instead of a $200 one.
| Plan | Price | Who It’s Best For |
| AT&T Fiber 300 | $55 | Large families |
| AT&T Fiber 500 | $65 | Large families and small businesses |
| AT&T Fiber 1 Gig | $80 | Medium-sized businesses |
| AT&T Fiber 2 Gig | $110 | Larger businesses |
| AT&T Fiber 5 Gig | $180 | Super intensive work among many |
AT&T Fiber 5 Gig vs the Competition
We’ve established that AT&T does fiber pretty well indeed. But what about the other providers out there? Well, there’s some pretty strong competition. And a few people in the US will be lucky enough to be able to choose.
But not many. The areas in which AT&T Fiber are available right now are slim. And the same can be said for the other providers. So there aren’t many areas in which providers can compete.
For this reason, you’ll probably have to opt for a single provider in your area if you can get fiber at all. But that won’t be the case forever. In the future, we expect to see a lot more crossovers between providers.
Here’s a look at the kinds of plans the other big names in the fiber game are offering compared to AT&T Fiber 5 Gig.
| Provider & Plan | Speed | Price per month |
| AT&T Internet 5 Gig | 5000 Mbps | $180 |
| Optimum 5 Gig | 5000 Mbps | $180 |
| Ziply Fiber 5 Gig | 5000 Mbps | $300 |
| Comcast Xfinity 6000 Mbps | 6000 Mbps | $300 |
| Verizon Fios 2 Gigabit | 2000 Mbps | $120 |
| Google Fiber 2 Gig | 2000 Mbps | $100 |
| Ziply Fiber 2 Gig | 2000 Mbps | $120 |
As you can see, there aren’t many providers bringing 5 Gig speeds to the table just yet. And only one of them, Optimum, competes price-wise with AT&T. And with that, you don’t get as many perks as you do with the AT&T Fiber 5 Gig plan.
So most of the US will be limited to 2000 Mbps at most. You’d have to be pretty lucky to be in an area where AT&T or Optimum are rolling out 5 Gig if this is the kind of speed you’re hoping to achieve!
It’s also worth noting that the high price of the Comcast Xfinity 6 Gig plan isn’t the only off-putting thing about it. You’ll also be tied into a two-year deal if you do go for it, and we imagine that by the end of that two years the price will have come way down but you’ll still be locked into that initial high price.
Concluding on AT&T Fiber 5 Gig
For a lot of people, AT&T Fiber 5 Gig may be somewhat of a pipe dream right now. But if you are lucky enough to be living in an area where AT&T supplies it, all of your internet woes will be gone forever!
AT&T is certainly the place to go for fiber broadband right now and they’ve proved it once again here with this immense 5 Gig package. Just make sure you weigh up the pros and cons of going all out with this speed over saving some money with 2 Gig or lower.
If 5 Gig still isn’t enough for you somehow (!), there is one faster plan out there that we previously mentioned. Check out our review of the fastest internet plan in the world, Comcast Xfinity Gigabit Pro.
