AT&T Putting on Caps on DSL and Uverse

[spidey07]

This has got to void my contract with AT@T right? I signed up for unlimited Internet through uverse. They can't just switch the terms without my approval. Or is this for new customers only? I probably use less than 20gb a month but it's the principal.

Read the fine print. Subject to change for any reason.

 

[Wordplay]

This has got to void my contract with AT@T right? I signed up for unlimited Internet through uverse. They can't just switch the terms without my approval. Or is this for new customers only? I probably use less than 20gb a month but it's the principal.

Continue to use it and it's like you accept the changes. If you don't want to accept the changes call them up and cancel.

 

[Patranus]

There really isn't any legitimate reason why someone would go over 250gb on a home plan in a single month.

 

[ch33zw1z]

My isp has a 10 gig cap, but its not a hard cap limit - but I do not see what the big deal is. In the user agreement, my isp can charge $10 for every gig over 10.

Even on high usage months my family "might" get close to 20 gigs. But we rarely get charged for going over.

20GB per month is low usage. My family can use up to 20GB on a heavy usage day...And $10/GB is just ludicrous.

 

[gevorg]

There really isn't any legitimate reason why someone would go over 250gb on a home plan in a single month.

Netflix HD, hulu plus, multiple computer users at home. Isn't that what AT&T Pro or Elite DSL are for?

AT&T's greed puts America even more backwards from some Asian and European countries. Some countries get unlimited UP/DOWN speeds in double digits!

 

[zerocool84]

My isp has a 10 gig cap, but its not a hard cap limit - but I do not see what the big deal is. In the user agreement, my isp can charge $10 for every gig over 10.

Even on high usage months my family "might" get close to 20 gigs. But we rarely get charged for going over.

Holy crap

That's no lube, not even spit rape.

 

[rockyct]

There really isn't any legitimate reason why someone would go over 250gb on a home plan in a single month.

There are some. I use Crash Plan on my Windows Home Server to store files "in the cloud." While I don't go near 250 GBs a mont, it will eventually get pretty close. Also, keep in mind that if I did need to do a file recovery, I wouldn't be able to retrieve all of the files in one month.

Caps made sense five years ago or more when it truly would be impossible to get close to 250 GBs a month. We're entering the age of cloud storage where more and more data will be stored online and 250 GBs a month is going to be easier and easier to hit.

 

[Patranus]

Netflix HD, hulu plus, multiple computer users at home. Isn't that what AT&T Pro or Elite DSL are for?

So 250GB at 1.8GB per movie is 138 movies and with ~31 days in a month that is 4.4 movies per day.

Like I said, there isn't any legitimate reason why would reach that cap unless you are torrenting or doing business in which case you shouldn't be looking at their home plans to being with.

 

[spidey07]

20GB per month is low usage. My family can use up to 20GB on a heavy usage day...And $10/GB is just ludicrous.

Then you need to pay for that obscene usage. That simple.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

There really isn't any legitimate reason why someone would go over 250gb on a home plan in a single month.

Bullshit! One HD movie a day streamed from a legitimate source will use up half of that.

 

[zerocool84]

Then you need to pay for that obscene usage. That simple.

Of course you're fine with that. You have to be or else you'll get fired.

20GB is such high usage OMG!!!! WHAT WILL THE ISP'S DO?!?!?

 

[Loop2kil]

I just checked my Ipfire logs and my highest month's usage was 115gb, and that's with a Usenet account to get the many derivatives of Ubuntu.

My only alternative where I live would be Charter(Hell no!!!!)

 

[rockyct]

Then you need to pay for that obscene usage. That simple.

I really thought you hated Canada and yet, that's who our ISPs are following. Strange.

 

[Patranus]

Then you need to pay for that obscene usage. That simple.

People just need something it bitch about because of the 'evil' corporations.

If they look at their PUBLIC utility, the same thing happens. You use more electricity than the (artificially low) base line and you get charged X times more. You go over another (artificially low) cap and you pay even more.

 

[rudeguy]

Then you need to pay for that obscene usage. That simple.

right...well kinda

The average user is going to use much less than 10 gigs per month. So there is bandwidth to spare for heavier users. The problem is that if you get a bunch of heavy users on one node/headend/whatever, its going to cause problems for all the other users. So the people that just want to surf the web or play Farmville are going to suffer because of those guys.

The people that are using 20 gigs per day legally should have to pay more for their service than someone who uses 10 gigs per month. The people who are burning that much bandwidth doing illegal things need to have their services shut down without notice.

 

[uhohs]

lol, i'd get charged the overage fee 13 times a month if i stuck with at&t dsl. :3

 

[zerocool84]

People just need something it bitch about because of the 'evil' corporations.

If they look at their PUBLIC utility, the same thing happens. You use more electricity than the (artificially low) base line and you get charged X times more. You go over another (artificially low) cap and you pay even more.

Yes cus 20GB fine........

Also you cannot use the utility analogy. You do no pay less if you use less.

The only places you see those ridiculously low caps are where there's no other competition. Hmm wonder why???

 

[oogabooga]

This is only the first step.

Next you will see the prices rise a lot for the 250 gb. capped service, and the isp's will introduce new lower priced service (at the price of current service) with lower caps.

It was a brilliant idea to start with 250gb since that's a pretty high amount for current users. Now they can actually get most people on a much lower cap by offering it as a money saver, while in actuality they can just price the lower cap at the same rate as the current cap is now.

Gotta love how bandwidth costs the isp's less and less every year, but they keep raising the price.

The modern day internet version of "First they went for the bandwidth hogs and I stayed silent. Then they came for the power users, and I stayed silent. Then... they came for me"

 

[QueBert]

Bullshit! One HD movie a day streamed from a legitimate source will use up half of that.

So if I watch an HD movie every day for an entire month, I'll only have half my bandwidth left? Oh the horror! You act like 125 gigs is jackshit. And most places the HD movies are sized where I could watch 2 a day and still have HALF my bandwidth left.

If you're not doing anything illegal and still can use 250 gigs a month I don't know what to tell you. I watch tons of HD movies and am on the net a lot and I've never hit the 100 gigs Charter gives me. Even if I tried I don't think I could use close to 250

*shrug*

 

[gevorg]

So 250GB at 1.8GB per movie is 138 movies and with ~31 days in a month that is 4.4 movies per day.

Like I said, there isn't any legitimate reason why would reach that cap unless you are torrenting or doing business in which case you shouldn't be looking at their home plans to being with.

Its not only movies, some people substitute cable for Netflix/Hulu, they can easily stream 5-10hrs a day like regular TV. With several people in the house, the 250GB can be depleted quickly. And this is only TV. There is also web surfing, youtube, legitimate downloads, gaming, etc.

 

[mrblotto]

The only big one left without a cap is Time Warner?
Wonder what cap is going to be.

Hopefully not the 10gb?? they tried to implement in Texas.

A couple of months ago I inquired to TWC to find out what my monthly usage is.
Their reply:
"I would like to inform you that it is not possible to get the information of monthly usage."

 

[TraumaRN]

Only reason I think this is ridiculous is because I guess my household is a power using household. We stream TV shows from Netflix/iTunes/Hulu, I download games from Steam and game online thankfully my provider(my city provides my internet) has a soft cap and will just send you warning e-mails if you go over the limit and if you are super naughty they cut your download speed for a week. I pay 38.95 a month for the "residental" package, if I wanted more speed I could get the "gamer" package get 10 down 2 up for $59 a month and bandwidth cap goes away.

Either way I definitely won't be getting AT&T or Comcrap anytime soon, because the best part of having my city provide my internet is a lack of users and being very close to the central server node means my speeds are ALWAYS constant. Makes for a really good end user experience.

 

[Bignate603]

Its not only movies, some people substitute cable for Netflix/Hulu, they can easily stream 5-10hrs a day like regular TV. With several people in the house, the 250GB can be depleted quickly. And this is only TV. There is also web surfing, youtube, legitimate downloads, gaming, etc.

Honestly, if they are streaming something 10 hours a day I can totally agree with them paying a bit more. The pricing scheme that AT&T has recommended seems pretty reasonable. 250 GB included then $10 for each 50 GB after that.

 

[QueBert]

Its not only movies, some people substitute cable for Netflix/Hulu, they can easily stream 5-10hrs a day like regular TV. With several people in the house, the 250GB can be depleted quickly. And this is only TV. There is also web surfing, youtube, legitimate downloads, gaming, etc.

An hour of Hulu's around 300 megabytes, it would be almost impossible to use 250 gigs in a month. In fact if you had 5 PC's that were all on Hulu for 5 hours a day you would be well under 200 gigs. Add in online gaming and web surfing you're still not going to hit 200 gigs. And that's 5 PC's maxed out.

I suppose there are house holds where multiple people watch 10 hours a day of Hulu, but even still that wouldn't come close to hitting a 250 gig cap.

 

[rudeguy]

An hour of Hulu's around 300 megabytes, it would be almost impossible to use 250 gigs in a month. In fact if you had 5 PC's that were all on Hulu for 5 hours a day you would be well under 200 gigs. Add in online gaming and web surfing you're still not going to hit 200 gigs. And that's 5 PC's maxed out.

I suppose there are house holds where multiple people watch 10 hours a day of Hulu, but even still that wouldn't come close to hitting a 250 gig cap.

correct. Streaming is NOT the problem. I can't go into detail but I can tell you that 90+% of the people this will affect torrent.

I wonder how people would feel about paying for data usage rather than speed? Give everyone 25 meg download and let them pay per Kb. Sounds fair to me.