AT&T Putting on Caps on DSL and Uverse

[jhu]

Probably won't affect me much. At my place, I can't get more than 80 KB/s, so even if I were to be downloading 24/7, that's still only 210 GB. I'm nowhere near that.

 

[QueBert]

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.

But to be fair to the poster who I quoted, what about a home that has 10 PC's that are all streaming Hulu from 8-8 every day. Apparently people can work a full time job and still be on Hulu for 10 hours.

 

[rudeguy]

But to be fair to the poster who I quoted, what about a home that has 10 PC's that are all streaming Hulu from 8-8 every day. Apparently people can work a full time job and still be on Hulu for 10 hours.

That is why I didn't say 100%.

Its not like they are going to get shut off, they just have to pay more since they use more. Either that or they get a sign in their front yard letting their neighbors know that they the reason that everyone else's speed in the neighborhood sucks.

 

[TraumaRN]

But to be fair to the poster who I quoted, what about a home that has 10 PC's that are all streaming Hulu from 8-8 every day. Apparently people can work a full time job and still be on Hulu for 10 hours.

Consider my household:

I work full time but thats only 3 days a week.
My wife owns her own business and is home everyday by 4pm
My sister in law lives with us goes to school is home most days by 4pm

We have LOTS of time for internet use.

We all stream from Hulu/Netflix/iTunes almost daily
I use Steam almost daily
I game online almost daily

We push nearly 200GB a month. And if I download more then one game from steam its 200+ GB a month.

 

[Phokus]

which providers don't have caps yet? verizon dsl? time warner cable? can't get fios here unfortunately.

My Optimum Online doesn't have caps. I downloaded almost 3 terabytes worth of stuff last month... on a 15 mb/s line.

 

[Bignate603]

But to be fair to the poster who I quoted, what about a home that has 10 PC's that are all streaming Hulu from 8-8 every day. Apparently people can work a full time job and still be on Hulu for 10 hours.

If they're doing that then I think their ISP is fully justified in charging them more than someone that uses more typical amounts of data. Even if it is "legitimate" usage they're still more demanding on the network than their average customer and should pay their fair share.

 

[blinblue]

I don't think many here are arguing that this is a totally unfair thing for ATT to do. In fact, its fairly reasonable (both the cap and the price for overage). Sure there are probably a good number of people who have very legitimate reasons go over that cap.

But in my mind, what disappoints me about this, is we are digressing instead of progressing. I want to hear an announcement that ATT is rolling out Uverse to everyone (I'm still stuck at 6Mbps and I'm in the suburbs of Chicago) and its going to be $25/month for 24Mbps, not that they are going from unlimited to a cap.

This is coming from an ATT DSL subscriber

 

[PsiStar]

Two thoughts come to mind;
1) this is what the old telephone systems, aka POTS, had messed up in their pricing. In the beginning (1910?) they did not comprehend that people would want to talk so much AND they also did not have the means to measure the time talked. By at least the 60s & definitely the 70s they really wanted to bill all calls by the amount the equipment was used regardless if the call went thru or not ... regardless if you were the one receiving the call you also be billed appropriately at your end for any use of the equipment. And, I think that makes perfect sense ... pay for what you use. Politics & the inertia of that old the billing system prevented that.

Cell phones with the availability of an adequate computer billing system was the beginning of the end of free local calls. So it is just reasonable that in this age, the more you use the net, the more you pay.

2) just play the friggin' game. Use any of the free email systems as gmail or yahoo for instance. Once established on those, then what would be the delay of just switching to whatever ISP for the deal of the month!?!? WTF In my home we flop back & forth between ATT & Optimum. No contract and they offer discount *because* we are coming from a competitor.:sneaky: The only thing any sees here is the cable box controller changes & ATT cable boxes cannot display the time.


So, if you are not playing the game, this suggests that you still have local wired POTS and not using just your cells or a VOIP.

 

[13Gigatons]

Rape in America is now legal....only by corporations though!!!!

 

[uhohs]

My Optimum Online doesn't have caps. I downloaded almost 3 terabytes worth of stuff last month... on a 15 mb/s line.

unfortunately i'm in the los angeles area. :|

 

[JackBurton]

I'm not big on caps, but 250GB is completely reasonable. I have U-verse and love it. No problems with a 250GB cap.

For the people saying they stream 24/7 on 10 machines, you either need to get out more or pay the piper. It's as simple as that.

 

[Sephire]

Netflix, Youtube, Vudu, Carbonite, Dropbox, Remote connection, Steam, Microsoft Technet, Xbox Live (demos,MP,patches), iTunes (music, apps, tv, movies, updates, etc), Pandora, Flash video sites, normal browsing, etc.

N & T not included.

And thats just me.

 

[Freshgeardude]

It should be 1.5GB/month, you dirty pirating commies.

 

[Svnla]

Questions:

1. Is there a way to find out how much bandwidth you are using so far?

2. Do people with super high speed broadband countries such as Japan, S. Korea, et al have cap?

It maybe ok with 250GB now, but what about in the future, such as video streaming education/class, cloud computing, online storage files, etc?

 

[Anonemous]

I think the issue is that we lose 'unlimited' and still pay the same price.

 

[Anonemous]

Questions:

1. Is there a way to find out how much bandwidth you are using so far?

2. Do people with super high speed broadband countries such as Japan, S. Korea, et al have cap?

It maybe ok with 250GB now, but what about in the future, such as video streaming education/class, cloud computing, online storage files, etc?

(1) I think they will use a bandwidth measuring tool. Unknown as to how accurate it will be.

(2) No.

Yes, cloud computing, ONLIVE gaming,online consoles, steam, hulu, netflix, and VOIP are already here. Unknown how it will affect those. Guess next they are going to limit only one computer for internet access or start blocking which apps can be used through the ISPs (netflix/hulu/gaming).

 

[Freejack2]

If you have dd-wrt, your router will keep track of your bandwith usage. I checked our router and we used 68gb combined up and down bandwith in January. This isn't because of torrents or anything like that. We use this much with netflix and hulu streaming, two computers browsing the web, wow mmorpg, youtube, internet radio, email, and etc.

Today, 250gb is more than enough. But what happens when everything on netflix, youtube, and hulu streams in 1080p? What happens when we start storing all our data in the cloud or whatever they'll call it? What happens when the latest game off of steam is an 80gb download?

In the future 250gb may not be so big. What will happen when suddenly even grandma's internet usage exceeds 250gb a month a few years from now? You guessed it. (Insert isp name here) is pleased to offer a 500gb a month bandwith cap package for only double what you're paying now.

Right now 250gb is fair, but when everyone starts exceeding 250gb don't expect the isps to graciously up that cap. You will pay dearly for that cap increase and that's the real concern.

 

[13Gigatons]

I'm not big on caps, but 250GB is completely reasonable. I have U-verse and love it. No problems with a 250GB cap.

For the people saying they stream 24/7 on 10 machines, you either need to get out more or pay the piper. It's as simple as that.

You have to do the math though:

250GB + 24mbps = 1 day. :thumbsdown:

What's the point of the speed if you can't enjoy it all month?

 

[QueBert]

You have to do the math though:

250GB + 24mbps = 1 day. :thumbsdown:

What's the point of the speed if you can't enjoy it all month?

what the fuck would you be streaming 24/7 at full speed? I can stream Hulu + Youtube HD + Netflix all at the same time 24/7 and I wouldn't hit 250 gigs in a month.

 

[13Gigatons]

what the fuck would you be streaming 24/7 at full speed? I can stream Hulu + Youtube HD + Netflix all at the same time 24/7 and I wouldn't hit 250 gigs in a month.

1. Online backups.
2. Webcam.
3. Video Phone.

Corporations are ruining the internet.

 

[Anonemous]

What's even funnier is that the rumor is the cap is a combined upload and download.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25604554-Caps.-again-

 

[crownjules]

I think the issue is that we lose 'unlimited' and still pay the same price.

It's called reseting the bar. We're supposed to just take this lying down because it's good for big business and they will graciously provide more jobs (in India).

 

[13Gigatons]

I think the issue is that we lose 'unlimited' and still pay the same price.

at&t have raised their rates as well. So you pay more plus get hit with bandwidth overages!

 

[Paratus]

I didn't read the thread but did spidey come in here and tell us how awesome this is?

 

[postmortemIA]

at 15mbps, which is my best guess as median speed of cable connection in USA, you would eat 250GB after less than 48hours. Upload is usually at least order of magnitude slower, so it does not impact much. Eaither way, "unlimited" and "all you can eat for two days and pay for 30" is not same.