AT&T has initiated monthly bandwidth caps starting this month

Jerry_111

Jerry_111

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Very underhanded and designed to discourage the flow of people shifting from cable tv services to internet services (hulu, netflix, online games and music).

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112671/att-capping-broadband-cnnmoney

The days of all-you-can-surf broadband are vanishing.

AT&T this week began capping its Internet delivery service for broadband and DSL customers. The move comes 11 months after it placed similar caps on its mobile customers.

U-Verse -- AT&T's high-speed broadband, television and telephone network -- now limits customers to 250 gigabytes of Internet usage each month. DSL users are capped at 150 GB. Customers who exceed the limits will have to pay $10 for each additional 50 GB.

AT&T moved in June to set pricing tiers for its mobile customers, offering light users a plan that maxes out at 200 megabytes. The company also sells a pricier 2 GB plan. AT&T (NYSE: T - News) remains the outlier among the three major wireless companies, though Sprint (NYSE: S - News) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ - News) Wireless are expected to follow suit with caps soon.

More from CNNMoney.com:

• New iPhone, iPad Limits: 2 GB Won't Get You Far

• 7% of Americans Subscribe to Netflix

• One in Eight to Cut Cable and Satellite TV in 2010

But AT&T isn't alone in instituting restrictions on residential broadband usage.

Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA - News) -- by far the largest broadband provider in the U.S. -- also has a 250 GB cap, and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC - News) experimented with a tiered billing service in some markets in 2008. Though broadband caps are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States, variations on Internet cap structures are quite common in Canada, Asia and in European countries.

AT&T's caps will affect just 2% of its customers, the company said. The restrictions are necessary, AT&T maintained, because those in the top 2% use up 20% of the network's bandwidth. The highest-traffic users download as much as 19 typical households, on average, which slows speeds for other users, AT&T said.

"Our approach is based on customers' feedback," said Mark Siegel, spokesman for AT&T. "They told us that the people who use the most should pay more, and they also told us we should make it easy for them to track their usage. We think our approach addresses these concerns."

Siegel called the caps "generous," and said that AT&T's DSL customers use just 18 GB per month on average. The company didn't provide similar statistics for its U-Verse high-speed Internet customers. Globally, broadband customers typically use 15 GB per month, according to Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO - News).

The caps are fairly forgiving. DSL customers would need to watch 65 hours of high-definition videos on Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX - News) to reach the limit, and high-speed customers would need to watch 109 hours.

Analysts see the move as a strategic one. AT&T, Comcast and many other broadband providers also sell cable TV service, which a growing number of customers are dropping in favor of video on-demand services like Netflix.

"This probably isn't absolutely necessary," said Vince Vittore, broadband analyst at Yankee Group. "It's mostly a move to prevent customers from cutting off video services."

Vittore believes Comcast and AT&T's caps are indicative of what will become a larger trend in broadband services throughout the country.

Cisco recently forecast that video on-demand usage will double every 2 1/2 years. AT&T said its customers are using more broadband as data-intensive video services like Netflix become more popular. Video currently makes up 40% of all Internet traffic and will exceed 91% by 2014, according to Cisco.

Though typical broadband users don't come close to approaching the caps now, the increase in average video consumption will undoubtedly cause a greater number of users to exceed their limits in the coming years.

That could force broadband providers to raise their caps in the future if customers begin to complain.

To head off a backlash, AT&T is sending customers alerts when they reached 65%, 90% and 100% of their data allotment each month. The company is also giving customers an undefined grace period before it charges them for another 50 GB. AT&T also is allowing customers to check their data usage online.

Still, data caps likely won't sit well with those who have called for broadband providers to improve their infrastructure and service.

The Obama administration has harshly criticized the state of the country's broadband infrastructure, noting that most other countries offer broader service with far faster speeds. The president even alluded in last year's State of the Union address to a study in which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked the United States 31st in median broadband speed.

As part of its National Broadband Plan, the FCC has set out to bring 100-megabit-per-second speeds to 100 million Americans.

Some Internet companies fed up with the state of American broadband are taking matters into their own hands. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - News), for instance, is deploying a 1-gigabit-per-second network in Kansas City, Kan.
Click to expand...
 
this is so stupid. Let's say they charge the top 2% of households an extra $10-$30 month for going 50-150gb over. So they have an extra $$$ now, do they spend it on building a better network so they can support everybody, even the highest users, without having their network being 'slowed down'? NO. They're going to pocket it, just do maintenance, and probably in the future become even stricter with the fees and caps.

I hate the mentality where they have a problem (not enough bandwidth), and instead of fixing it to make their entire network better, they just try and charge people more so the bandwidth isn't a "problem". What's the point in making billions of dollars in profits if you aren't willing to reinvest them into your company to make a your service better?
 
It's really nice of them to coincide this with the Supreme Court striking down class-action lawsuits.
 
Doesn't seem to unreasonable. Unless you do an insane amount of downloading and streaming 150GB is seems like enough for your average internet user/gamer. $10 for every 50GB doesn't seem too bad either. We're about to switch to uverse on Tuesday and I don't ever fathom myself consuming 250GB of bandwidth a month. I do agree though that the money they would gain from these caps should be implemented into offering better bandwidth penetration for people who have little to no access to it.
 
Except that a family could easily, EASILY fly past 250 gigs. Example: My family. I play PC and PS3 games online, I stream Netflix a lot while working (probably 6+ hours a day of streaming netflix) I stream pandora both on my pc, and on my phone over wifi, and I download games off of steam. I haven't been good at keeping track, but I imagine I easily hit 100GB+ each month, myself. My dad listens to pandora all the time, buys and downloads a lot of music, browses the internet, etc. My brothers play games online, download games on steam, stream pandora, etc. My sister streams netflix on the PS3 regularly.

Now you might think to yourself "hey, if your family uses that much internets then you should be paying more than most people!" which is a bullshit argument because the cost of the bandwidth we use is incredibly insignificant. They're charging us an inordinate amount more money despite our usage not costing them any significant amount more.

Plus this isn't even addressing the fact that we're already able to stream 1080p video and soon netflix or someone will start offering that service, meaning it will use 20GB of bandwidth to stream a single movie in the very near future. This kind of throttling is ****ing price gouging, and will hamper development of new technology and services.
 
This is actually quite startling news given my situation. I live in an apartment with U-Verse high-speed and three other, college age roommates.. I just installed a bandwidth tracker last month due to hearing the rumors. I found that I used 184 GBs by my self. We're really going to have to keep an eye on our usage.
 
Good thing we stuck with Time Warner. Torrents + BW caps = fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
 
**** this shit. im going to use as much bandwidth as possible
 
Good thing I don't have AT&T~

uEN73.jpg
 
Krynn72 said:
Except that a family could easily, EASILY fly past 250 gigs. Example: My family. I play PC and PS3 games online, I stream Netflix a lot while working (probably 6+ hours a day of streaming netflix) I stream pandora both on my pc, and on my phone over wifi, and I download games off of steam. I haven't been good at keeping track, but I imagine I easily hit 100GB+ each month, myself. My dad listens to pandora all the time, buys and downloads a lot of music, browses the internet, etc. My brothers play games online, download games on steam, stream pandora, etc. My sister streams netflix on the PS3 regularly.
Click to expand...

Well I don't know if the average family does all that, I know mine doesn't. I play the occasional game and will listen to Pandora once in a while. We don't have consoles nor Netflix so I know I'll never hit that. But your family might, so I can see why you might be mad.
 
Hokey said:
Good thing I don't have AT&T~
Click to expand...

Then, since you're in America and theres only two major ISPs, you probably have Comcast, who already has this 250 gig cap and has had it for awhile now.

I just watched one episode of X-Files (yeah thats right, X-Files) on netflix and I went from using 157 mb to 847mb for the day so far. I just set this monitor to start up with windows, so I can now get a real idea of how much I'm using. I bet you i've accidentally been making my parents pay extra each month, without even noticing.

Google can't get their service up fast enough IMO. The second its available here I'm convincing my parents to jump ship from Comcast's shitty service.
 
Well... I don't have AT&T and I don't know anyone who does... and I don't really know what their share of internet access is... but I finally took the steps to upgrade my router's firmware so I can see how much bandwidth I and my room mate are using each month. I hope this isn't the precedence other companies use to institute similar practices... I'd really like to be able to do as I please without constantly hoping I'm not going to bury myself in bills because I was watching the last episode of The Office or playing TF2.
 
Krynn72 said:
Then, since you're in America and theres only two major ISPs, you probably have Comcast, who already has this 250 gig cap and has had it for awhile now.

I just watched one episode of X-Files (yeah thats right, X-Files) on netflix and I went from using 157 mb to 847mb for the day so far. I just set this monitor to start up with windows, so I can now get a real idea of how much I'm using. I bet you i've accidentally been making my parents pay extra each month, without even noticing.

Google can't get their service up fast enough IMO. The second its available here I'm convincing my parents to jump ship from Comcast's shitty service.
Click to expand...

Time Warner would like a word with you. (dudes who acquired AOL, and service most of the midwest)

but yeah... they circle jerk and acquire different branches of each other in order to cover most of the U.S. with their duopoly
 
In April I downloaded 182gb and upped 9.92gb.

And that was just on my machine. Combined with the rest of the people on my network, I'm fairly certain it was way over 250.
 
That is ****ing ridiculous. I am going to be so miserable if bandwidth caps become a serious, widespread reality here in the US.

I've had months where just my PC alone consumed well over a terabyte of download bandwidth. My girlfriend and I stream from netflix all the time, often in HD. I am constantly installing and uninstalling stuff on Steam - shit, my gf installing The Sims 3 with all its retarded expansions and shit probably used 20gb. In the past month I've downloaded and installed via steam Portal 2, Shogun 2, The Sims 3 and one or two smaller games. Even if you discount potentially illegitimate uses of my bandwidth, like filesharing, I could EASILY use 250gb in a month with streaming video, downloading and uploading work units for folding, downloading and uploading files related to HL2: Wars development and my school UDK project, downloads and patches via steam, and general browsing, and I'm willing to bet that I would average near or above 250gb monthly even if I didn't know p2p existed.

If my provider tries capping I will raise hell about it to them and if they do not yield I will find another provider even if the speed is going to be worse.
 
Krynn72 said:
Then, since you're in America and theres only two major ISPs, you probably have Comcast, who already has this 250 gig cap and has had it for awhile now.

I just watched one episode of X-Files (yeah thats right, X-Files) on netflix and I went from using 157 mb to 847mb for the day so far. I just set this monitor to start up with windows, so I can now get a real idea of how much I'm using. I bet you i've accidentally been making my parents pay extra each month, without even noticing.

Google can't get their service up fast enough IMO. The second its available here I'm convincing my parents to jump ship from Comcast's shitty service.
Click to expand...

I get my internet from my electric company. http://www.clarksvillede.com/FTTH.html

No caps. Around $34 a month. Incredibly high speeds.
 
Krynn72 said:
Then, since you're in America and theres only two major ISPs, you probably have Comcast, who already has this 250 gig cap and has had it for awhile now.

I just watched one episode of X-Files (yeah thats right, X-Files) on netflix and I went from using 157 mb to 847mb for the day so far. I just set this monitor to start up with windows, so I can now get a real idea of how much I'm using. I bet you i've accidentally been making my parents pay extra each month, without even noticing.

Google can't get their service up fast enough IMO. The second its available here I'm convincing my parents to jump ship from Comcast's shitty service.
Click to expand...
Only two ISPs in America? Everyone seems pissed up with those two, so why aren't the small competitors doing better?
 
I already have a 250GB cap with Comcast, but I've never even worried about it yet and I haven't had any problems.
So far.
 
The Monkey said:
Only two ISPs in America? Everyone seems pissed up with those two, so why aren't the small competitors doing better?
Click to expand...

Not sure where he's getting two from. I have Verizon, which has no caps and plenty decent service.
 
He's not getting two from anywhere.

http://www.statowl.com/network_isp_market_share.php

Comcast has 19% of the market. AT&T has less (I think SBC Internet Services is owned by AT&T, so 12% or so it appears). I've mostly used Roadrunner (TWC) but I've used a local ISP too (which sucked). Never had bandwidth capped.
 
If Google doesn't expand from Kansas City, KS into Kansas City, MO after they're up and running, I will be furious. Kansas City, KS is a god damn ghetto shithole.
 
Comcast 250 GB limit is... tolerable for me. But AT&T's 150 GB cap for regular users is a little suspect. Is their current infrastructure really inferior to that of Comcast 3 years ago, when they first set their 250 GB limit? Riiiight.
 
As far as setting a precedent, this kind of sucks, but... you guys have no idea. No. ****ing. Idea.
 
Ennui said:
He's not getting two from anywhere.

http://www.statowl.com/network_isp_market_share.php

Comcast has 19% of the market. AT&T has less (I think SBC Internet Services is owned by AT&T, so 12% or so it appears). I've mostly used Roadrunner (TWC) but I've used a local ISP too (which sucked). Never had bandwidth capped.
Click to expand...

Some of those ISPs in there are owned by Comcast and AT&T. Bellsouth for one, I know for a fact is just AT&T. If you go to www.bellsouth.com you'll see. Also, I'm surprised you don't have a cap, since Roadrunner is owned by Time Warner, who started capping bandwidth in 2009. Maybe your account was started before they implemented it?

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Time-Warner-to-Offer-150-Unlimited-Bandwidth-668524/
 
Bad^Hat said:
As far as setting a precedent, this kind of sucks, but... you guys have no idea. No. ****ing. Idea.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have friends in New Zealand who put up with an upper limit of 20 GB. I can't even fathom.
 
I have Comcast business internet, $69.99 a month, 5 live IP addresses, 1.5MB/s and 250KB/s sustained down and up and no caps. Of course, if everyone decided to go to business internet service I'd bet you anything that they'd implement data caps right quick.
 
Destructo-Bot said:
I have Comcast business internet, $69.99 a month, 5 live IP addresses, 1.5MB/s and 250KB/s sustained down and up and no caps. Of course, if everyone decided to go to business internet service I'd bet you anything that they'd implement data caps right quick.
Click to expand...

Really? My family has a residential plan for like $45 a month that gets the same exact speeds, only with a 250 gig cap. Actually, I'm not sure about the upload speed, its decent but maybe not quite 250KB/s, I've never actually tested it.
 
I really have no idea how much I download/upload each month counting everything, is there any easy to use software that let's you track total network usage that someone can recommend?

Seeing as I don't watch a lot of TV series or movies, I reckon my bandwidth usage is quite low compared to many here.
 
I have a Linksys WRT160N, I guess it should have that then? Built-in traffic monitoring I mean.
 
I turned mine on yesterday and my room mate wasn't there the whole day and I got about a gig. Of course that wasn't for the whole day and I didn't have any major downloads or netflix going either. However the bit of online gaming I did didn't seem to push it up as much as I thought it would. My room mate streams a lot of video and does some online console gaming, but I'm sure that I eat up far more bandwidth. I think if it came down to it I could stay under 250gig solo, but it would be one more annoying thing to pay attention to.
 
You might have the monitoring built in, just log into your router and check, I think they call it "traffic meter" and it's disabled by default.

The other thing to point out here, is that these companies are attempting to kill internet-tv/broadcasting because it's cutting into their profits. A lot of these caps ignore data transfered by the ISP's own downloadable programming. So if you rent movies through THEIR system it's unlimited traffic, but if you rent it through netflix then it's metered traffic. This is clearly a conflict of interest since it doesn't matter where the data is being sent from it still takes up the same amount of bandwidth. Netflix has tried to counter this in canada by offering streaming at lower resolutions, but I hate that they're allowed to do this.
 
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