Shed a Tear: The Age of Broadband Caps Begins Monday

Shed a Tear: The Age of Broadband Caps Begins Monday

www.wired.com

Come Monday, AT&T will begin restricting more than 16 million broadband users based on the amount of data they use in a month. The No. 2 carrier’s entry into the broadband-cap club means that a majority of U.S. broadband users will now be subject to limits on how much they can do online or risk extra charges as ugly as video store late fees.

AT&T’s new limits — 150 GB for DSL subscribers and 250 GB for UVerse users (a mix of fiber and DSL) — come as users are increasingly turning to online video such as Hulu and Netflix on-demand streaming service instead of paying for cable.

Wit

(visit the link for the full news article)



Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
AT&T sets monthly limits on broadband use

There have been several threads about how AT&T and other groups would start reverting to a revision of the beginning internet policy - charging by the bit. Well, its been announced. Monday, the cap begins.

They state they are doing this to avoid network congestion, and that only 1% of their users are "ruining it for everyone." So 1% of 16,000,000 is 160,000. Multiply that by $10.00 and they are earning 1.6 million dollars (a month) by installing this cap.

Is this pure profit? Or are they going to use this to build newer and faster infrastructure. And if they build that infrastructure, will they remove the cap? Doubt it, it's a money maker.

I suggest everyone call your ISP and tell your friends and family to call as well, and let them know if they start capping usage or raising rates you will no longer be a customer.

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

AT&T is a crap service. I can't wait to get my phone moved to Verizon. I'm glad I have a different ISP.

Originally posted by BioStatistic
AT&T is a crap service. I can't wait to get my phone moved to Verizon. I'm glad I have a different ISP.

Seems like a stupid move to me...clearly, as shown by the above post, people will simply move to ISP's who have better internet plans.

reply to post by CanYouHandleTheTruth

Seems like a stupid move to me...clearly, as shown by the above post, people will simply move to ISP's who have better internet plans.

Until they all start doing it. Remember that most of those small ISPs use use a major carrier like AT&T, and if they start getting capped, they'll just pass the costs down to their customers. And the major carriers will do what they always do, price fixing, so you won't really have any alternatives.

Isn't this a good thing though? It's like your mum limiting your TV exposure when a kid.

Maybe time to get outside and enjoy life, rather then using the net?

"Shed a tear"?

While I might consider such a cap annoying, I wouldn't cry over it. If you aren't happy with one service, go to the competition.

Ugh! This is just as stupid as paying for minutes on a cell phone.

It's all about the profits of course. Netflix is cheaper, commercial free, and on demand. The cable company's gotta get their cut!

Originally posted by SerenityGained
Isn't this a good thing though? It's like your mum limiting your TV exposure when a kid.

Maybe time to get outside and enjoy life, rather then using the net?

Ummm nah.

You don't 'lose' internet - you just either get charged more, or lose speed.

When I'm capped to 256 - Oh and btw, shed a tear? How about WELCOME TO AUSTRALIAN NET HELL, we've been here for years now... gah!! - when I'm capped to 256kbps I can still browse the web fine, Hell I can still download apps that I need if theyre not gigs... 25kb/s is not too shabby, and above that I have 200gb quota a month and never run out even when I'm downloading tv shows^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H linux distros, despite 100gb being on peak (midday till 2am PEAK, 2am till midday Off PEAK)...

Sure, if you're paying $19 a month, then you're getting a plain old bottom pounding, but then you're also not going to be doing anything to break your cap.

We used to have FREE upload bandwidth too... but more and more that's being counted towards the entire CAP.

Which infuriates me... I download from server X. I pay to download. I Upload to server x. I pay to Upload. Server x is also paying for downloads/uploads... It's a bloody double whammy...

It's like paying to get on a bus, to go somewhere, but also paying an additional fare because not only are you going to your destination, you're leaving one.

I won't shed a tear... no one who had uncapped bandwidth shed a tear for us, instead they jeered and said how retarded it was, etc etc...

wtf, you're complaining. greedy cable and telephone company's in canada invented broadband caps. on top of that if they had 150G packages, they would charge $320 a month going by current rates.

its capped right now at 20G a month for basic internet service, which they bill you $49.

i think the 50G cap package it about $89 a month. and if you read their sales pitch, they make it sound like its the greatest deal on earth for serious internet, media users and professionals.

be thankful everything is still reasonable in america.

Time to get yourself educated and begin sat hijacking... Do not wait to be fed into the grid, let the grid wait to be fed by you.

Originally posted by randomname
wtf, you're complaining. greedy cable and telephone company's in canada invented broadband caps. on top of that if they had 150G packages, they would charge $320 a month going by current rates.

its capped right now at 20G a month for basic internet service, which they bill you $49.

i think the 50G cap package it about $89 a month. and if you read their sales pitch, they make it sound like its the greatest deal on earth for serious internet, media users and professionals.

be thankful everything is still reasonable in america.

Crikey, where the heck is that? I pay $79.95 a month for 200gb (100on 100 off) cap.

20gb for $49 ? Is this like 3G or mobile ? balmy!!

Where is it?

I don't know what ISP's are in Revolutionary...

reply to post by badw0lf


I think you misunderstand. You are talking about speed. The thread OP is talking about TOTAL downloaded. You go to a page that is loaded with a lot of pictures and a single web page can be 2 or 3 MB easy just for one page. This also includes emails and any attachments that come with them.

Originally posted by fixer1967
reply to post by badw0lf

 

I think you misunderstand. You are talking about speed. The thread OP is talking about TOTAL downloaded. You go to a page that is loaded with a lot of pictures and a single web page can be 2 or 3 MB easy just for one page. This also includes emails and any attachments that come with them.

Lol no I never mentioned speed as the cap.

I refer to TOTAL downloadable quota.

200gb per month. Not shaped until I go over that - shaped meaning I lose speed. Or on another ISP I would be charged for every gb over that limit.

2 or 3 mb? at 25kb/s capped is quick enough, hell we used to be capped to 64kbps which is absolutely useless when you are capped. Capped meaning, again, that you have gone past your allocated DOWNLOAD quota for that month.

Going up again.. I have Disney Uh I mean ABC uh I mean AOL uh I mean Time Warner uh I mean Road Runner and the last couple of months my rates have gone UP three times without ANY notice. I will find out what is going on and if there is a cap that I'm going over by asking questions that arn't answered by any all the way to coporate (disney)
Don't like being ignored when I can't purchse fuel for my vehicle

Here in Portugal they started with limited downloads, but some years ago they started to move all except the cheaper contracts to unlimited downloads/uploads.

My ISP now has a contract with a 10GB limit and each GB over that limit costs 1.53 Euros.

reply to post by fixer1967

So, wait...does this mean spammers can use my limit by emailing me crap with attachments and I have no control?


As for the NetFlix comment, you need your provider to download the stuff, no? And that uses up your limit pretty fast. They're in cahoots.

Companies with people working at home who stopped paying for DSL better start paying again too. This is gonna ripple.

Any ideas which companies are not going to be imposing limits? (I've just called AT&T and informed them that if they do this, I'm out but now I have to figure out where to go )

This is like deja vu...regressing to how it used to be. Geez.

And it should noted that U.S. limits are far from the world’s worst: Canada’s recently imposed restrictions prompted Netflix to give customers there a choice of lower-quality streams to keep their usage down, because users are charged up to $5 per GB that they exceed their cap.

Wow...$5 per GB?! Insanity.

Originally posted by ArMaP
Here in Portugal they started with limited downloads, but some years ago they started to move all except the cheaper contracts to unlimited downloads/uploads.

My ISP now has a contract with a 10GB limit and each GB over that limit costs 1.53 Euros.

Kinda makes you hate people in the Netherlands who have FTTH with 100mbps speeds and unlimited quota, no?

So unfair, given it's just electricity really.... it's a non-tactile commodity.

No one loses anything when they send you a file, yet both are charged to do so.

MAKE ME ANGRYYY!!!!!

Read the history of ATT. It started out as a monopoly. Over the years there have been literally many thousands of other telephone companies. They have all gone under or been acquired by Bell or ATT. Bell was then returned to ATT. ATT is almost back to original monopoly status. Most people in the United States only have one choice if they want a POTS landline. ATT. In my area when people switch to Verizon for fios the Verizon techs will pull the copper connecting their homes. If you want to switch back to ATT you have to pay them to run new copper. Eventually it will all either be fios or wireless and ATT will be the only one standing.


www.corp.att.com...

Originally posted by NE1911
Read the history of ATT. It started out as a monopoly. Over the years there have been literally many thousands of other telephone companies. They have all gone under or been acquired by Bell or ATT. Bell was then returned to ATT. ATT is almost back to original monopoly status. Most people in the United States only have one choice if they want a POTS landline. ATT. In my area when people switch to Verizon for fios the Verizon techs will pull the copper connecting their homes. If you want to switch back to ATT you have to pay them to run new copper. Eventually it will all either be fios or wireless and ATT will be the only one standing.


www.corp.att.com...

Umm Bell and ATT ..umm no such agency ...no ?

Edit : Have a wonderful day :-)