AT&T To Impose Caps, Overages

[jmsherman8]

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oufanindallas wrote:

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ryanmercer wrote:

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flhthemi wrote:

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jamiedolan wrote:

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Infernal wrote:

the purpose of a backup is to not lose your data if disaster hit.  From the amount of data you have, if disaster hit you, be prepare to have AT&T kick you while you're down with getting the backup data back.

I would be okay with a 500GB cap AND a promise that the cap will goes the way of inflation (3% increase annual AT LEAST)....

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Yes, even if I had a single hard drive fail and I had to restore it, I'm talking about a 500-800GB transfer.  So at current a restore of one hard drive could run be $100 in AT&T overage fees.

Jamie

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Safe to me..buy another hard drive and a USB or Firewire kit and much faster too! To keep on topic, why pay AT&T, or anyone else, for the space to backup your files when you can buy an extra 1TB drive for less than a 100 bucks! I just make an image of my drive once a week.

As for Pay Per View: Hah! Not until AT&T's price is COMPETITIVE! They need a 8.99 add on package. This is called "competing with your competitors" a lesson ya'll need to learn to stay in business.

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Fire, flood, robbery, tornado, hurricane, earthquake, take your pick... You should ALWAYS have a backup off-site, preferrably considerably far from your house. The internet allows us to keep backups out of our region int he event a natural disaster stores our original. Bandwidth caps undo this.

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That's not necessarily true,  You only need to back up DATA, not programs.  Data only needs to have a full backup done once if you are using an online backup service. After that, you only need to back up changed or new data. 

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True but when you are dealing with digital images or video that can become quite a large chunk of data.

[jmsherman8]

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{Content removed as post was deleted}

   Actually the really heavy internet usage doesn't come from business services. Those are moderate at best. The really heavy heavy usage comes from backing up video / photos offline, Streaming Video (Netflix, Hulu, etc), and streaming music online (Pandora, lastfm, etc.).

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

Here is an excerpt from an article on Multichannel News about Cable One:

Cable One, the tenth-biggest cable operator in the U.S., has introduced a 50 Megabit per second tier with usage limits as low as 50 Gigabytes per month -- and will charge customers 50 cents for each GB beyond the caps.

Subscribers who take the MSO's standalone broadband or broadband plus one other service are limited to 50 GB per month, while triple-play subs are allowed up to 100 GB, according to a rate card posted on its site. The document indicates the rates were effective as of March 15, 2011.

On May 2, AT&T became the biggest U.S. wireline broadband provider to establish overage charges for customers whose usage exceeds pre-set limits. The telco's traditional DSL users are capped at 150 GB, while U-verse Internet users have a 250 GB limit; additional usage is $10 per 50 GB (or 20 cents per GB).

Roughly speaking, one hour of streaming video consumes between 1 and 1.5 GB.

In a research note Monday, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett pointed out that Cable One still offers an unlimited tier, "as we expect will be the case initially for virtually every MSO that follows this path." Cable One's unlimited plan offers 5 Mbps for $50 per month.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/468323-Cable_One_Rolls_50_Mbps_Tier_With_Caps_And_Surcharges.php

[jmackd1]

Was very happy and content Uverse customer until I found out about the data cap they are imposing on it's customers. Tried to find out how much data I have been using in the past, I could never find out. Was on hold for 30 minutes while someone was trying to find out, all of the sudden the phone went dead. Went to disconnect and the person on the phone tried to keep me as a customer even saying it is the government that is telling AT&T to impose the data caps. Just so rediculous I just had to laugh at this person on the phone. I am getting Time Warner road runner tomorrow  with no data caps...Good bye AT&T...

. 

[jmsherman8]

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texasguy37 wrote:

Here is an excerpt from an article on Multichannel News about Cable One:

Cable One, the tenth-biggest cable operator in the U.S., has introduced a 50 Megabit per second tier with usage limits as low as 50 Gigabytes per month -- and will charge customers 50 cents for each GB beyond the caps.

Subscribers who take the MSO's standalone broadband or broadband plus one other service are limited to 50 GB per month, while triple-play subs are allowed up to 100 GB, according to a rate card posted on its site. The document indicates the rates were effective as of March 15, 2011.

On May 2, AT&T became the biggest U.S. wireline broadband provider to establish overage charges for customers whose usage exceeds pre-set limits. The telco's traditional DSL users are capped at 150 GB, while U-verse Internet users have a 250 GB limit; additional usage is $10 per 50 GB (or 20 cents per GB).

Roughly speaking, one hour of streaming video consumes between 1 and 1.5 GB.

In a research note Monday, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett pointed out that Cable One still offers an unlimited tier, "as we expect will be the case initially for virtually every MSO that follows this path." Cable One's unlimited plan offers 5 Mbps for $50 per month.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/468323-Cable_One_Rolls_50_Mbps_Tier_With_Caps_And_Surcharges.php

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wow I am glad I don't have there service. LOL. The 250GB cap is definately bad enough. 

[Glynne]

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texasguy37 wrote:

Here is an excerpt from an article on Multichannel News about Cable One:

Cable One, the tenth-biggest cable operator in the U.S., has introduced a 50 Megabit per second tier with usage limits as low as 50 Gigabytes per month -- and will charge customers 50 cents for each GB beyond the caps.

Subscribers who take the MSO's standalone broadband or broadband plus one other service are limited to 50 GB per month, while triple-play subs are allowed up to 100 GB, according to a rate card posted on its site. The document indicates the rates were effective as of March 15, 2011.

On May 2, AT&T became the biggest U.S. wireline broadband provider to establish overage charges for customers whose usage exceeds pre-set limits. The telco's traditional DSL users are capped at 150 GB, while U-verse Internet users have a 250 GB limit; additional usage is $10 per 50 GB (or 20 cents per GB).

Roughly speaking, one hour of streaming video consumes between 1 and 1.5 GB.

In a research note Monday, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett pointed out that Cable One still offers an unlimited tier, "as we expect will be the case initially for virtually every MSO that follows this path." Cable One's unlimited plan offers 5 Mbps for $50 per month.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/468323-Cable_One_Rolls_50_Mbps_Tier_With_Caps_And_Surcharges.php

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Huh.  Interesting.  From that rate plan it's even more obvious they are steering their customers away from online services and towards their, more expensive, services.  Though AT&T's service plans at 150GB and 250GB caps nearly do the same thing on a smaller scale.  And all this time I was lead to believe it was only effecting the rich or those running bisinesses from home, the 'heavy users'.  It couldn't possibly be just an anti-competitive move, could it?

Those that have been pushing the idea that it could not be anti-competitive are either naive, disillusioned or I guess just plain disceptive.  The free market would be great, if we had one.

Glynne

[jmsherman8]

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Glynne wrote:

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texasguy37 wrote:

Here is an excerpt from an article on Multichannel News about Cable One:

Cable One, the tenth-biggest cable operator in the U.S., has introduced a 50 Megabit per second tier with usage limits as low as 50 Gigabytes per month -- and will charge customers 50 cents for each GB beyond the caps.

Subscribers who take the MSO's standalone broadband or broadband plus one other service are limited to 50 GB per month, while triple-play subs are allowed up to 100 GB, according to a rate card posted on its site. The document indicates the rates were effective as of March 15, 2011.

On May 2, AT&T became the biggest U.S. wireline broadband provider to establish overage charges for customers whose usage exceeds pre-set limits. The telco's traditional DSL users are capped at 150 GB, while U-verse Internet users have a 250 GB limit; additional usage is $10 per 50 GB (or 20 cents per GB).

Roughly speaking, one hour of streaming video consumes between 1 and 1.5 GB.

In a research note Monday, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett pointed out that Cable One still offers an unlimited tier, "as we expect will be the case initially for virtually every MSO that follows this path." Cable One's unlimited plan offers 5 Mbps for $50 per month.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/468323-Cable_One_Rolls_50_Mbps_Tier_With_Caps_And_Surcharges.php

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Huh.  Interesting.  From that rate plan it's even more obvious they are steering their customers away from online services and towards their, more expensive, services.  Though AT&T's service plans at 150GB and 250GB caps nearly do the same thing on a smaller scale.  And all this time I was lead to believe it was only effecting the rich or those running bisinesses from home, the 'heavy users'.  It couldn't possibly be just an anti-competitive move, could it?

Those that have been pushing the idea that it could not be anti-competitive are either naive, disillusioned or I guess just plain disceptive.  The free market would be great, if we had one.

Glynne

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Of course it is an anti competitive move...LOL... Just like when Microsoft wouldn't let you delete IE from the desktop. 

[Infernal]

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jmsherman8 wrote:

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texasguy37 wrote:

Here is an excerpt from an article on Multichannel News about Cable One:

Cable One, the tenth-biggest cable operator in the U.S., has introduced a 50 Megabit per second tier with usage limits as low as 50 Gigabytes per month -- and will charge customers 50 cents for each GB beyond the caps.

Subscribers who take the MSO's standalone broadband or broadband plus one other service are limited to 50 GB per month, while triple-play subs are allowed up to 100 GB, according to a rate card posted on its site. The document indicates the rates were effective as of March 15, 2011.

On May 2, AT&T became the biggest U.S. wireline broadband provider to establish overage charges for customers whose usage exceeds pre-set limits. The telco's traditional DSL users are capped at 150 GB, while U-verse Internet users have a 250 GB limit; additional usage is $10 per 50 GB (or 20 cents per GB).

Roughly speaking, one hour of streaming video consumes between 1 and 1.5 GB.

In a research note Monday, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett pointed out that Cable One still offers an unlimited tier, "as we expect will be the case initially for virtually every MSO that follows this path." Cable One's unlimited plan offers 5 Mbps for $50 per month.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/468323-Cable_One_Rolls_50_Mbps_Tier_With_Caps_And_Surcharges.php

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wow I am glad I don't have there service. LOL. The 250GB cap is definately bad enough. 

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What exactly would be the point of having 50 Mbps with just 50GB cap?  I sure hope whoever live in those area has options.  However, reading this article does not soften the blow from AT&T one bit for me......  BOTH companies are wrong, greedy ....... in a limited to non-existence competitive environment.

[cliffnerd5]

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Infernal wrote:

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jmsherman8 wrote:

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texasguy37 wrote:

Here is an excerpt from an article on Multichannel News about Cable One:

Cable One, the tenth-biggest cable operator in the U.S., has introduced a 50 Megabit per second tier with usage limits as low as 50 Gigabytes per month -- and will charge customers 50 cents for each GB beyond the caps.

Subscribers who take the MSO's standalone broadband or broadband plus one other service are limited to 50 GB per month, while triple-play subs are allowed up to 100 GB, according to a rate card posted on its site. The document indicates the rates were effective as of March 15, 2011.

On May 2, AT&T became the biggest U.S. wireline broadband provider to establish overage charges for customers whose usage exceeds pre-set limits. The telco's traditional DSL users are capped at 150 GB, while U-verse Internet users have a 250 GB limit; additional usage is $10 per 50 GB (or 20 cents per GB).

Roughly speaking, one hour of streaming video consumes between 1 and 1.5 GB.

In a research note Monday, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett pointed out that Cable One still offers an unlimited tier, "as we expect will be the case initially for virtually every MSO that follows this path." Cable One's unlimited plan offers 5 Mbps for $50 per month.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/468323-Cable_One_Rolls_50_Mbps_Tier_With_Caps_And_Surcharges.php

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wow I am glad I don't have there service. LOL. The 250GB cap is definately bad enough. 

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What exactly would be the point of having 50 Mbps with just 50GB cap?  I sure hope whoever live in those area has options.  However, reading this article does not soften the blow from AT&T one bit for me......  BOTH companies are wrong, greedy ....... in a limited to non-existence competitive environment.

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WOW!!! that is what? like 2 or 3 hrs at full download speed? That is the most horendous thing I have read in these 215 pages.....

[jmsherman8]

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Infernal wrote:

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jmsherman8 wrote:

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texasguy37 wrote:

Here is an excerpt from an article on Multichannel News about Cable One:

Cable One, the tenth-biggest cable operator in the U.S., has introduced a 50 Megabit per second tier with usage limits as low as 50 Gigabytes per month -- and will charge customers 50 cents for each GB beyond the caps.

Subscribers who take the MSO's standalone broadband or broadband plus one other service are limited to 50 GB per month, while triple-play subs are allowed up to 100 GB, according to a rate card posted on its site. The document indicates the rates were effective as of March 15, 2011.

On May 2, AT&T became the biggest U.S. wireline broadband provider to establish overage charges for customers whose usage exceeds pre-set limits. The telco's traditional DSL users are capped at 150 GB, while U-verse Internet users have a 250 GB limit; additional usage is $10 per 50 GB (or 20 cents per GB).

Roughly speaking, one hour of streaming video consumes between 1 and 1.5 GB.

In a research note Monday, Sanford Bernstein senior analyst Craig Moffett pointed out that Cable One still offers an unlimited tier, "as we expect will be the case initially for virtually every MSO that follows this path." Cable One's unlimited plan offers 5 Mbps for $50 per month.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/468323-Cable_One_Rolls_50_Mbps_Tier_With_Caps_And_Surcharges.php

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wow I am glad I don't have there service. LOL. The 250GB cap is definately bad enough. 

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What exactly would be the point of having 50 Mbps with just 50GB cap?  I sure hope whoever live in those area has options.  However, reading this article does not soften the blow from AT&T one bit for me......  BOTH companies are wrong, greedy ....... in a limited to non-existence competitive environment.

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I agree!

[mogamer]

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rharkness wrote:

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SomeJoe7777 wrote:

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Bowserb wrote:

For you business users, the fix is easy--get a business account.  Since it is a business expense, it's deductible, so the extra cost shouldn't be too much of a burden, and better that you pay for your business volume than we personal users pay with a general price increase to subsidize your business.  If the AT&T execs want more money for executive bonuses, they will get it.  The only question is from whom?

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While that's nice in theory, you haven't done your research.  AT&T will not let you combine a business Internet package with residential TV service.  So for us with U-Verse TV, that option doesn't exist, even if we're willing to pay for it.

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I agee with you Joe and I'd like to add in response to Bowserb's comments that not everyone who works from home is running a business out of their house.  Telecommuting is a huge trend these days and while you are able to itemize some of these expenses as "unreimbursed business expenses", I've been told by several tax advisors that it's isn't advisable for me to do so.  Such expenses, along with deducting your actual office space, are big red flags for audits.  Not only that, the risk of audit doesn't make the insiginificant tax savings worth it.

So, unless U-Verse can find a way to allow us to add a business internet account and have a residential TV and Phone, then we are kind of in a bad position.  If we go 3rd party for internet, it'll still be an unweildy cost because you'll have business internet, residential internet/phone/tv because you need U-Verse internet in order to get the rest of the package.  If you stay with u-verse for everything, then you get overage charges and no available plan to avoid overages. 

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I've said this before and I'll say it again. Don't worry about tv by getting a business account. Direct TV and Dish Network are both very good and both have better HD picture quality than U-Verse. I myself have Dish network.

After looking at both U-Verse and Comcast business, I feel that Comcast business is the way to go. I'm lucky though. I didn't have to get a business account for unlimited bandwith. I have WOW in by area and their 8/1 no cap internet combined with their top phone package was $10 cheaper than U-Verse's 6/1 & unlimited phone (WOW waived their $4.99 monthly modem fee for 12 months). And WOW guarantees no price hikes until Jan 2013. So next year at this time my service will probably still be $10 per month cheaper than U-Verse's. WOW doesn't require a contract. So if they start imposing caps, I'll jump to Comcast business service.

[ryanmercer]

Oh look... day 17... STILL says it!

"The U-verse data measurement report is currently under construction. When completed, you will be notified if your usage exceeds the allowance. Until that time, U-verse customers should not be concerned about their usage patterns for billing purposes.

To learn more about how to manage your usage, please visit www.att.com/internet-usage"

[hpmsrm]

Perhaps this story in today's USA Today is relevant to the problem of a minority of users absorbing so much of the available bandwidth.  Just passing it on  F.Y.I.

[Infernal]

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hpmsrm wrote:

Perhaps this story in today's USA Today is relevant to the problem of a minority of users absorbing so much of the available bandwidth.  Just passing it on  F.Y.I.

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30% is a far cry from 2% of users going over the cap (in terms of millions of subscribers) and I wouldn't describe that number as "minority" who may be paying for overage in the near future.

"Minority of users absorbing so much of the available bandwidth" is not THE problem.  Protecting TV services is.

[siouxmoux]

exactly. Just another money grab

[shiarua]

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ryanmercer wrote:

Oh look... day 17... STILL says it!

"The U-verse data measurement report is currently under construction. When completed, you will be notified if your usage exceeds the allowance. Until that time, U-verse customers should not be concerned about their usage patterns for billing purposes.

To learn more about how to manage your usage, please visit www.att.com/internet-usage"

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I get a different error.

"We're sorry, but we're unable to display your Internet usage at this time.

Please try again later."

[oldie_1]

I get both of the messages. Sometimes I get one and sometimes I get the other.

[mogamer]

Like the article said. Netflix isn't causing overall internet usage to grow at a faster rate. It is changing the usage patterns. This is what the current pay tv providers are scared of and wil work hard to stop. Of course the working hard to stop part isn't offering better pricing. But by making the other option less affordable.

[bubbba]

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mogamer wrote:

Like the article said. Netflix isn't causing overall internet usage to grow at a faster rate. It is changing the usage patterns. This is what the current pay tv providers are scared of and will work hard to stop. Of course the working hard to stop part isn't offering better pricing. But by making the other option less affordable.

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Exactly... Instead of competing, they simply remove the customers choice and call it competition. This FORCES the consumer to choose, not based on real choice because of a better option, but because accessing the alternative could become too costly. This is not competition and consumers need to realize that; no matter who their ISP is.

[jmsherman8]

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hpmsrm wrote:

Perhaps this story in today's USA Today is relevant to the problem of a minority of users absorbing so much of the available bandwidth.  Just passing it on  F.Y.I.

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I think that article right there shows the WHY as to why comcast and ATT have developed these caps. The rest is all just spin to try to protect themselves.

[jmsherman8]

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Infernal wrote:

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hpmsrm wrote:

Perhaps this story in today's USA Today is relevant to the problem of a minority of users absorbing so much of the available bandwidth.  Just passing it on  F.Y.I.

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30% is a far cry from 2% of users going over the cap (in terms of millions of subscribers) and I wouldn't describe that number as "minority" who may be paying for overage in the near future.

"Minority of users absorbing so much of the available bandwidth" is not THE problem.  Protecting TV services is.

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So very very true!

[jmsherman8]

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siouxmoux wrote:

exactly. Just another money grab

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yep it is ATT's way of saying we shouldn't have to really compete for the business so lets do this instead...I wish netflix would become a nationwide ISP...that would really crush these guys.

[jmsherman8]

yeah because delivering more and better content for less would be far to innovative for them.

[jmsherman8]

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bubbba wrote:

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mogamer wrote:

Like the article said. Netflix isn't causing overall internet usage to grow at a faster rate. It is changing the usage patterns. This is what the current pay tv providers are scared of and will work hard to stop. Of course the working hard to stop part isn't offering better pricing. But by making the other option less affordable.

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Exactly... Instead of competing, they simply remove the customers choice and call it competition. This FORCES the consumer to choose, not based on real choice because of a better option, but because accessing the alternative could become too costly. This is not competition and consumers need to realize that; no matter who their ISP is.

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bubbba,

   I agree!

[oldie_1]

The usage caps will not only impact online services  but also sales of online players such as Roku and the new internet devices such as DVD players, Televisions, Wii and xbox.

[jmsherman8]

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oldie_1 wrote:

The usage caps will not only impact online services  but also sales of online players such as Roku and the new internet devices such as DVD players, Televisions, Wii and xbox.

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Yep, I am surprised that we aren't hearing more from the entire tech sector fighting these caps as it has the potential to create such  a huge negative impact on just about every aspect of there business.

[jmsherman8]

Ok now just to put this into prospective our 12 year old watched 12 episodes of dog the bounty hunter at 22 minutes each yesterday and another 12 today. Last night my girlfriend and I watched 1 43 minute episode on netflix and 3 more tonight. All streaming off of netflix. Now that is just one child being home and my gf being sick when she got home from work so she went to bed very early.... think about how much we will use this summer when all five kids are here? Just some food for thought.

[bubbba]

jmsherman8 wrote:

Ok now just to put this into prospective our 12 year old watched 12 episodes of dog the bounty hunter at 22 minutes each yesterday and another 12 today. Last night my girlfriend and I watched 1 43 minute episode on netflix and 3 more tonight. All streaming off of netflix. Now that is just one child being home and my gf being sick when she got home from work so she went to bed very early.... think about how much we will use this summer when all five kids are here? Just some food for thought.

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Well, for myself anyway, I have thought about this. For families, this will become a REAL issue. And, kids being off of school for the summer will only make matters worse. Even if the kids spend time outdoors, more time will still be spent using the internet. I can't see how a household with kids can control their cap? Remember, these kids have grown up with technologies that were build around this medium, and parents should not be expected to control it's use or pay more money.

If the ISP's are having trouble selling their TV over other forms of entertainment, then maybe they should consider why? They should make changes to their TV offerings instead of putting a noose around every ones neck that chooses a better option for themselves and their families.

This would not be a problem if the same companies that supplied internet access were not also selling competing products. They should be separate offerings, that compete in a completely separate arena. This current combination has clearly become anti-competitive, to say the least. In my opinion.

[flhthemi]

THIS just in from The Today show!!

IT IS RELEVANT!

{Keep it Relevant: The forum is not a venue for legal discussions}

Now tell me we're supposed to trust and believe the non-existant U-Verse usage meter will be accurate??? NOT!!!

[jt4703]

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flhthemi wrote:

THIS just in from The Today show!!

IT IS RELEVANT!

{Keep it Relevant: The forum is not a venue for legal discussions}

Now tell me we're supposed to trust and believe the non-existant U-Verse usage meter will be accurate??? NOT!!!

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I KNOW the meter is inaccurate for DSL customers so if Uverse gets the same meter eventually, good luck! It's delayed 3-5 days and often shows my use 25-75% more than Bitmeter and Netmeter show used. The two programs measure bandwidth usage within .01mb of each other, and I've disabled wireless on the modem to prevent any accidental usage by that so I am confident it is AT&T meter that is inaccurate, not my machine doing some unmeasured activity.