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CLW
05-04-2011, 03:33 PM
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 (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=t) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=t)) remains the outlier among the three major wireless companies, though Sprint (NYSE: S (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=s) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=s)) and Verizon (NYSE: VZ (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=vz) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=vz)) Wireless are expected to follow suit with caps soon.


But AT&T isn't alone in instituting restrictions on residential broadband usage.
Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=cmcsa) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=cmcsa)) -- by far the largest broadband provider in the U.S. -- also has a 250 GB cap, and Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=twc) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=twc)) 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 (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=csco) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=csco)).

The caps are fairly forgiving. DSL customers would need to watch 65 hours of high-definition videos on Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=nflx) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=nflx)) 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 (http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=goog) - News (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/h?s=goog)), for instance, is deploying a 1-gigabit-per-second network in Kansas City, Kan.

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


Is there anyway to find out how much you currently use if your current provider (in my case Cox) doesn't have a cap. With an upcoming move I am wondering if my frequent Youtube; PSN and potentially Netflix watching is going to cause me to have to pay more?

gschwendt
05-04-2011, 04:12 PM
http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112671/att-capping-broadband-cnnmoney


Is there anyway to find out how much you currently use if your current provider (in my case Cox) doesn't have a cap. With an upcoming move I am wondering if my frequent Youtube; PSN and potentially Netflix watching is going to cause me to have to pay more?
That's my thought... if they don't provide a way to track my usage, that's quite shitty. I'll have to see how worthwhile their tracker is. I use AT&T DSL and this is the first I've heard of any such measure. Considering I work from home via VPN, I pretty much have to be on the internet all day.

psusnoop
05-04-2011, 05:06 PM
I agree, my wife works from home at times (though not everyday) and we run an online business at home as well. I should be able to see my usage somewhere. If not then that is not cool.

Kingpin32
05-04-2011, 05:11 PM
This sucks donkey balls. Though I'm not actually sure how much Internet I use, I'm sure with all my downloading I use quite a bit.

CLW
05-04-2011, 05:53 PM
I don't think there is much as we the consumer can do about it. These cable companies see the writing on the wall and know that Cable is going to die and eventually all media is going to be on the net so they are switching to where their #1 cash cow will be the net.

The ? I have is how much data do I currently use. Right now my Cox bill doesn't say anything about it b/c its unlimited but in the future it is going to SUCK if I have to change my habits (I leave my CPU's connected to the net 24/7; I play a ton of video games; watch youtube videos; etc...).

Kingpin32
05-04-2011, 06:04 PM
I don't think there is much as we the consumer can do about it. These cable companies see the writing on the wall and know that Cable is going to die and eventually all media is going to be on the net so they are switching to where their #1 cash cow will be the net.

The ? I have is how much data do I currently use. Right now my Cox bill doesn't say anything about it b/c its unlimited but in the future it is going to SUCK if I have to change my habits (I leave my CPU's connected to the net 24/7; I play a ton of video games; watch youtube videos; etc...).

Exactly the boat I'm in. When I move back home, I'm sure I'll be using a lot more of our internet than we use now. I just don't want to this big increase in our internet and phone bill.

morsdraconis
05-04-2011, 08:08 PM
Motherfucker. Looks like the change to Charter for us is gonna happen whether we like it or not. Damn you Verizon/Frontier!

steelerfan
05-04-2011, 08:49 PM
This is the gayest thing I have ever read. :smh:

souljahbill
05-04-2011, 08:55 PM
This is the gayest thing I have ever read. :smh:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS0GVOQPs0

JeffHCross
05-04-2011, 10:22 PM
This is the gayest thing I have ever read. :smh:No ... this is worse.

HughesNet (aka DirecTV's Internet) Fair Access Policy

Plan|Download/Upload Speed*|Monthly Fee|"Fair Access Policy" Limit (per day from 7 am - 2 am)
Home|1.0 Mbps/128 Kbps|$59.99|200 MB
Pro|1.2 Mbps/200 Kbps|$69.99|300 MB
ProPlus|1.6 Mbps/250 Kbps|$79.99|425 MB
Elite|2.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$119.99|500 MB
ElitePlus|3.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$189.99|500 MB
ElitePremium|5.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$349.99|500 MB

steelerfan
05-04-2011, 11:17 PM
No ... this is worse.

HughesNet (aka DirecTV's Internet) Fair Access Policy

Plan|Download/Upload Speed*|Monthly Fee|"Fair Access Policy" Limit
Home|1.0 Mbps/128 Kbps|$59.99|200 MB
Pro|1.2 Mbps/200 Kbps|$69.99|300 MB
ProPlus|1.6 Mbps/250 Kbps|$79.99|425 MB
Elite|2.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$119.99|500 MB
ElitePlus|3.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$189.99|500 MB
ElitePremium|5.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$349.99|500 MB

Wow. That is shameful.

JeffHCross
05-04-2011, 11:30 PM
Wow. That is shameful.I just realized I didn't clarify it in the last post, but that was a per day usage, from 7 am to 2 am the next day. At the time, usage between 2 am and 7 am was unlimited. Now they've gone to some kind of rolling limit that is even worse, and not much higher.

At the time, their argument was essentially that most people didn't use 200 MB in a day, and that if they upped the limit then it would enable people to download "whole programs", like Microsoft Office. Basically, their defense was that setting such ridiculous limits prevented torrenting. And they were still using that argument in 2005.

steelerfan
05-04-2011, 11:36 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWS0GVOQPs0

http://www.martingordon.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/the_more_you_know.jpg

jaymo76
05-04-2011, 11:38 PM
One of the big cable/internet companies where I live (Canada) tried to do this BUT the Federal govt stepped in and said "not gonna happen." I'm sure they will try again though...

JBHuskers
05-04-2011, 11:42 PM
No ... this is worse.

HughesNet (aka DirecTV's Internet) Fair Access Policy

Plan|Download/Upload Speed*|Monthly Fee|"Fair Access Policy" Limit (per day from 7 am - 2 am)
Home|1.0 Mbps/128 Kbps|$59.99|200 MB
Pro|1.2 Mbps/200 Kbps|$69.99|300 MB
ProPlus|1.6 Mbps/250 Kbps|$79.99|425 MB
Elite|2.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$119.99|500 MB
ElitePlus|3.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$189.99|500 MB
ElitePremium|5.0 Mbps/300 Kbps|$349.99|500 MB

Is this a pricing chart for Prodigy internet in 1995?

morsdraconis
05-05-2011, 12:06 AM
Hugesnet has ALWAYS been a huge ripoff. How they're still in business is beyond me.

CLW
05-05-2011, 05:45 AM
Maybe my $60 monthly price with Cox for unlimited and 24Mbps/4Mbps isn't so.... bad after all.

morsdraconis
05-05-2011, 12:16 PM
Maybe my $60 monthly price with Cox for unlimited and 24Mbps/4Mbps isn't so.... bad after all.

Absolutely not.

Here, you could pay that much for 3354 Kbits/839 Kbits (like my parents are because that's their only choice for high speed internet).

Hell, you beat the pants off the best available in most of WV (Suddenlink's 12.5mb/5mb or something like that).

CLW
05-05-2011, 04:31 PM
Absolutely not.

Here, you could pay that much for 3354 Kbits/839 Kbits (like my parents are because that's their only choice for high speed internet).

Hell, you beat the pants off the best available in most of WV (Suddenlink's 12.5mb/5mb or something like that).

Yeah my family back in rural WKY is in the same boat as you guys are in WVA. My package USED to be the best but Cox just recently added an "Ultimate" package its like $75 a month I think for 30Mbps/5MBps.

JBHuskers
05-05-2011, 04:48 PM
an "Ultimate Package" from "Cox" :fp:

CLW
05-05-2011, 05:27 PM
an "Ultimate Package" from "Cox" :fp:

Yeah my cox/package is only Premier :nod:

steelerfan
05-06-2011, 12:27 PM
an "Ultimate Package" from "Cox" :fp:

You think about penises a lot, JB. :smh:

SmoothPancakes
05-06-2011, 12:30 PM
You think about penises a lot, JB. :smh:

Well, you know, he never did say what "kind" of strip club he works at. ;)

steelerfan
05-06-2011, 12:33 PM
Well, you know, he never did say what "kind" of strip club he works at. ;)

:D :D :D

souljahbill
05-06-2011, 12:36 PM
Well, you know, he never did say what "kind" of strip club he works at. ;)


:D :D :D


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai9IEkYrZQk

JBHuskers
05-06-2011, 02:19 PM
:fp:

JeffHCross
05-08-2011, 03:12 PM
Is this a pricing chart for Prodigy internet in 1995?Sadly, no. That was HughesNet's chart as of a few years ago. I recently checked it again, and it's not very different from what it was then.

morsdraconis
05-08-2011, 04:03 PM
Nevermind the fact that they forget to tell you that their upload "speed" is via a normal 56k dialup modem and there's no way in hell you'll get 300k out of a phone line.

As I said before, HughesNet is a giant waste of money compared to pretty much anything else, but they're just as bad as some of these other ones (like BlueSky and co). Sadly, there are still places in the US (and most definitely in WV) where it's that or normal dialup because of how rural the area is.