AT&T Rolls Out DSL, U-Verse Bandwidth Caps

[dekyos]

[citation][nom]JohnnyLucky[/nom]Lots and lots of negative comments. Definitely not a popular move by AT&T. Is there something inherently wrong with a pay for what you use plan?[/citation]
Yes, when they talk about having the "fastest internet in town" and buzz you with things like "now offering 100Mbit connections in some areas, that's more than double the competition", but to utilize that connection speed for more than 24 minutes a day at capacity would put you over their limitations, well that's just fraudulent advertising.

Don't even get me started on the fact that the only ISPs that are making these kind of moves are also television providers, and they are more or less trying to get people to stop dropping their useless 300 channel packages for something that provides them with EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT, like Netflix. Netflix and Hulu are the two biggest reasons bandwidth consumption is going up, and the TV providers are scrambling to snuff out the competition through what should be unlawful anti-trust tactics.

 

[dekyos]

[citation][nom]thekurrgan[/nom]5GB per day for DSL customers and 8.3 for uverse...that comes to 60.8 K/sec continuous usage for dsl, and 101.1K/sec continuous usage for u-verse.Realistically, this screws only the torrent seeders / 0 day dump sites, which I am sure is what the REAL AIM is.However, for most people this cap is not an issue. However, this does mean that you can only watch 4hours of HD streaming video a day (@ netflix data rates) and not hit the cap for DSL and 7 without hitting U-Verse.I dont find this particularly problematic, but I do agree with the fact that it is B&LLSH&T! I was already getting accustomed to the idea however, since I for one despise AT&T and all they represent, both on the wireline side of things and wireless.. I find the company to be a profane example of what unchecked monopolies do, and a complete example of a company not caring because they dont have too. I use AT&T only when absolutely required..It is for that reason that when comcast finally upgrades my area and starts selling their stuff here at the end of the year, what little I have of AT&T will be history.[/citation]

Torrent seeding and 0 day dump sites are by in large not in the U.S. and not on AT&T. They are not targeting those kinds of people, the MPAA and RIAA do a good enough job of that already, they are trying to prevent Netflix from replacing their super 300 channel $200/mo packages with their efficient $15/mo service. All of these ideas and plans started accelerating after Netflix showed their ingenuity by purchasing exclusive broadcast rights to the upcoming Kevin Spacey show.

 

[actionjksn]

[citation][nom]razor512[/nom] In the words of Bill Gates a while back, No one will ever need more than 640K of RAM (Imagine if a 640K RAM cap was set)While

Bill Gates never said that. That is a myth that has been going around for years. What he said was something like,

"I felt like I was providing enough freedom for 10 years. That is, a move from 64k to 640k felt like something that would last a great deal of time. Well, it didn't - it took about only 6 years before people started to see that as a real problem"

Big difference huh, no computer technology expert would have ever said it will never be needed.

 

[actionjksn]

[citation][nom]cardsfan030[/nom]ok so i have a couple questions about this. i understand what the bandwidth cap is and all so no issues there. but what i have concerns about are websites like youtube and grooveshark (music streaming sites). if i am watching videos on youtube or listening to music on grooveshark, is this going towards my bandwidth cap? really this is my main concern, because we have 5 desktops, 1 laptop, 1 iPhone, and 1 Android that all use these services on a regular basis.[/citation]

Oh yeah it counts dude you're hit, You better be switching ASAP. I also think them changing up like that is grounds for terminating your contract early without penalty's. At least it seams like it to me. I would be having it out with them over that, and making legal threats. I have Insight cable with Roadrunner, does anybody know if they are talking about going to this too? I hope not because I'm getting 15MB down speed and basic high def cable for like 80 or 90 bucks a month.

 

[jacobdrj]

I feel violated. I am stuck between ATT DSL caps and Comcast Throttling...

If I didn't just get hired locally, I would have moved just because of the crappy internet options. I want FIOS DANG IT!!!

 

[ctBuckweed]

AT&T used to be a great technology company. Wasn't it AT&T Bell Labs that created UNIX?

Now, AT&T is nothing more than a marketeer to sell their lousy products and services.

 

[cpatel1987]

Lol I don't even reach that with 3 computers users at home, two of which are gamers including myself. Yes, how annoying, they are capping our data, but thats like telling someone they can only eat 200 cupcakes a month. Big woop.

 

[razor512]

still, regardless of if you are not pushing the cap now, you will later on,

imagine if they started these caps like 15 years ago and did "huge" caps like 5GB per month, how much enjoyment will be you be getting from your netflix subscription?

Current bandwidth caps are designed to discourage people from using competing media services for now, and preventing upgrades in the future. Since most people with these 20mbit connections, actually do stuff that needs 20mbit/s, so ISP's oversell, but as time goes on and the internet evolves, more people will be looting to use more of that 20mbit/s that they have been paying for and when that time comes, they wont be able to do it with out killing their bandwidth cap.

 

[JDFan]

[citation][nom]cpatel1987[/nom]Lol I don't even reach that with 3 computers users at home, two of which are gamers including myself. Yes, how annoying, they are capping our data, but thats like telling someone they can only eat 200 cupcakes a month. Big woop.[/citation]

Yes but the thing is once they place the CAPS and get you used to it being there they will slowly continue to lower the amount of bandwidth the monthly fee includes so that they can start charging more and more people the overages and also start charging more for less extra and since they are the ones tracking it you are at the mercy of what they say you are using and have no way of disputing what they say (since you have no way of knowing if someone decides to continually PING your IP using up your bandwidth) - They need to come up with some method for a user to track their usage so that it matches the numbers they are using before they start charging for overages and also need a method to turn off all of the forced ads etc. that Users do not want to receive that are counting against the CAP - It's like the Post Office suddenly deciding to also add a charge for each piece of mail delivered to your home including each piece of advertisement you receive since they need to cover the costs involved in delivering it to you !!

 

[dekyos]

[citation][nom]JDFan[/nom]Yes but the thing is once they place the CAPS and get you used to it being there they will slowly continue to lower the amount of bandwidth the monthly fee includes so that they can start charging more and more people the overages and also start charging more for less extra and since they are the ones tracking it you are at the mercy of what they say you are using and have no way of disputing what they say (since you have no way of knowing if someone decides to continually PING your IP using up your bandwidth) - They need to come up with some method for a user to track their usage so that it matches the numbers they are using before they start charging for overages and also need a method to turn off all of the forced ads etc. that Users do not want to receive that are counting against the CAP - It's like the Post Office suddenly deciding to also add a charge for each piece of mail delivered to your home including each piece of advertisement you receive since they need to cover the costs involved in delivering it to you !![/citation]

Capture all ping requests on your Linux firewall and log them. Maintain a log of all WAN traffic on your local network going up and down. Send that log in to AT&T. It may not be legally acceptable since the data could be tampered with, but at least you'd have detailed logs demonstrating the inaccuracies of their tracking system.

 

[Guest]

if they cap think they should give everyone fastest speed then sell bandwith by packs say 50 gig 100 gig so on then people would truely get what they pay for. Buy a modem them just pay for bandwith.