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AT&T to cap broadband data use at home

Z

Zeos

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 24, 2008
425
25
"Broadband Reports is confirming that AT&T (NYSE: T) plans will top out at 150 gigabytes of monthly usage for DSL customers and a 250 gigabytes on U-Verse."

So it appears to be confirmed that AT&T is going to start capping monthly broadband use at home. Maybe I can just hang out at Starbucks or McDonalds with my iPad to avoid hitting the cap at home. Gotta love AT&T. :mad:
 
LOL... consider yourselves lucky. Bell and Rogers in Canada have been doing caps for a few years now.. at an amazing 25GB/month! Hahah.. Our most expensive internet packages from the big guys barely hit 150GB.
 
Zeos said:
"Broadband Reports is confirming that AT&T (NYSE: T) plans will top out at 150 gigabytes of monthly usage for DSL customers and a 250 gigabytes on U-Verse."

So it appears to be confirmed that AT&T is going to start capping monthly broadband use at home. Maybe I can just hang out at Starbucks or McDonalds with my iPad to avoid hitting the cap at home. Gotta love AT&T. :mad:
Click to expand...

Consider yourselves lucky. in Canada with a 25/7 connection, my base plan is 75gb. And I pay an additional 5$ for 40gb.
:eek:
 
As a U-verse user, I'm pretty unhappy, but at the same time 250 GB is quite a bit of data. I think I read over at Ars yesterday that Netflix streaming HD is about 2/GB hour, and I'm currently not watching 125 hours of netflix a month.

Plus, AT&T is at least giving us a "three strikes" policy. You'll have to go over the cap 3 times before you'll give an overage charge. And at least there's no throttling.

Though I'll fully admit that this is just the beginning, and who knows how bad the caps could get eventually.
 
Caps generally seem to affect a small percentage of users; which makes sense, the provider doesn't want to alienate the majority of their customers.

I understand being ticked off at the free ride going away if I were a heavy user that would be affected by the caps. Even with usage well below the caps, it is perceptibly different using something that you know you have a limit on vs. it being unlimited.

On the other hand, few people seem to complain that they pay metered rates for electricity, water, natural gas, or heating oil in some areas, etc. Knowing that you pay for usage actually tends to encourage some degree of conservation.

Is that really a BAD thing for broadband data in concept?
 
Caps on "unlimited" plans should be illegal.

Any company caught advertising an unlimited plan that has a cap, even if it's 1 trillion GBs, should face penalties.

Just sayin'.
 
DeaconGraves said:
Plus, AT&T is at least giving us a "three strikes" policy. You'll have to go over the cap 3 times before you'll give an overage charge. And at least there's no throttling.
Click to expand...

Plus the overage is $10 for 50 GB, which doesn't seem that bad. Though I'm not an AT&T DSL customer myself.
 
Zeos said:
"Broadband Reports is confirming that AT&T (NYSE: T) plans will top out at 150 gigabytes of monthly usage for DSL customers and a 250 gigabytes on U-Verse."

So it appears to be confirmed that AT&T is going to start capping monthly broadband use at home. Maybe I can just hang out at Starbucks or McDonalds with my iPad to avoid hitting the cap at home. Gotta love AT&T. :mad:
Click to expand...

And comcast and time warner does this. So how is this anything to be mad about? I never saw people post this kind of thread with comcast or time warner.
 
250 GB is a lot of data, but seriously? What do you do at home to use 250GB of data. I'd love to know. I game online, stream netflix, pandora, download movies, apps, you name it....never even came close to that.

I dont know, people always moan. If you dont like it, get another company as your isp provider
 
deeddawg said:
On the other hand, few people seem to complain that they pay metered rates for electricity, water, natural gas, or heating oil in some areas, etc. Knowing that you pay for usage actually tends to encourage some degree of conservation.

Is that really a BAD thing for broadband data in concept?
Click to expand...

The paragraph I quoted above in is the problem. There is no inherent need to "conserve" broadband internet, like there is energy. Unlike with energy, there is only one entity that gains anything from the caps: the ISP. The caps allow them to kick the can down the road and avoid investing in the infrastructure needed to provide faster service and bigger pipes ... infrastructure that is inevitably going to be needed eventually anyway.

We, the consumers, actually lose as a result, even the 98% of us that never get anywhere near our monthly caps.
 
I'm not happy with it, but the limits seem to be pretty good compared to others that are setting caps. I have DSL and download a lot but I have never reached 150GB.

For those concerned about streaming Netflix, HD would be 1.17-1.71GB per hour and SD would be 169-675MB per hour. You'd have to stream for several hours every single day before you hit 150GB.
 
deeddawg said:
Caps generally seem to affect a small percentage of users; which makes sense, the provider doesn't want to alienate the majority of their customers.

I understand being ticked off at the free ride going away if I were a heavy user that would be affected by the caps. Even with usage well below the caps, it is perceptibly different using something that you know you have a limit on vs. it being unlimited.

On the other hand, few people seem to complain that they pay metered rates for electricity, water, natural gas, or heating oil in some areas, etc. Knowing that you pay for usage actually tends to encourage some degree of conservation.

Is that really a BAD thing for broadband data in concept?
Click to expand...

Wait a minute, everything you said sounds fine if the "heavy users" were people downloading thousands of gigs, which is what ISP's wanted to stop at first

Now? Now we have caps that normal users can hit. With Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and other video services taking off, hitting these cap limits is NOT HARD even by normal users.

So, what is a "heavy user" again?

We are slowly being brainwashed by ISPs into thinking that watching some movies is now "heavy" and that it needs to be stopped

Oh, and the ISP continues reaping more money with little upgrades given. But, forget that....:rolleyes:
 
Zeos said:
150 gigabytes of monthly usage
Click to expand...

That is quite a lot of data though! Doubt I get through that in a month (maybe half that).

I can see how annoying these policies are annoying. My ISP is good, it is truly unlimited 10Mb/s download. However, if you download more than 1.5GB between 4-9pm your speed reduces to 2.5Mb/s for 4 hours.
 
I just checked my router and I'm on schedule to reach 107GB for the month. And I'm the only one who lives here. I can easily see reaching 250GB if you live with roommates or watch an insane amount of Netflix (like my housemates at my last place). :(

On the other hand, $0.20/GB (which is what $10/50GB works out to) isn't great, but at least AT&T isn't disconnecting you altogether for going over like Comcast does. I'll have to see what it's like once I start watching more Netflix instant again and see if I need to switch back to TWC, as sucky as they were before switching to AT&T.
 
So what do they do if you hit the cap? Cut you off completely? No email, no VPN for mobile workers etc... ?
 
dstar said:
So what do they do if you hit the cap? Cut you off completely? No email, no VPN for mobile workers etc... ?
Click to expand...

AT&T's stated that they'll contact users when they reach certain thresholds of thier caps (I think 66% and 90%). Also, the first two months you go over, no action is taken against you.

The third month you go over, you're charged $10 for another 50GB. No throttling or threatening of cancellation.
 
I dont have any problem with caps as long as its clearly advertised.

My constant streaming of neftlix HD would really push those caps though if verizon ever starts doing so. I'd need an option to choose SD on the ps3/360/iPad apps..
 
That said, there's already a clause in the Terms of Service at most ISPs that lets them cut off abusers. If they was really the problem, why not start enforcing that part of the ToS? IMO, this is more of a money grab than anything else.

Though, I wonder if ISPs would be going to caps if there was no net neutrality. Not that not having it at all would be a good thing--more just something to think about.
 
master-ceo said:
It would be cool if they had "Roll Over" Data :p
Click to expand...

Exactly. If they are selling me a bulk of data, I want to keep it. Ditto for iPad data plans. They're getting it both ways. How about a rebate if I don't use the data? Bastages.
 
I don't understand how this affects uVerse. Isn't that AT&T's cable television division? How would that affect the Internet usage?
 
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