AT&T Tests Bandwidth Cap

[d_kuhn]

[citation][nom]DFGum[/nom]Nvm i think i figured it out with the help of a friend.5.24 GB'sdo in a 30 day month id easily use 158GB's. Please note i use 3 computers and i have gaming systems also...1's light use tho. Im estimating my usage at 356GB's a month? Am i considered a hog?[/citation]

That's not the numbers your original post indicated, I think you're off by a factor of 10. Your original post indicated rougly 560 Megabytes of throughput (up+down) which is 0.56 GB. In a month you'd use about 16 GB... you are not a bandwidth hog.

I am occasionally a bandwidth hog (20GB over the last 4 days) but even so... averaged over a month my usage is in the 50GB-60GB neighborhood.

To the guy who seemed to think that netflix and gaming could use all that bandwidth:

Gaming bandwidth is typically under 20kbps... which means even if you played online 10 hours per day for 7 days per week you'd still use under 3GB of bandwidth. Online gaming will not make you a bandwidth hog.

Netflix uses 1-3 mbps of bandwidth... so if you watched netflix online 10 hours a day 7 days a week you'd use between 100 and 300GB of bandwidth. That would make you a bandwidth hog but it would also indicate a total lack of a life - a fraction of a fraction of a percent of folks could potentially fit this category. If you're that into watching movies and TV you in all likelihood have a much better quality way of getting your media (HD satellite or cable).

However... if you're downloading pirated uncompressed movies and games or running a torrent site hosting wares... you can and will use up a whole lot of bandwidth in a hurry. The percentage of online users doing this is several orders of magnitude higher I'd guess than the percentage of folks spending their whole life watching streaming netflix.

So congratulations if you're one of the "honest" users of 150gb/month in bandwidth... you're in a very select crowd relative to the other folks using that kind of bandwidth.

I find it pretty funny how little people understand about the tool that they're using... someone above exclaimed how he felt entitled to use 100% of his available bandwidth 24x7. Well you AREN'T. Go price a dedicated pipe and you'll find out how much a 24x7 10mbps connection will cost... I'll give you a hint: you can't afford it.

The entire industry is based on a shared pipe, you occasionally use a lot but often very little, other folks using that same pipe occasionally use a lot but often little. When you need it you get it so it FEELS like a dedicated line, but it aint. If you hog your connection 100% 24x7 you're denying your neighbors access and violating the basic functioning premise. ISP's can and should make sure that paying customers aren't being denied access because some other customer is abusing his/her connection.

Having said that, there needs to be a reasonable buffer that will allow VALID uses of the technology to be carried out without risk of throttling or bandwidth caps. Netflix streaming at reasonable levels should not run you the risk of hitting the cap. Online gaming should not run you the risk... IMO that means caps should be in the 100GB range. 20gb, 50gb ... not enough to support valid uses of the technology and they smack of a marketing ploy to force folks to pay more for their connection.

 

[cracklint]

I pay 60 bucks a month for cable internet; approximately 4.5 Mb/s unlimited service. My provider had better not even dare cap me. Then again I live in a rural area and DSL isn't available. It's either them or Hughes Net, which means no Xbox live. I guess I am just screwed.

This is just a way to increase profits. Piss off 5% of customers and save 50% of bandwidth to sell off to more regular use customers without having to add more equipment or run more fiber; This equals greater return of operating expenses and equipment. It's business. It's the way good business stay in business. Sucks for the consumers that it affects Though.

However, I don't see how 5% affect the other 95%, unless they are paying a higher price for bandwidth because some users are hogging it and they have to add more equipment. If that is the case they should reduce the cost of High Speed when the cap is implemented. Yeah right!, when 's the last time the phone company lowered the cost of anything.

 

[bounty]

The cap brings average people better speeds due to less bw saturation. Mega users will try to flee (good luck, the cap will follow you, until there are no "unlimited services") or they moderate. Gamers don't use 150GB a month. At under 2GB per movie, that's 75 movies a month. If you have the time to spare watching 75 movies then...................

DFGum, a little over 500MB a day is nothing. That's like 15GB a month. Now if you want to share your connection with 10 neighbors, you might almost hit the limit.

Not all, but many of the people who use 150+ GB a month are people who pirate shows and movies. It's like a drug for them, they're constantly downloading and uploading video even if they don't watch it. They remember'd they like some movie and download it because they can. Imagine all the DVD's you have sitting there... these people will DL whole libraries. It causes a problem for others because of the bandwidth hit. Back in the day's when it was just MP3's it wasn't a huge bandwidth problem. MP3's are smaller.

Now these people are re-pirating their collection in 1080i.

 

[DFGum]

[citation][nom]michaelahess[/nom]Thank you Tindytim, you beat me to it You people need to UNDERSTAND the difference between GB, gb, bytes, and bits, geez.[/citation]
I dont have to understand it, i was showed a online site by a friend, and entered my numbers in and it showd me a table conversion to every other format, bits bytes of mega giga and tera size.

 

[DFGum]

[citation][nom]D_Kuhn[/nom]That's not the numbers your original post indicated, I think you're off by a factor of 10. Your original post indicated rougly 560 Megabytes of throughput (up+down) which is 0.56 GB. In a month you'd use about 16 GB... you are not a bandwidth hog.

You might be right i brought up my history and found i entered a extra 0 into the calculator. (Also i rounded) which is why i entered 0's instead of less confuseable 349458ish stuff. Either way its a light day that was.

 

[justinjkiss]

Gamers do use a ton of bandwidth... the more modern the game the more bandwidth used.

With my isp i can hit 150 a month i get limited status till end of month i called and complained and thats when i found this out. 1st question they asked me was are you a gamer? I said yes and they said i shoudl move my package up to a gamer level package with im at 1.5up 768down due to funds but the gamer was 2x as much but was 6up 1.5down no caps.

WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN MORE COMPANYS START OFFERING HIGHER BANDWIDTH CONTENT. What is netflix supposed to do? Might as well not ever offer to buy a HD movie and download it 3 movies you will cap out.