AT&T Tests Bandwidth Cap

[exfileme]

While technology giants dream of a larger, faster internet via the newly leased white space spectrum, AT&T is testing bandwidth caps


AT&T Tests Bandwidth Cap : Read more

 

[sunangel]

Personally, it is not the caps I fear. I fear metered usage. When they decide to institute that is the day my home isp usage stops. Hopefully it will never come to that, but should it happen I will be disappointed.

 

[nekatreven]

[citation][nom]sunangel[/nom]Personally, it is not the caps I fear. I fear metered usage. When they decide to institute that is the day my home isp usage stops. Hopefully it will never come to that, but should it happen I will be disappointed.[/citation]

Absolutely, I'd rather have anything but metering by itself.

It is pretty ridiculous that 5% of their customers use so much of their capacity though. The limits they mentioned did not sound too bad either. Remember, thats apparently 20GB for a normal user on one of the lower plans, not a power user.

I would think the perfect solution would be to just meter the bandwidth past the cap, as opposed to charging overages. So for example a power user exceeds say, 100gb in a month, and is then limited to a 768kbps symmetric pipe.

If you know what the limit is and your restriction level afterwards I think that is more than fair. No one will want to plain stop using the internet for the rest of the month and metering SURE beats overage charges.

 

[nekatreven]

[citation][nom]curnel_d[/nom][/quote]there are those users who eat up most of the traffic, thus penalizing the honest customers in the process.[/quote]Are you saying that because I'd possibly use more than 150GB per month that I'm a dishonest internet user? Comeon, that's just Absurd. Gamers, netflix subscribers, ect generally use well over 5-10GB a day. So I guess that makes me dishonest, huh?*Looks up* Kevin Parrish, great job at nothing.[/citation]

I don't think they mean that kind of honest. I think the honest people are the ones who 'fit' into their business model. Nothing is unlimited.

If everyone on a landline phone switch picks up their phone at the same time, many of them will not a dial tone. Likewise...if the majority of products failed, no one would sell extended warranties. Everything is percentages and ratios, and most everything is sold on an oversaturated basis.

Internet service is no different. Acting like you are fighting the man here when an ISP is being up front about the fact that they don't like your definition of 'unlimited' is, well, naive.

 

[Pei-chen]

Well, is this something our new, hip and tech savvy president going to tackle?

BTW, I love how the ISPs can charge you early termination fee if you “modify” the contract but they have no quarrel modifying the contract without consulting you. It is akin to ordering a McChicken sandwich and received a chicken nugget because they changed the contract.

 

[mikepaul]

I pay TWC/RoadRunner $36/month for no-limit-I'm-aware-of 8Mbps service, and if they screw with that I'll be looking to go elsewhere. All I'll need is an elsewhere that's worth going to, and that will be difficult...

 

[antilycus]

it's not illegal to use a lot of band width so stop crying you rich babies.

 

[randomizer]

I think I read somewhere that the additional usage charge is $1/GB over the cap. Really, that's nothing. Here it's $150/GB for the cheap plans, or for the mainstream/"high end" plans (meaning 50GB for $100/month or so) you get slowed to 64/128/256k depending on the plan.

Worst case scenario (and totally real) example: I can get a 200MB/month (yes, MB) plan here for $29.95/month. If I was to download 1.2GB, I'd be paying $179.95 for that month. That is apparently legal and justifiable.

It's a shame to see that the infection of internet caps has finally spread to the US. It makes it all the more difficult to get Aus off our ridiculous caps if you start using them.

 

[zerapio]

What does the BW cap bring to me? ATT is saving a LOAD of money if 50% of the traffic is reduced. Are we getting cheaper plans because of that? No. We're getting less for the same price. This is what pisses me the MOST!

 

[Daneel]

I agree with Randomizer.. The speed and download limits in America are well above the rest of the world, especially considering the price you pay for that connection. For that 8 meg, all you can eat connection, instead of $36 a month, you'd be paying over $100 here in Australia.

We pay $59.95 a month for 20GB. If you go over that, you get throttled to 64kbps. Dial up speed.

So when you guys say 'oh no! a 150GB cap!' I'd be saying 'hell yes! a 150GB cap! Please give it to me!'

Australia has sh*te internet.

 

[Desertlax]

They have to upgrade the network at some point, simply capping individuals will only work as a band-aid, eventually you have to upgrade. Two people have said that this isn't that bad, but I'm pretty sure I remember hearing either here or else where that the US is actually drastically behind many other countries in the speed race, and yet the prices are only slightly lower. (sounds like Australia is really in the crapper though)

I think they have to be honest about what service they are providing. if it is unlimited then they'd better deliver. If they can offer another plan at a cheaper price then maybe it's worth it.

If only 5% of the people are actually making full use of the product being offered, then consider yourself lucky. If only 5% of people actually filled up their trash cans every week the trash company (whoever that is in your are) would be pretty excited, cause most charge a flat fee no matter how full your trash can or dumpster.

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]desertlax[/nom]Two people have said that this isn't that bad, but I'm pretty sure I remember hearing either here or else where that the US is actually drastically behind many other countries in the speed race, and yet the prices are only slightly lower.[/citation]
I've been trying to find a report I saw once which showed how the top countries ranked compared to each other. The idea was to show which counties had internet adequate for today's uses and which were adequate for the future. Only Japan passed the latter test, and the US just sqeezed past the former. Australia was somewhere down the back end :lol:

 

[DFGum]

1 day 9 hours 50 minutes duration.
49,764,292 bytes sent, 512,271,043 bytes received.

Anyone care to convert this to tell me my usage in 1 day 10 hour time?
Id rate this as a light usage day.

 

[DFGum]

[citation][nom]DFGum[/nom]1 day 9 hours 50 minutes duration.49,764,292 bytes sent, 512,271,043 bytes received.Anyone care to convert this to tell me my usage in 1 day 10 hour time?Id rate this as a light usage day.[/citation]
Nvm i think i figured it out with the help of a friend.

5.24 GB's
do 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?

 

[randomizer]

[citation][nom]DFGum[/nom]5.24 GB's[/citation]
That's about 10 days usage for me :lol:

 

[DFGum]

That's about 10 days usage for me

For that duration it was mostly MMO gaming. No downloading at all.
Then add a a comp by family member gaming also, + the gaming systems and other computer that gets random use. Sigh.

 

[randomizer]

Oh, I meant 10 days with 3 users (one fairly light though). We have to be stingy with the caps we get, or we'll get hit with the dreaded speed "shaping". Fortunately my online gaming doesn't involve the constant high-bandwidth usage of MMOs (mostly things like Battlefield and COD), and I also don't use Steam so I avoid the perpetual and insanely slow updates it gets for itself and games. File downloading is my main source of bandwidth use, and even that is kept to a minimum. I just go nuts at the end of the billing month to use up anything left over

 

[Tindytim]

49,764,292 bytes sent, 512,271,043 bytes received = 536MB not 5.24GB.

That said, I can't wait until the technology at CERN ("the grid") finally starts to trickle down to us. And if they start limiting, they better put that in their advertising. All the advertising I see for ISPs says unlimted. I have unlimited server from Charter, and if they start a limit (or already have one) they better tell me, and start advertising that.

 

[christian summer]

[citation][nom]DFGum[/nom][/citation]

any gaming or work done on your network through your local router contributes to that total but your isp does not see that...they only see stuff that is communicated from the ip address that they assign to you...

-c

 

[michaelahess]

Thank you Tindytim, you beat me to it

You people need to UNDERSTAND the difference between GB, gb, bytes, and bits, geez.