What Is Average Data Use And Should You Care?

[beayn]

If only 2% of its users used over 150gb, then they can easily afford not to have bandwidth caps. The reason they want these lower caps is because (as in Canada) they see the future of the internet increasing bandwidth to crazy levels and they want to be able to over bill the majority of its users when that happens. In other words, the average internet user is going to soon be over their lower limits, allowing them to get extra monies from over charges.

 

[Guest]

These caps are an obvious move by ATT to increase revenues. It's as transparent as it gets without a full blown confession. I don't like the idea of charging for the total amount of bandwidth used monthly, but if they're going to do this atleast make it right. Either charge us by bandwidth buckets or per amt of bandwidth used with no tiered pricing based on speed or charge us for the speed with no restrictions on bandwidth (what they used to call "unlimited").

At the rate these ISPs and mobile service providers are going, in about 10 years, there will be a new revised definition for the word "unlimited" in the dictionary.

 

[Guest]

Using DDWRT on my router I can check the daily logs, and without direct download or torrenting any large files (because of crappy internet) my house averages 1.5-2 gigabytes download and around 200 megabytes upload per day, and thats with the Windstream service that supposedly is having an outage causing it to go 1/12th the speed with 150ms+ pings to anything... for the past 4 months... I don't really like Windstream but I'm glad I don't have AT&T...

 

[virtualban]

As long as there is competition, let them choose how to make their customers leave. But as above posters said, competition is lacking.
Residential areas of customers are being divided and the providers probably are making arrangements who to "provide" for them with little or no choice in the regard.
And they get tax breaks and other helps to be providing increased prices with increased need for connectivity? That is not the way to use the law of demand and supply in the technology.

 

[happyballz]

Here is a video of perfect explanation of what is going on here, different country same shit... and you know what is funny? I contacted my state rep and he just blew it off like it was no big deal... ATT propoganda dep. definately likes to spend more moeny on lobbying than their products...



http/www.youtube.com/embed/6peRQV5hFEQ?hd=1

 

[MoonMe2]

Awsome little video.

 

[virtualban]

[citation][nom]MoonMe2[/nom]Awsome little video.[/citation]
Agreed, needs to be spread, on each thread talking about data restrictions

 

[Guest]

I haven't read all the comments, but I wish to let you know what I recently have thought might be going on... We pay such and such for cable. We pay x for internet access. We think "Screw cable let's dump it." And then, you start streaming video through the myriad of possibilities, more, since no cable, and hey presto!! You are paying what you're no longer paying for cable, for internet. And I haven't even thought about including mobile phone data rates into this. They'd like ya to configure it all in too. So do we just consign ourselves to the fate of the moment? Pay up to and beyond $100 per month for our 'consumer media diet', no matter how we get it??

 

[Guest]

i think caps are ok - but they should be listed in the prices for consumers to clearly read- Install a bandwidth meter - if you want to know how much your family uses. I watch a lot of tv , videos and run 2 websites. as well as make and send data to people a lot and i have never went over 50 gbs yet. I pay 29.90 for service - and even with my wifi phone ( as well as my friends that sign in here) i have yet to ever hit a limit, so for me its so far so good and at 150 gb per month I feel like I get the better part of the deal.

 

[Guest]

I was a "fairly happy" AT&T DSL customer for 2 years. I switched to Comcast cable. My new service is 8 times as fast as my old AT&T and costs $5 less per month. When I turned off my AT&T service, they sent me a bill for $60 of overage fees. I went over the 150GB limit 3 times before I ever even knew the policy was in place (it wasn't when I started the account). They waited until I was on my way out to stick me in the back... those cowards. According to their contract, any changes to the policy are sent via email (an email account they make you create to start service). Most people already have 1 or more email accounts and don't want another so they don't use it or check their inbox. I see this as intentional on AT&T's behalf. They are manipulative cheaters and I hope they fall someday. I forgot to mention how I had to call them every month to get my bill correct. Of course if they make a mistake on a bill, its not going to be in your favor. Is that just a coincidence? I seriously doubt it, not bill after bill, time and time again. They also sicken me because they outsource their customer service to people who are incompetent. Burn AT&T, BURN!!!!

 

[Guest]

I have went over the data cap here 3 months in a row, we have 4 people living in this house. My sister has netflix and watched it ALOT. Then you have myself and my mother who are hardcore gamers so buying games per month all them GBs averaging 4 to 18 GB and even more in some cases. Stepfather who streams races to watch those run for hours. Add in all the additional usage youtube, websites, business. We've actually checked on the data usage and on day we actually used over 25 GBs. We are an excessive user for sure, but we have a big family living here, 5 computers then count the phones, but then again AT&T when we bought the coverage years ago used the word "Unlimited Data" personally think any company using those words with a data cap should be sued.

 

[Guest]

The honest truth is that you can't force a company that controls an asset to charge a particular price or price it in a particular way without giving total control over that industry over to the government: A move that rarely if ever serves to work out well for consumers since the government's favorite company, IE the ones that contribute the most -Like AT&T- Tends to end up taking over the entire industry and edging out all of their competition through regulation instead of competition. This is why in the utility and public transportation industries, even when demand is falling, overhead costs and pricing in those industries continue to rise, made up for by price gouging when demand returns due to conditions in the marketplace. These are extremely inefficient models of doing business compared to good old fashioned market forces and competition.

And that's the dirty secret here: The only way to punish AT&T for trying to quash content that competes with their own is for people to consciously choose the next best alternative until it hurts them so bad financially that they have to change their policies in order to earn their customer's business once again. If they get gutted financially by their competitors, they may offer a better product to try to compete or simply get obliterated by newer companies with better ideas.

The only reasons why people grow restless and look to government to carry out this process for them in the modern era are as follows: First, because they don't know any better and don't realize they'll be worse off for putting idiots that know nothing about economics in charge of industry. But also because AT&T is the 6th largest company in the world with many of their competitors close behind. It takes a serious bludgeoning in the marketplace to cause any of these companies to move because their revenues and influence over their own market is significant. This means that real change in the market place can take 4 to 5 years of consistent hammering and discontent to level the biggest shareholders in the marketplace. But customers, in the end, are the most powerful participants in the marketplace. AT&T being huge means huge revenues but it also means huge overheads and costs that cannot be easily jettisoned in the event their revenues drop off. This translates to HEAVY losses in the even of any significant downturn in business. If enough people decide definitively that companies' services like Netflix are more important to them than the convenience and other advantages of having AT&T internet services, people will switch to whatever they can get and cause them or one of their competitors to eventually bring to market the products that will replace data capped internet connections.

Era demonstrandum, Comcast has already taken significant steps, from what I've been told, to remove the data cap on their connections to avoid hemorrhaging any more customers! It can be done, just trust the free market and hang in there, my friends!