AT&T Looking At Charging Heavy Internet Users Extra

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
With big names like Comcast and Time Warner already testing the waters, it was only a matter of time before AT&T announced that it may implement its own usage-based restrictions on its customers.

AT&T Inc., the country's largest Internet provider, is considering charging extra for customers who download large amounts of data "A form of usage-based pricing for those customers who have abnormally high usage patterns is inevitable," spokesman Michael Coe said this week.
Click to expand...
 
There's some really bad JuJu starting up out there in ISP land, and consumers are gonna get screwed in the process.

So much for the ol' "Physical Media is Dead" mantra. The ISP's are about to kill any dreams of a download/streaming only world.
 
I can't believe some people say that you're abusing the internet, its not fking Gandhi, its just a bunch of computers and wires.

When i watch HDTV those HD channels require a lot of bandwidth right?
So are they gona start charging me if i watch too much tv?

I guess theres room for a new internet company, build that thing solid from the ground up
 
infamou5 said:
I can't believe some people say that you're abusing the internet, its not fking Gandhi, its just a bunch of computers and wires.

When i watch HDTV those HD channels require a lot of bandwidth right?
So are they gona start charging me if i watch too much tv?

I guess theres room for a new internet company, build that thing solid from the ground up
Click to expand...

No, they are only going to start charging you more for tv if you don't get it through them.
 
And yet we hear nothing of charging less for people paying $55/mo and not using very much bandwidth at all... Not only that, they still refuse to even say what "heavy bandwidth use" is. 100GB? 200GB? Will their caps rise as more bandwidth-intensive 'legal' applications are more widely used? Or are they just trying to head off the flood of high definition On Demand-style internet services by discouraging their use?
 
Man this sucks, there is no Verizon in Colorado Springs so my choices for broadband are Comcast (who I dropped in favor of a slower connection because I got tired of all the issues that came up) or Qwest DSL (who only has a 1.5mb/s connection in Colorado Springs). I am hoping that Qwest starts to roll out some of their faster speeds like they offer in Denver up here. They just came out with a 20mb/s Fiber Optic connection for only $10 more than my 1.5mb/s connection.
 
Ockie said:
No, they are only going to start charging you more for tv if you don't get it through them.
Click to expand...

im talking about bandwidth charges not tv, limiting the bandwidth

i remember the ceo of comcast saying they're gona have 160Mb connection, for what? u cant download sht anyway

its like the power company saying "ok we can now provide you with much more power by lowering youre power consumption"

wtf:rolleyes:
 
UrielDagda said:
And yet we hear nothing of charging less for people paying $55/mo and not using very much bandwidth at all... Not only that, they still refuse to even say what "heavy bandwidth use" is. 100GB? 200GB? Will their caps rise as more bandwidth-intensive 'legal' applications are more widely used? Or are they just trying to head off the flood of high definition On Demand-style internet services by discouraging their use?
Click to expand...

in that case i should be able to pay only for channels i wna watch:confused:
 
hmm... more lawsuits and monopolies.

i cant wait till a new company comes out with blazing fast internet... only to get sued and shut down by government supported media cartels. awesome, capitalism at its finest.
 
What is really funny is that these big companies are too short-sighted to see that this just won't work. AOL tried it back in the day with dial-up and as soon as someone offered unlimited download speeds everyone left AOL.

The Big companies will start charging extra for more downloads, some company will back off of that and then everyone will switch to them.
 
TechLarry said:
So much for the ol' "Physical Media is Dead" mantra. The ISP's are about to kill any dreams of a download/streaming only world.
Click to expand...

BINGO. All this talk about the universe of streaming this, streaming that and how it's the way of the future, yadda yadda and BAM, the internet providers are going to chop your nuts off bandwidth wise. Me thinks some people at these internet companies need to have their heads surgically removed from their asses, but have it done thru remote surgery thru the internet... "Oops, we can't continue, you used all your bandwi.. <disconnect>"
 
infamou5 said:
im talking about bandwidth charges not tv, limiting the bandwidth

i remember the ceo of comcast saying they're gona have 160Mb connection, for what? u cant download sht anyway

its like the power company saying "ok we can now provide you with much more power by lowering youre power consumption"

wtf:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well, I'm taking about TV bundles that nearly every ISP is offering now. If you buy their digital tv service and stream through them, you don't rack up bandwidth charges.


As for the 160 comment, you can do 160, but not for very long.
 
So they're lowering the cost for people who only check their e-mail once a week right?

Oh wait that would lower their profit more than they'd gain from the extra charging. I'm fine with a usage based system if it's fair to the consumer.
 
DarkTide said:
So they're lowering the cost for people who only check their e-mail once a week right?
Click to expand...


This is like saying you expect a Ferarri for cheap becuase you will only use it once a week and not all the time.


But in seriousness, a person checking their email once a week can get free internet services already, it's called hot spots, work, or dial-up. :D
 
Ockie said:
This is like saying you expect a Ferarri for cheap becuase you will only use it once a week and not all the time.


But in seriousness, a person checking their email once a week can get free internet services already, it's called hot spots, work, or dial-up. :D
Click to expand...

Right but I was just making the point that not everyone streams video or plays games. Those users who use less bandwidth are still getting charged 'average'. They're only going after the above average user, it's sort of a double standard.
 
I'm sure all the cable companies will fall into line and do the same thing.

Its going to cause a few ripple effects.
DSL will start a resurgence. I know there are many using it already but heavy users will move to avoid tiers (until they do the same)
More people will steal bandwidth via wireless.
Content providers (anyone streaming content, music movies radio)once they see the effect on sales will have issues.
 
i am sorry but this is bullshit is Europe doing this i think not the us sucks at broad band speeds we are behind in the world and we created the god damn thing this will not fly very far may i just say this they know who the god damn heavy users are /cut them off end of story if they want to use that amount of bandwidth refuse to offer them residential services for internet at their house they would have to get a business class line that always costs more
 
This just illustrates just how pathetic broadband is in the US. Typical business model. Provide a marginally acceptable product, charge customers a small fortune for it, provide little customer service, eliminate customer choices and "grease" regulation. Yeah capitalism!
 
darkking said:
I'm sure all the cable companies will fall into line and do the same thing.

Its going to cause a few ripple effects.
DSL will start a resurgence. I know there are many using it already but heavy users will move to avoid tiers (until they do the same)
More people will steal bandwidth via wireless.
Content providers (anyone streaming content, music movies radio)once they see the effect on sales will have issues.
Click to expand...

you have no idea this is almost anti-trust territory why you can watch your fav shows on the internet with out the need for a TV or cable the internet is a threat to the isp's that have TV businesses and this is a way to cut off the legs of that internet tv market
 
So i keep hearing Japan has 50/50 service. Americans will eventually get that service in a decade or two, but only get to use .5/.5 of it without getting reamed.

Are the same people who are jacking the gas prices up controlling the ISPs also???

Last I knew, the intarweb doesn't run on gas!
 
I'm not happy that all the ISPs serving my area are imposing restrictions such as low bandwidth caps and/or the possibility of 'overage' charges on their residential plans. That's some competition I've got here when my choices are 'crap' and 'crappier'. I know that more people are going to encounter this as ISPs are following everyone else in imposing restrictions.

Fortunately I found a way around the restrictions by going for a business DSL plan. It's expensive for the speed I get but it's the only way for me the use the Internet the way I want to.
 
Ockie said:
No, they are only going to start charging you more for tv if you don't get it through them.
Click to expand...


So I guess they're just going to be wanting to charge us for everything huh?

This would really, uber-time suck. I haven't kept track of my net activity, but between downloading updates, new OS's to toy with, etc. . . I'm certain I hit over the 1gig multiple times a month. Not happy person here
 
DarkTide said:
So they're lowering the cost for people who only check their e-mail once a week right?
Click to expand...
Ockie said:
This is like saying you expect a Ferarri for cheap becuase you will only use it once a week and not all the time.
Click to expand...

Well, if that car dealership that has been selling Ferrari's to people regardless of how much you plan to use it suddenly says "Oh, you plan to drive it everyday? I'm charging you extra." then yes, it is perfectly reasonable for those that only plan to drive it once a week to expect some kind of price cut.
 
Typical U.S. business model. Shitty product, high prices, no competition... Looks like getting rid of net neutrality wasn't working out too well for the greedy isps, now they're trying a different nickel and dime method.
 
Pure greed. They just raised their dsl prices by $5 too! The CEO must want a new mega-yacht.
 
The lack of competition and the fact that everyone is starting to do the same (or similar) makes it so that that many people can't vote with their wallets.
 
This is already happening to all major isp's in my country, I go over 40gb and bam, my 12mb changes to 265k. :(
 
With all these threats of usage based pricing for internet i think it would be wise of me to find out how much I use.
Anyone know of a good free program that records internet usage? i had one a while back buts its logging didn't work. i need one that will autostart and log usage over time and let me know how much I use on a Per Monthly/Weakly/Daily basis.

I actually think this is how it should be done, give us the speed we want and charge us based on useage. as long as they dont have outgages penalties for going over I am fine with it. I know that its been said that 10% of the users use 90% of the bandwidth which only makes it hard on the 90% that only use the remaining 10%.
 
Diablo2K said:
With all these threats of usage based pricing for internet i think it would be wise of me to find out how much I use.
Anyone know of a good free program that records internet usage? i had one a while back buts its logging didn't work. i need one that will autostart and log usage over time and let me know how much I use on a Per Monthly/Weakly/Daily basis.

I actually think this is how it should be done, give us the speed we want and charge us based on useage. as long as they dont have outgages penalties for going over I am fine with it. I know that its been said that 10% of the users use 90% of the bandwidth which only makes it hard on the 90% that only use the remaining 10%.
Click to expand...

Try this one. http://www.softpedia.com/get/Network-Tools/Bandwidth-Tools/NetMeter.shtml
 
I'm going to have to get a cable and DSL connection to stay under their stupid caps:mad:

 
I used 2.5 gig just yesterday....... that was not out of the norm either :eek:

 
I am on the east coast using Optimum Online or Cablevision, I hope they don't go this route, currently I am paying 30 bucks for 15mb down if I pay 40 bucks I can get 30mb down. Well with that kind of bandwidth and unlimited access to newsgroups, there are months where I have hit almost 300gb just in newsgroups, not counting random websurfing, music streaming or gaming!
Man, am I gonna be screwed if this goes in to effect.
 
It's impossible for me to track my internet bandwidth usage without something checking it at the modem. I have multiple machines which kills the ability for normal software tracking. Also, I do a lot of transfers across my network which has nothing to do with internet usage.

I don't really have much of an idea of how much bandwidth I use. Some days I will barely use the connection and other times I'll bang on it like it was a cheap whore. My usage is very erratic depending on what I feel like doing or not doing. I wouldn't be surprised if through the month I averaged around a gig a day but I can't say for sure. I also know that there are some times I have done 10-20 gig in day. I snagged a Linux distro one day last week and it was around 4 gig. I'll be doing that at least once if not twice more this month with other distros.

I'm by no means running my connection at the max all the time and yet I will probably be one of the people this would affect. You know damn good and well that the ISPs are going to try and say that anyone using more than an average grandma who only checks her email a couple times a week is a heavy user.

I just hope that these companies feel a nasty backlash from their customers after implementing these measures. Luckily, AT&T moved out of this area for cable years ago. When they introduced cable internet here, the speed was 10/1. About a year later they dropped most people down to 1.5/256k. I was lucky and managed to avoid that speed cut for another six months. That's what you call getting screwed. Sign up for the service and later they cut it to about 10% of what you signed up for. If I remember correctly, it wasn't long after that they left the area and another company took over which has slowly brought speeds back up. The basic plan is now 6/256k I believe while I have 8/512k and the next step up is 15/1 which I hope to afford before too long. It's only $15/month more but I don't have that at this time.

"Improving" service by degrading the service is a bad business decision in the long run. Some people will remember and when some real competition comes along, those people will likely jump ship if it looks like the competition is a better deal.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top