AT&T to impose monthly usage cap for all DSL customers, begin May 2

Lost Colonist said:

Of course, legal and illegal video downloaders would be up in arms about it.

A few hours ago I posted this as to show a normal usage of a normal user, me. Then my connection had been on a bit over 50 minutes, having already over 600 MB's on the meter.

Check the situation now. My secondary display is showing a news channel from my native Finland, which I have to stream due to fact it's the only way to get Finnish television here in Germany. The meters show this, screenshot from 3 -4 minutes ago, same computer, same connection:



This even I have not been streaming all the time, not been by computer all the time.

DL/UL total about 6 GB now. And no, I have not downloaded anything during this six hours. Just streaming TV signal. For me, normal usage is that at least one streaming news sender is always on.

For me, a 150 GB or even 250 GB cap would mean a dramatic change in my computing habits.

And I am not downloading movies. Legally or illegally.

pparks1 said:

Does anybody know if this counts uploads as well as downloads, or is it just an upload limit. I cannot find anything direct from AT&T and such on the matter.

I'm just wondering about the possibility of cloud computing as it relates to bandwidth.

IMO this is combined, as usually when talking about net usage? I mean, if you pay for a 50GB plan, it's UL/DL combined that should not go over 50GB, so I suppose this is the same thing.

Kari

The reason I ask is that I work for an Australian company, and they have had must more strict bandwidth policies in place for many years. My coworkers say these limits were for downloads only and are wondering if these limits in the US would include uploads as well.

To me it seems like, "of course, bandwidth is bandwidth", but they disagree. Just wondering if anybody knew for sure on these things.

Yes, I understand your point Pparks. I do not know for sure, I just assumed it means combined.

Kari

Bandwidth should be like utilities. You pay for what you use. If you barely use it, you pay next to nothing. If you run your sprinklers 24x7, you get a huge water bill. If you run your bandwidth 24x7, you get a big internet bill.

Since I am an AT&T customer, this has perked my ears. I have no idea how much 250 GB is in usage. I leave my PC on all of the time. Does it register just because it is on or do you have to be surfing? Would the streaming video be the thing that would run up the bandwidth or does surfing use a lot also? Thanks,

Anytime your computer is on there will be a bit of traffic going to the web...but this would be hardly noticeable.

Streaming video takes quite a bit of bandwidth. 2 hours at Netflix in HD is about 3.6GB, and a 30 minute HD show is about 1.5GB. Pandora radio takes about 1MB/min. I'm unsure what video games and such take.

If you are the type that utilized cloud based backups like carbonite or dropbox, the uploading of your files and the downloading of the files that are there will consume bandwidth.

I'd bet that surfing SeverForums, I might plow through 30MB in a month. Normal web surfing doesn't account for a ton of data.

AT&T said these caps would impact less then 2% of their customer base.

Seems like things have come full circle. Remember when the internet first got going strong in the 1990's you paid by the hour of use. That went away and not the usage fee is back again.

I've always felt that the Internet should be like a utility. You pay for your water based on usage, you pay for electricity by usage, you pay for your gas by usage....why not bandwidth? I mean, I pay $50-$60 a month to have 15/1 service and I bet I don't average 15GB a month. But somebody else pays the same amount and averages 200GB a month. Just doesn't seem right that we pay the same costs.