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

www.dslreports.com said:

Broadband Reports was the first to learn, and has confirmed with AT&T, that the company will be implementing a new 150GB monthly usage cap for all DSL customers and a new 250 GB cap on all U-Verse users starting on May 2. From March 18 to March 31, AT&T users are going to be receiving notices informing them of the change in the company's terms of service. AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom confirmed the news to Broadband Reports after we initially contacted him last Friday concerning a leaked copy of the upcoming user notification. According to Bloom, the cap will involve overage charges. However, only users who consistently exceed the new caps will have to deal with these charges.

This is how it will work: only users who exceed the new usage cap three times -- across the life of your account, not per month -- will be forced to pay these new per byte overages. Overages will be $10 for every 50GB over the 150 GB or 250GB limit they travel.

More: Exclusive: AT&T To Impose Caps, Overages - Notices To Go Out This Week, Capping Begins May 2 | DSLReports.com, ISP Information

Damn them to hell! I certainly hope this doesn't impact business customers such as myself because then I will be royally pissed.

I just hope they don't introduce caps here. I normally always have streaming IPTV from my native Finland in one display, so I am always using a lot of bandwidth when online. Even I'm not using the best possible stream quality, my usage is huge. Here, just a few moments ago, 15 seconds of my totally normal usage:



Over 10 MB in 15 seconds. All the time when I'm online. Just for TV stream.

Kari

Would they be breaking any contracts, or have they got something in the fine print that states "We can do whatever we like".

Thank goodness we have a monthly 1TB account here DownUnder, as 150GB would not do us.

spinifex said:

Would they be breaking any contracts, or have they got something in the fine print that states "We can do whatever we like".

Thank goodness we have a monthly 1TB account here DownUnder, as 150GB would not do us.

Wouldn't be surprised if deep in the fine print it says "terms of service can change without notice any time" or something to that effect.

It's sad, but 250GB a month is a huge amount. Prior to me streaming anything from Netflix, I bet I didn't average more than 5GB a month on internet usage (on average). Need to actually put a monitor in place to see what my streaming habits pull through the wire.

I'm also not on AT&T, or Comcast....but am sure that my ISP will limit like all others in due time.

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.