AT&T has lost their minds

[Brutus2600]

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/E...verages-113149

They've gotta be f*cking joking. I've heard MUSINGS of this idea, had no idea it was actually going to be implemented.

I mean, I doubt I even hit half of the limit a month, but it sets a really crappy precedent.

Actually, if they combine upload/download, then yeah, I might be close to the 250gb limit.

Sigh

[HollywoodQue]

This is some real Bullsh!t, what's next!!!!

[Starz26]

Why would they put a cap on the users of UVerse? I mean all movies on demand are set via the internet right on uverse? Will that count as data as well. As I understand it the saved shows from your DVR is stored remotly as well.

While i understand in theory what they want to do, I would also like to see the numbers. I find it hard to believe the 2% of the customers are slowing down the system in any way. IF cost is an issue, the other 98% would be recovering the cost of the power users.....

Curious as to what the real motivation is here...seems to me they just want to make more money in any way they can...

Still not as bad as Verizon, having an unlimited plan but saying in fine print cap was at 5gb. Then they took it down to 3gb for a cheaper monthly fee and charged overages at outrageous rates. something like .10 per meganyte or thats $100.00 a gigabyte....

Voise no longer makes money, txt's bring in a lot of dough, but not so much now that you can get unlimited...Phones are locked so you have to by vz apps from their store, now they are going for the money hole in data....

Rather than nit pick fees, provide a great device / service that allows the owner of the device to do what they want with it. Create a great experience. ever been toa VZ store lately, horrible experience. Make the VZ brand and store a place peope want to go, a place that has innovating tech things...That will bring in more money than nickel and diming everyone which untimatly looses customers....

Sorry for the typos and rambling, tired and off to bed....

[Brutus2600]

Originally Posted by Starz26

Why would they put a cap on the users of UVerse? I mean all movies on demand are set via the internet right on uverse? Will that count as data as well. As I understand it the saved shows from your DVR is stored remotly as well.

While i understand in theory what they want to do, I would also like to see the numbers. I find it hard to believe the 2% of the customers are slowing down the system in any way. IF cost is an issue, the other 98% would be recovering the cost of the power users.....

Curious as to what the real motivation is here...seems to me they just want to make more money in any way they can...

I don't think that UVerse would count the TV. Yes, it all comes over the same line, but it's different. I think they're just talking data usage.

Also, as nice as remote DVR would be, that's not the case either. The main receiver has a hard drive in it and the other boxes in your house stream from that box, so it's all local. That also means if that box dies, all your shows are gone.

So anyway, yeah, more than likely just data, but it's still f*cked up.

If there was ANY other choice in my area I'd switch in an instant. Unfortunately that's not the case

[Starz26]

Originally Posted by Brutus2600

I don't think that UVerse would count the TV.

Also, as nice as remote DVR would be, that's not the case either. The main receiver has a hard drive in it and the other boxes in your house stream from that box, so it's all local. That also means if that box dies, all your shows are gone.

Thanks for clearing that up. I know TWC uses remote DVR storage and I assumed ATT did as well....

[tedrodgerscpa]

Wow.

I guess I understand the cap on wireless a little bit better, but this seems a bit of an extreme move.

Why not just "fire" those users who cheat the system (a la creating their own ISP, for instance)

I do hope the rest of the providers don't follow suit. I love teh internets.

[neoflex]

Wow, to think I was just thinking about taking a look at U-Verse but not now. I work out of my home and am constantly uploading files to ftps around the country and outside of the country so I would more than likely have an issue with them. I have heard rumblings of cell providers charging by tiers on data usage on their 4G networks but this is downright ridiculous. Hopefully enough people abandon ship with Uverse so the other providers don't get any ideas to follow suite.

[Bill86]

Comcast supposedly caps bandwidth usage, hmmm mine was 2 terabytes last month. We'll see if I can break that this month. Apparently they don't charge yet but they certainly ***** about it. I don't get it I pay for the Internet whatever I do is my business.

[treatneggy]

Originally Posted by Bill86

Comcast supposedly caps bandwidth usage, hmmm mine was 2 terabytes last month. We'll see if I can break that this month. Apparently they don't charge yet but they certainly ***** about it. I don't get it I pay for the Internet whatever I do is my business.

Comcast's limits in this area are around 250GB. I've already been shut off once for hitting 400GB, before they openly admitted they even had caps.

[BloodSpite]

Once upon a time I used to install U-verse in Northwest Akrkansas (2008-2009) for AT&T.

I use wireless for my primary ISP. I had satellite up until a few months ago but the 24 hour data cap that HughesNet uses was killing me for school. So i got Verizon as via their cell system and it works quite nice save for the 10 gig per billing period limit. Every month I'm skating by within 50 meg of hitting my limit.

U-verse takes a fiber optic cable and runs it to a DSLAM in your neighborhood (unless your one of the fortunate few to have Fiber going to your house) After that DSLAM it runs on the existing telephone lines to your home.

Each home has a dedicated pairing, that goes back to the node, which of course is converted to fiber optic.

What I'm trying to say without getting too technical is, Until it gets back to the main switch your not sharing allocation of data or voice with anyone. Your RG does all the translation. The RG gives you the Voice over IP, your Television, and your HPNA (if the installer was foolish/lazy enough to use Coax). It basically turns your home in to a sort of a networked Home theater is a good way of explaining it. Again no lines being shared, no data being passed and while the HPNA system works on a TDMA schema thats only within your home not your neighborhood.

In short, this charge is just a way for Randal Stephenson Mr. "People in America are too Stupid to work for us so I have to outsource to India" to make another buck.

Makes me glad I quit heh

[jledou]

250gb must be their "unlimited" plan. I will wait to get my notice ... I would say that I would switch but unfortunately their competition here is Comcast ... net neutrality and a need for isps that are not content providers would be nice. Unfortunately I still see this getting worse rather than better.

[Volusianator]

Sweet, I work for Time Warner Cable, let the calls begin!

[Blueface]

Can someone break this down a bit?
How does this translate to me as AT&T Uverse with Internet?
Is it going to limit my TV or my wireless Internet access or both?
How will I know my current monthly usage to compare?

[DennisP]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Can someone break this down a bit?
How does this translate to me as AT&T Uverse with Internet?
Is it going to limit my TV or my wireless Internet access or both?
How will I know my current monthly usage to compare?

It likely won't affect you in any way. If it does they will give you notice, I believe the article said at 65%, 90% and 100% of usage and you need to exceed it 3 times before you get charged.

I have more of a problem with what is in store in the future especially as we will be streaming more and more than I do in the short term.

yep, i have the comcast 250gb cap too. but they dont monitor it unless you are in a very high volume location, im not. so i get about 1tb a month with no problems from comcast.

[T.G]

Carlos,

Not sure at the present time if TV and data are lumped together for U-Verse caps.

If they are, watching just a few hours of Hi-Def TV per day would to run up to the limits long before the end of the month, which leads me to speculate that TV and data might very well be separate.

AT&T is rolling out some new online tools for their users to check account usage and they are supposedly going to send email notifications to users when they hit, I believe it's 65%, 80%, 90% of max usage per month.

[jledou]

Specifically where this hits and hurts is:
Downloading, online gaming and streaming.
Downloading:music, movies - digital instead of DvD or Blu-Ray, books, podcast - even more so on video podcast, purchasing software via download and not a disk.
Online gaming - Onlive becomes not practical - games like WoW, EvE on-line and other MMORPGs will have a harder time.
Steaming - Pandora, Netflix, Youtube
Thinking about where the future is moving as far as fluid digital content and not owning a disk etc this is a bigger deal than it seems today.
You may not do all of the above but when we do a couple they can start to add up quickly.
Now add the kids into this mix as they grow up online and consume more data as they get older. Could make internet for a family of 4 really pricey.
And lets not forget that AT&T was generous enough to raise their monthly internet fees $5/month last month....

[Kreth]

Pool on the filing date of the class-action suit from gamers and heavy Netflix streaming customers?
Posted via Mobile Device

Originally Posted by Kreth

Pool on the filing date of the class-action suit from gamers and heavy Netflix streaming customers?
Posted via Mobile Device

Q2 2012 This is obsurd, but if you look at is a shift in the economy of entertainment it flows. Everyone is out to take every f'ing penny we earn, but we are not getting the proper adjustment in wages!!!!

[357]

Originally Posted by Kreth

Pool on the filing date of the class-action suit from gamers and heavy Netflix streaming customers?
Posted via Mobile Device

That's what I was thinking. Now that NetFlix streaming of hi-def movies is becoming very popular, AT&T is finding a way to get more money out of those customers.


BTW, a single layer blue-ray disc can hold 25 GB of data. That means you could be limited on your viewing, simply by your ISP.