# AT&T to cap DSL & UVerse



## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

I guess it was bound to happen at some point.  I expect others will follow (that haven't already).



> Ladies and gentlemen, the days of unlimited broadband may be numbered in the United States, and we're not talking wireless this time -- AT&T will implement a 150GB monthly cap on landline DSL customers and a 250GB cap on subscribers to U-Verse high speed internet starting on May 2nd.


Full Article - http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/13/atandt-will-cap-dsl-u-verse-internet-and-impose-overage-fees/


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Maybe now people will realize the TV over the net isn't so definitive. "Cutting the cord" won't save that much money when you're paying for all the streaming being done.


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## itzme (Jan 17, 2008)

How many DTV 1080p movies = 150 Gig?


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

itzme said:


> How many DTV 1080p movies = 150 Gig?


How many are you ordering?


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Xfinity already has me at a 250GB cap (2X AT&T's) and I have never come close, even with netflix, and lots of web streaming.

17% As of 3/13/2011* Cap:250GB Usage:43GB Remaining:207GB


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

Davenlr said:


> Xfinity already has me at a 350GB cap (2X AT&T's) and I have never come close, even with netflix, and lots of web streaming.


You're right. And I don't doubt AT&T's statement that only 2% hit that point every month. But my argument is, why not cap and/or throttle _them_? Why "punish" everyone because 2% are hogging the bandwidth?


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> You're right. And I don't doubt AT&T's statement that only 2% hit that point every month. But my argument is, why not cap and/or throttle _them_? Why "punish" everyone because 2% are hogging the bandwidth?


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
He has a point there!


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> You're right. And I don't doubt AT&T's statement that only 2% hit that point every month. But my argument is, why not cap and/or throttle _them_? Why "punish" everyone because 2% are hogging the bandwidth?


Didnt say I agree with caps, I actually detest them. Of course, with the speed of ATT DSL, you could download 24/7 and never hit the limit


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> Why "punish" everyone because 2% are hogging the bandwidth?


The other 98% aren't being punished, they won't be affected if they never reach the cap. I crunched some numbers quickly and I would have to work quite hard to approach that limit.


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## Nighthawk68 (Oct 14, 2004)

Greg is right, it is a very small percentage of users that abuse the bandwidth. I talked with a Netflix tech a couple months ago and he told me I was getting the highest quality stream available as I was at 15-20 mbps and he also added that at that level it was about 1gb of data per hour of hd video. I have never heard anything from charter in regards to excessive use and supposedly I have a cap here.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Frontier tried it. They didn't actually put in penalties, but set an Acceptable Use limit. By Frontiers standard before they reversed course, AT&Ts limit for DSL is extremely generous.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

I wish I knew how much I use. I bet I'd be S.O.L...I like torrents - not seeding, I'm a jerk & leach a lot. :lol:


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## chicagojim (Sep 13, 2006)

It only took my kids getting their hands on netflix streaming to hit that cap - Add some downloads of movies,games, etc and you can easily go over the cap. 

It's not a tough as you might think. Now I am checking usage weekly to be sure we don't go over. We regularly hit 150-176GB a month.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

davring said:


> The other 98% aren't being punished, they won't be affected if they never reach the cap. I crunched some numbers quickly and I would have to work quite hard to approach that limit.


True. But, here's an example for you. Joe Data only uses ~50GB/month... but one day decides he wants to back up his 250GB of pictures and video to Carbonite. He's gonna get dinged.

The other part of it is just psychological. People don't like having limits. It may make people be more hesitant in their data usage, which they don't want to do (and probably don't need to do... but still).


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> True. But, here's an example for you. Joe Data only uses ~50GB/month... but one day decides he wants to back up his 250GB of pictures and video to Carbonite. He's gonna get dinged.


With actual net neutrality and enforcement this wouldn't happen, but in the case of Frontier that I gave before, Carbonite was excluded from the policy as they were a partner. Use something like Mozy, and it goes against you.


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## Greg Alsobrook (Apr 2, 2007)

dpeters11 said:


> With actual net neutrality and enforcement this wouldn't happen, but in the case of Frontier that I gave before, Carbonite was excluded from the policy as they were a partner. Use something like Mozy, and it goes against you.


Right. Actually, I'm dropping Mozy because they dropped unlimited. My price per year is about to double. Gonna take my chances with Carbonite and hope they keep their unlimited plan.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> .
> 
> The other part of it is just psychological. People don't like having limits. It may make people be more hesitant in their data usage, which they don't want to do (and probably don't need to do... but still).


I know the feeling, I have unlimited data on my iPhone, (grandfathered) and I won't give it up even though I never use that much, but I can if I want to


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> Right. Actually, I'm dropping Mozy because they dropped unlimited. My price per year is about to double. Gonna take my chances with Carbonite and hope they keep their unlimited plan.


I did the same thing, hoping they do as well.


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## kiknwing (Jun 24, 2009)

I just don't trust the bandwidth monitoring tools. My ISP (Qwest) said one time I used 5.6GB over night with nothing attached to the modem. To compare results I put a router behind the modem and the router had zero traffic while the modem had 4.8GB.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

kiknwing said:


> I just don't trust the bandwidth monitoring tools. My ISP (Qwest) said one time I used 5.6GB over night with nothing attached to the modem. To compare results I put a router behind the modem and the router had zero traffic while the modem had 4.8GB.


Was that directly on the modem or on a Quest site? I'm wondering if it uploads data usage at particular times. Like smartphone users were seeing data at 2am and such on their accounts, but that was when the actual data for the day was uploaded.

Also, is the modem have wifi with WEP or no encryption? Maybe someone was using your network.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

I've got one of the Samknows routers -and it includes a traffic monitor (part of the standard Netgear F/w (Router is a WNR3500L with some custom F/w for testing) -

www.testmyisp.com


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## kiknwing (Jun 24, 2009)

dpeters11 said:


> Was that directly on the modem or on a Quest site? I'm wondering if it uploads data usage at particular times. Like smartphone users were seeing data at 2am and such on their accounts, but that was when the actual data for the day was uploaded.
> 
> Also, is the modem have wifi with WEP or no encryption? Maybe someone was using your network.


It's the modem, it does have wireless but it's off. Most of the data was upstream. Also nothing shows up in the web activity log.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

Nitehawk^ said:


> Greg is right, it is a very small percentage of users that abuse the bandwidth. I talked with a Netflix tech a couple months ago and he told me I was getting the highest quality stream available as I was at 15-20 mbps and he also added that at that level it was about 1gb of data per hour of hd video. I have never heard anything from charter in regards to excessive use and supposedly I have a cap here.


You are right - charter does have caps, it was announced back in January on yuor paper bill and on the inline version - check the terms of service for charter

http://www.myaccount.charter.com/customers/support.aspx?supportarticleid=2124


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

I have carefully read Comcast's data usage policy, which, as posted previously, provides users with a bandwidth allowance of 250 gigabytes per month. Comcast also provides users with with a 'meter' showing a subscriber's up-to-date usage for each month. Comcast also states that their usage meter is audited by an independent company

As of today, 3/14/2011, almost half-way the current month, I have used only 12% of Comcast's across-the-board bandwidth limit of 250GB. Since I got the Roku XD|S box, I stream from Netflix, Hulu, BigStar, TWiT, Pandora and several other sites. I stream a lot of movies. So far this calendar month, I have streamed 31GB, with 219GB left of Comcast's 250GB residential cap. Even if I doubled my current rate of usage, I would still use less than half of the allowance.

Below is an excerpt from Comcast's updated Acceptable Use Policy which gives a good idea of what you get for your 250GB's worth...


> 250GB is far beyond the current median of data usage for a typical residential Internet customer in a month, so this amount of data accommodates any reasonable definition of typical monthly residential usage.
> 
> To reach 250 GB in a month, for example, a customer would have to do any of the following:
> 
> ...


Personally, I am very satisfied with my Comcast ISP service. I'm rapidly shifting my movie viewing from cable to Internet and, at an average 15-20 mbps down, everything's rocking for me!


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Nick said:


> Personally, I am very satisfied with my Comcast ISP service. I'm rapidly shifting my movie viewing from cable to Internet and, at an average 15-20 mbps down, everything's rocking for me!


I don't have as much of a problem with caps on cable Internet, as long as it's easy to verify usage, the cap isn't hidden (Comcast used to not say what the cap was), and overage charges aren't onerous.

I have more of a problem with capping DSL, as that doesn't affect others in the neighborhood the same way. However, if I had to choose a cap, I'd take AT&T's 150gb to Frontier's attempted 5 any day. But personally, I'm happy I don't have a cap on my ISP.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

After reading this, I went to the Comcast website and checked my usage. According to the meter, at just about halfway through my billing cycle, I've used 67%. Looking over the last several months, I've gone over every month. In December, it said I exceeded 550GB, January 750GB, Februaru 524 GB. I don't see how this is possible. We have Netflix, but only for the last month or so. I have a Giganews account, but I certainly don't download more than a few GB a month. I'm going to have to check more carefully I think. We do have 4 iPhones. Do DISH VOD movies stream via internet? Even still, a 2 hour HD movie should only be about 8-10GB at the most. Something seems amiss.



Nick said:


> I have carefully read Comcast's data usage policy, which, as posted previously, provides users with a bandwidth allowance of 250 gigabytes per month. Comcast also provides users with with a 'meter' showing a subscriber's up-to-date usage for each month. Comcast also states that their usage meter is audited by an independent company
> 
> Below is an excerpt from Comcast's updated Acceptable Use Policy which gives a good idea of what you get for your 250GB's worth...Personally, I am very satisfied with my Comcast ISP service. I'm rapidly shifting my movie viewing from cable to Internet and, at an average 15-20 mbps down, everything's rocking for me!


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## kocuba (Dec 29, 2006)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> True. But, here's an example for you. Joe Data only uses ~50GB/month... but one day decides he wants to back up his 250GB of pictures and video to Carbonite. He's gonna get dinged.
> 
> 
> > While a minor point, still thought I'd bring it up. Actually he would not get dinged if this is his first time going over the cap. ATT is allwoing up to 3 overages without any charges.
> ...


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## e4123 (Jan 31, 2011)

I guess they are just treating the data pipe as if it were a water pipe. You use more water, you pay for more water. More data, well you get the picture.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Just had an interesting chat with AT&T.

They indicated they were releasing a new tool to check online in real-time current month-to-date usage. At this moment, *it's not yet public*.

It will be available *soon*, and for sure before the new cap is instituted.

They plan to issue an e-mail announcing availability to all AT&T DSL customers.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

dmspen said:


> After reading this, I went to the Comcast website and checked my usage. According to the meter, at just about halfway through my billing cycle, I've used 67%...


According to my understanding of Comcast's AUP, the period measured is a _calendar_ month which, for me, makes it easier to track my usage.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

kocuba said:


> I have mixed feelings about the whole cap thing anyways. While it won't affect me, it doesn't seem fair to others who might need more. What if you did work from home? Alot of which was using gotomypc or logmein? Is that fair? Not really, but it is what it is. I guess I'm just ambivalent to the whole thing. Surprised it took this long to get here...


We're primarily talking residential use here. Small office and home office (SOHO) users with such high bandwidth demands should probably opt for an unlimited commercial account.

Now comes this from *MediaBiz.com*:


> *Capping Broadband; Netflix to Fall Short?*
> 
> The caps are high and the number of customers affected low but, says Bernstein Research's Craig Moffett, the importance of AT&T's new broadband usage caps "cannot be overstated." At 150 GB for legacy DSL customers and 250 for U-verse, "the caps are set at a level where watching lots of video is welcomed&#8230; but substituting online video for linear video is not." Watch for cable players to follow suit.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Davenlr said:


> Xfinity already has me at a 250GB cap (2X AT&T's) and I have never come close, even with netflix, and lots of web streaming.
> 
> 17% As of 3/13/2011* Cap:250GB Usage:43GB Remaining:207GB


I have never come close either.



Greg Alsobrook said:


> True. But, here's an example for you. Joe Data only uses ~50GB/month... but one day decides he wants to back up his 250GB of pictures and video to Carbonite. He's gonna get dinged.
> 
> The other part of it is just psychological. People don't like having limits. It may make people be more hesitant in their data usage, which they don't want to do (and probably don't need to do... but still).


Which is why I would rather see a lower base cap and the reasonable overage charges. If 98% never see 150G, then the cap is too high. Set it at 1 to 1.5 Standard Deviations over the Median, then $1 per each 10G over. So if someone wants or needs to go ever it, then there is a cost, but not a penalty.

Most people pay a base fee for water than includes a minimum usage, then extra for usage over that. If you don't use the minimum, you still pay for it.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

I leverage my multiple PCs for home and work...and then another for the daughter's laptop. Nowhere near the cap.

Then again...I only stream stuff perhaps 3-4 times a month.

This all seems to reinforce the point I made in a previous thread about those condoning streaming video as "the future" that would eliminate current HDTV delivery. 

All those with streaming will need to rethink that business model.


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## tcusta00 (Dec 31, 2007)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Just had an interesting chat with AT&T.
> 
> They indicated they were releasing a new tool to check online in real-time current month-to-date usage. At this moment, *it's not yet public*.
> 
> ...


That is interesting. So interesting, in fact, that Greg started a thread about it and included that information in the article he linked in his first post. :lol:



> How does AT&T defend the move? The company explains it will only impact two percent of consumers who use "a disproportionate amount of bandwidth," and poses the caps as an alternative to throttling transfer speeds or disconnecting excessive users from the service completely. Customers will be able to check their usage with an online tool, and get notifications when they reach 65 percent, 90 percent and 100 percent of their monthly rates.
> 
> We just spoke with AT&T representative Seth Bloom and confirmed the whole thing -- rates are exactly as described above, and the company will actually begin notifying customers this week. He also told us that those customers who don't yet have access to the bandwidth usage tool won't get charged until they do, and that AT&T U-Verse TV service won't count towards the GB cap.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

tcusta00 said:


> That is interesting. So interesting, in fact, that Greg started a thread about it and included that information in the article he linked in his first post. :lol:


Implementation will vary slightly by state, so I was confirming at another location. I was given May 10th as the start date here.

Yes...its interesting.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

dmspen said:


> In December, it said I exceeded 550GB, January 750GB, Februaru 524 GB. I don't see how this is possible.
> 
> Something seems amiss.


Indeed.

Those numbers don't sound right unless something is happening on your account you don't know about.

Who has the phones and what are they doing with them?


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

One gripe that I have... is on the iPhone data plan, AT&T meters bandwidth that you have no choice about... by which I mean, the regular communications between the phone and AT&T to tell them how much data you used... takes data to communicate... and they meter that and count it against your cap.

It's like back years ago when AT&T instituted a $2 fee on phone bills to tell you how much you owed them. That's back when I originally dropped AT&T for long distance... until they eventually merged back with Bellsouth.

The point, though, is that there is a lot of overhead that they will count against you that is technically their bandwidth.

For the home user... their DSL/U-verse modem communicates as well plus they perform some maintenance and firmware updates overnight sometimes that will take your bandwidth.

People who use Usenet and email have to also take the encoding of attachments into consideration. Usenet and email protocols are 7-bit protocols... so file attachments to those have to be re-encoded... and what happens is that 1GB file you attach ends up being 1.5GB or more actual bandwidth... so when you say "I only download a few 1GB files per month" remember that you are transferring more data than the end file size reflects.


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## Alebob911 (Mar 22, 2007)

Greg Alsobrook said:


> Right. Actually, I'm dropping Mozy because they dropped unlimited. My price per year is about to double. Gonna take my chances with Carbonite and hope they keep their unlimited plan.


I did the same thing but chose,

http://www.crashplan.com

Some pretty nice features they have and the price is great for multiple computer backup.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

All 4 of us in the house have iPhones. Two are on unlimited data plans and leave their 3G on all the time. I dropped my data plan to the minimum and use WiFi at home as does the wife. We don't watch videos (except an occassional YouTube) much on the phones.

We have 2 PCs and a MAC on WiFI, but again, nothing noteworthy about the downloads. We will watch 2-3 PPVs on DISH each month, an odd Netflix stream, very limited Amazon streaming...
It just doesn't add up.

Anyone know of a good Network Monitoring tool that will record amount of usage and who is using it?



SayWhat? said:


> I
> Those numbers don't sound right unless something is happening on your account you don't know about.
> 
> Who has the phones and what are they doing with them?


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

dmspen said:


> All 4 of us in the house have iPhones. Two are on unlimited data plans and leave their 3G on all the time. I dropped my data plan to the minimum and use WiFi at home as does the wife. We don't watch videos (except an occassional YouTube) much on the phones.
> 
> We have 2 PCs and a MAC on WiFI, but again, nothing noteworthy about the downloads. We will watch 2-3 PPVs on DISH each month, an odd Netflix stream, very limited Amazon streaming...
> It just doesn't add up.
> ...


You might look in your router's pages- mine is a new Netgear, and it can create and e-mail logs to me, but they tend to be massive.

Do you put your computers in sleep mode when not active with them? And check that they remain in the same mode?


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## photostudent (Nov 8, 2007)

I've got a good question; Cable tv/internet and Uverse tv/internet have one cable coming into the home. Even if they can figure out which data bit is which, why does it matter. I.e. what is the difference if I am watching cable on two tvs or if I am watching cable on one and streaming on the other? I am not really buying that there is a byte shortage anyway. Switching systems that are made to handle the mass of business data during the day can easily handle streaming evenings/weekends. That is the reason cellphone and landline phones give free nights and weekends.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> AT&T today rolled out major change to its DSL terms of service, notifying its customers of new data caps, network management rules, and usage metering tools. Judging by company forums, many users aren't pleased, but they had better keep their anger in check. *The new terms of service also allow AT&T to cut off subscribers "who repeatedly harass or abuse our employees."*


http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...nces-data-caps-wont-talk-about-congestion.ars

In other words, we don't want to hear about you being unhappy.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

SayWhat? said:


> http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...nces-data-caps-wont-talk-about-congestion.ars
> 
> In other words, we don't want to hear about you being unhappy.


I don't think you understand what harass & abuse mean if that's your interpretation.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

From the same article:



> Finally, what about that "employee abuse" mentioned above? Glad you asked. AT&T now prohibits subscribers from "making threats to physically harm or damage employee or company property; frequent use of profane or vulgar language; or *repeatedly contacting our customer service representatives for reasons that do not pertain to our provisioning, maintenance, repair or general servicing of your high speed Internet access service after you have been asked to stop such conduct*."


In other words, we REALLY don't want to hear from you if you're unhappy about our lack of service.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Anyone know how much data Vonage uses? Just curious, as its a competitor with both AT*T's voice service, U-Verse Voice, and Comcasts Digital Voice. Seems like Vonage might be able to pursue an anti-competitive complaint if your ISP charges its usage against your cap, but not its own voice services.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Pro (sort of): http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2011-03-20-ATT-deal-impact-on-consumers.htm

Con: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus-20110321,0,1097806.column


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Davenlr said:


> Anyone know how much data Vonage uses? Just curious, as its a competitor with both AT*T's voice service, U-Verse Voice, and Comcasts Digital Voice. Seems like Vonage might be able to pursue an anti-competitive complaint if your ISP charges its usage against your cap, but not its own voice services.


I think it's around 40-50 meg an hour.


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

Looks like this bright new future of web downloading that was supposed to kill satellite TV will be gone before broadband even gets to my house.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

It would be nice if sites like update.microsoft.com and such were excluded, or downloading new versions of iTunes. When a new version of iTunes fixes 50 security vulnerabilities and has a "cost" of 70+ meg, I'd hate to see people not get fixes in fear of hitting their max download.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Settle down.

It takes 1,000 MBs to make 1 GB and I have 250 gigs available to me each and every month on Comcast. To use 250GB in a month, you would have to do any of the following:

* Send 50 million plain text e-mails (at 5KB/e-mail)
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
* Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
* Download 50 HD movies (at 5 GB/movie)
* Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)

It's not the end of the world, unless maybe you're (not your) doing something you shouldn't be...??? :eek2:


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Nick said:


> Settle down.
> 
> It takes 1,000 MBs to make 1 GB and I have 250 gigs available to me each and every month on Comcast. To use 250GB in a month, you would have to do any of the following:
> 
> ...


I'm not a heavy user... but my father uses Netflix quite a bit on his iPad... and if I used my Dish Network VOD more often... it probably wouldn't take many movies to hit that limit.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

In my house, we have 4 iPhones, 3 TVs, each with a DVR and internet connection, 3 PCs, hooked up to internet. We also have a Netflix streaming account and Amazon Video account (both on the TV). With 4 people in the house, it's not impossible to hit 250GB easily.
If you saw my other posts in this thread, you'll see that I've been running over 500gb. I think I found the culprit. I opened Task Manager the other day for some unrelated reason. I went to the Network tab and saw my network was chugging along at 2.5%. No one else was home so there was almost no internet activity, yet I'm at 2.5%. After poking around a bit, I found a Chrome add-in was causing this. A restart of Chrome killed it. I often leave CHrome up and running (OK, it's a facebook and Farmville thing - go ahead, snicker all you want).
It will be intersting to see where I end up this month. Last Saturday, according to the COmcast usage meter. I burned 16GB of data. No movies, no streaming video...


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

dmspen said:


> In my house, we have 4 iPhones, 3 TVs, each with a DVR and internet connection, 3 PCs, hooked up to internet. We also have a Netflix streaming account and Amazon Video account (both on the TV). With 4 people in the house, it's not impossible to hit 250GB easily.
> If you saw my other posts in this thread, you'll see that I've been running over 500gb. I think I found the culprit. I opened Task Manager the other day for some unrelated reason. I went to the Network tab and saw my network was chugging along at 2.5%. No one else was home so there was almost no internet activity, yet I'm at 2.5%. After poking around a bit, I found a Chrome add-in was causing this. A restart of Chrome killed it. I often leave CHrome up and running (OK, it's a facebook and Farmville thing - go ahead, snicker all you want).
> It will be intersting to see where I end up this month. Last Saturday, according to the COmcast usage meter. I burned 16GB of data. No movies, no streaming video...


Was it you to whom I addressed the question as to whether you sleep your computers at night or when not in use? If so, it looks like the answer was "no".

What add on did it, please? You're sure your machine wasn't zombied??


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## DawgLink (Nov 5, 2006)

These ISP's are going to continue limiting the data that we can view online

Years ago we were told that those downloading 24/7 were killing the networks and that they HAD to be stopped. Then the ISPs put in caps that did not stop those people but put them within reasonable range of those who use the ISP often. 

My mother has gotten into Hulu & Netflix. She likes to watch movies every now and then. Add in that she also streams Pandora every few days while she works from home. I am sure every month she uses a good amount of gb's. 

How people like her can hit the cap, imo, shows what an utter joke SOME ISP caps are in todays world. Not everyone. 

Comcast first issued a 250gb cap which at the time was respectable, imo. If they keep raising it in the upcoming years, I suspect nobody will really complain to them ESPECIALLY b/c those who go above it rarely get slapped down

ISP's want money and putting caps near a level that some can hit so that the ISP's can get some extra penalties/overages


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Nick: The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition Blu-Ray trilogy is going to be released in June and it was just announced that each movie is going to be SPLIT on TWO 50GB dual-layer discs.

An HD movie is WAY more than 5GB.

Plus I have TWO DishNetwork DVRs constantly downloading the latest VOD options, though I never watch them (I can always see their light on the router flashing like crazy).

My daughter does voice conference (so to speak) on Halo on the Xbox.

I have Netflix going on top of all that.

When Fairpoint bought Verizon's northern New England land assets (ME/NH/VT) I was VERY upset because it meant no Fios TV for us. I *was* lucky enough to get onto Fios for internet and phone before Verizon left. I was NOT fond of Fairpoint because of service horror stories and they continued to screw things up left and right (took them over a year to get a website up that could accept payments). At least my line kept working.

Now, Fairpoint is looking FAR better. The managed to get their service competency level up to "ok" after bankruptcy and they've even rolled out a higher-speed option of their fiber service. I'm at $48 for 15mb/2mb service. For $89 I can have 30mb/15mb. Why do they now have this? Because Comcast came out with 20 or 25mbps (I forget which one the salesman was trying to hook me with). BUT - they have a 250GB cap.

The whole idea of unlimited service was that it was UNLIMITED - meaning you didn't have to worry about other data charges AND you could try out new things without fear.

When I got my fiber line in September 2006, the idea of HD over internet was unheard of. Now, it's my regular backup source of programming.

It's amazing that a company can get away with throttling back throughput and hiking the prices of something that gets CHEAPER as time goes on.


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## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

I don't think you can base the size of an HD movie download on the size of Blu-Ray releases. I've downloaded HD TV episodes in iTunes and they (720P and 5.1 DD) are about 1.5 GB for a 45 minute episode.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

klang said:


> I don't think you can base the size of an HD movie download on the size of Blu-Ray releases. I've downloaded HD TV episodes in iTunes and they (720P and 5.1 DD) are about 1.5 GB for a 45 minute episode.


No, you can't. A Blu-Ray isn't nearly compressed as much, and the audio generally is uncompressed. In the case of the 14 disc LOR behemoth, each movie disk includes 4 different commentary tracks, and likely at least Spanish.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

I haven't checked file sizes for Dish on demand downloads...

I know it is common to record movies from various premium channels in HD at 3-5GB per movie... some larger if the movie is a longer than average run-time.

I would expect Netflix to be closer to iTunes... as both are streaming 720p right? I know iTunes HD is 720p... but don't know for sure about Netflix.

In any event... it adds up quickly if you watch a lot via either of those mechanisms... Also I've read some reports that the ISP meters count more than actual data... which means some of the "overhead" packets that you never see get counted... and those will add up too.

I know my iPhone, for example, uses 5-7MB per month and I only use my iPhone where I have WiFi... so yeah it is a small amount of data, but that's a lot of data in proportion to the nearly zero I am actively using via their system! Imagine if I were actively using it in the same way I use my home internet.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

I was leaving my PC on at night with Chrome up and running. There's an add-in called FV-Extender that constantly scours your Facebook wall for Farmville responses and automatically picks them up.
I turned off the PC for two days. The Comcast usage over those 2 days was about 2GB.
I don't know for sure if that was the issue, so I'm going to turn the PC on and shut down Chrome. I'll report the results.


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

It looks like that Chrome extension was the culprit. The PC has been on for over 24 hours and no change in data usage. Looks like I won't get canned by Comcast!


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

I'm in the camp of they should have unlimited access for 1 price and if they want capped rates then the cap should be the cost and it should always be at the highest speed available.

I don't think you should have both rolled up at once.


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## jal (Mar 3, 2005)

What are the thoughts of switching from ATT to a cable operator without a cap? This cap thing makes me upset with AT&T, yet it may not even effect me now. The thing is, IPTV is the wave of the future and this seems so limiting.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

jal said:


> The thing is, IPTV is the wave of the future and this seems so limiting.


People keep saying that, but clearly, caps are the thing of the future. I don't see IPTV expanding to the masses any time soon. It seems destined to be a toy for the rich along with yachts and private planes.


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

Nick said:


> Settle down.
> 
> * Download 50 HD movies (at 5 GB/movie)


As djlong mentioned above, I believe HD 1080i movies run about 15g each. 10 VOD HD movies and you hit the AT&T cap.


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## malaern (Apr 30, 2006)

Nick said:


> Settle down.
> 
> It takes 1,000 MBs to make 1 GB and I have 250 gigs available to me each and every month on Comcast. To use 250GB in a month, you would have to do any of the following:
> 
> ...


I'd add video chatting to the list of "legitimate" uses. At 4 hours away, I'm the closest relative to my elderly, hard-of-hearing father. Our daily video chats allow him to understand me much better than audio only communication, and I can really see how he is doing. We value this to such an extent that we would both be willing to pay more to keep this ability. But I wouldn't be too happy about egregious overage charges . . .

And of course, if we reached our caps using the video chat, then there's no GB left for those other legitimate uses, including software updates.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

jal said:


> What are the thoughts of switching from ATT to a cable operator without a cap? This cap thing makes me upset with AT&T, yet it may not even effect me now. The thing is, IPTV is the wave of the future and this seems so limiting.


IPTV will only be the way of the future once a major ISP is created that isn't affiliated in any way with a video service. Our major ISPS are all setup with a video service. This of course won't happen with the current laws regarding usage of fiber optic lines.

IPTV will only be the way of the future once a current MVPD changes their delivery to IP based.

In fact I think IPTV will be more akin to AM Radio unless something major happens with our ISPs.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

You want to use IPTV ?

Fine - just open your wallet like you pay for cable / satellite venders.


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## jal (Mar 3, 2005)

You mean like paying a Netflix subscription, and then having to pay AT&T even more than what was advertised for "unlimited" dsl service?


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## xmguy (Mar 27, 2008)

wingrider01 said:


> You are right - charter does have caps, it was announced back in January on yuor paper bill and on the inline version - check the terms of service for charter
> 
> http://www.myaccount.charter.com/customers/support.aspx?supportarticleid=2124


They WERE going to do this. But backed off.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

A guy I work with told me today that he called AT&T and was going to cancel just to resign up for a new DSL deal and they offered him the new customer deal without cancelling. He had to talk to a retention department in Oklahoma but he did say that he was paying $25 a month for 6 MEG DSL for a year. Not to bad. Might be worth trying.


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## afulkerson (Jan 14, 2007)

We are currently using about 10 gig per month on our DSL line acording to AT&T. However we do not download movies via the internet. So we should be part of the 98% that do not use much bandwidth.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

xmguy said:


> They WERE going to do this. But backed off.


Not sure where you heard that but the caps are definately in place and are being enforced. If you look at the current terms of service they are there also. People have been posting on the forums they have recieved warning emails also


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

> *AT&T Users Complaining About Inaccurate Meters*
> Usage numbers off by hundreds of gigabytes?
> 
> While the consumer response to AT&T's T-Mobile is generally negative, AT&T's fortunate in that the deal at least has shifted media attention away from AT&T's recent decision to start charging DSL and U-Verse users overages. Over the years as we've watched ISPs (especially in Canada) embrace metered billing, so enamoured with the potential new revenue -- they often forget to make sure their usage meters actually work (see: Cogeco. Bell), Judging from posts in our forums by AT&T users, AT&T's effort on this front so far isn't any better. Comparing AT&T's new meter system to their firewall and router logs, several users note that AT&T's meter is off -- by as much as hundreds of gigabytes >>>


More @ DSLReports.com


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## Mikemok1981 (Jul 9, 2009)

Nick said:


> More @ DSLReports.com


One user from a report I saw indicated his metering was off by 4700%. His firewall indicated 8.8 meg up and down while the AT&T metering showed him as using 3.8 gig.

*edit: And I guess they reported the same thing on a few websites, I hadn't seen DSL reports listed the same guy's complaint. Thats what I get for not reading the article before I posted


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

No worries...thanks for posting.


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