# Directv. First Comcast, now AT&T, can DOD survive badwidth caps?



## rahlquist (Jul 24, 2007)

Well this is getting serious, the two largest ISP's in the country are now testing and rolling out caps. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/...lling-Trial-In-Reno-98856?r=0.270887675966275

I know this isnt specifically a DOD issue but it does directly affect it.

To keep things in perspective, based on the last 4 days of data collection I will pull 51 gig this month. This is what I consider normal use and not an exception use like when I download 5 or 6 linux distros, a bunch of HD DOD and my wife who work via VPN from home.


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## KoRn (Oct 21, 2008)

Really not good at all. I am no means a pirate. But, my network consist of the following:

PC
Xbox 360
Nintendo Wii
DTV 

Possibly adding another pc. As you can see. That is a whole lot of dl each month. The gaming consoles alone are played a whole lot on line. I have Charter cable and so far so good with no caps. But, people are wanting to go faster and faster with internet speeds. Now this is the cost. Caps. I could see it coming a 100 miles away as speeds increase. For a whole lot of people out there like me. It is going to suck. Because this much dl. The ISP would probably assume I am dl illegal content. When that is just not the case. If these caps happen with all major broadband isp's. They need to provide software for you can watch your usage.


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## rahlquist (Jul 24, 2007)

Here are the new caps exposed by their FAQ.. Remember this is in testing now so may be a godo time to kick AT&T in the shin.

AT&T Basic (DSL only) Up-to 768 Kbps 20 GB per month
AT&T Express Up-to 1.5 Mbps 40 GB per month
AT&T Pro Up-to 3.0 Mbps 60 GB per month
AT&T Elite Up-to 6.0 Mbps 80 GB per month
AT&T Max (U-verse only) Up-to 10.0 Mbps 150 GB per month

Source: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/More-Specifics-On-ATTs-Cap-Plans-98907

So considering I run proably 60 Gig s a month or so as it is, that will leave me with 20 Gig so I will be able to get maybe 4 HD movies.

Grand!

The only way these caps will get stopped in their tracks is if big business gets behind us.


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## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

rahlquist said:


> Here are the new caps exposed by their FAQ.. Remember this is in testing now so may be a godo time to kick AT&T in the shin.
> 
> AT&T Basic (DSL only) Up-to 768 Kbps 20 GB per month
> AT&T Express Up-to 1.5 Mbps 40 GB per month
> ...


You have just supplied the basis for the lawsuit...
"AT&T Max (U-verse only) Up-to 10.0 Mbps 150 GB per month"
If AT&T restricts (caps) based on having their U-verse, I smell a big fat lawsuit coming...


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## rahlquist (Jul 24, 2007)

LarryFlowers said:


> You have just supplied the basis for the lawsuit...
> "AT&T Max (U-verse only) Up-to 10.0 Mbps 150 GB per month"
> If AT&T restricts (caps) based on having their U-verse, I smell a big fat lawsuit coming...


Perhaps, of course they could just do the money shuffle and say Uvers pays us $2/month per customer to get the extra bandwidth. Would D* pay them? No. Would we, maybe....


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## satjoe (Oct 28, 2008)

rahlquist said:


> Well this is getting serious, the two largest ISP's in the country are now testing and rolling out caps. http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/...lling-Trial-In-Reno-98856?r=0.270887675966275
> 
> I know this isnt specifically a DOD issue but it does directly affect it.
> 
> To keep things in perspective, based on the last 4 days of data collection I will pull 51 gig this month. This is what I consider normal use and not an exception use like when I download 5 or 6 linux distros, a bunch of HD DOD and my wife who work via VPN from home.


Maybe some good news. Comcast is now field testing Docsis 3.0 which increase their speed from 8-12 megs up to a possible 128megs, faster then FIOS. It is just a firm ware update to the existing modems. With increased speed it will reduce bandwith usage time. When they change to all Digital it will free up tons of space. Hopefully they will just treat the bandwith cap as a stop gap untill everything falls in place.

Good Luck


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## dhhaines (Nov 18, 2005)

satjoe said:


> Maybe some good news. Comcast is now field testing Docsis 3.0 which increase their speed from 8-12 megs up to a possible 128megs, faster then FIOS. It is just a firm ware update to the existing modems. With increased speed it will reduce bandwith usage time. When they change to all Digital it will free up tons of space. *Hopefully they will just treat the bandwith cap as a stop gap untill everything falls in place.*
> 
> Good Luck


Not Comcast Not in our lifetime unless someone sues them over it and wins.


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## mx6bfast (Nov 8, 2006)

I was reading about this the other day. I'm surprised that their caps are much lower than Comcast's. I wonder why?

I'd like to capture the amount of bandwidth I am using between the pc's and HD DVR's hooked up to my lan. Is there a way I can do this? I have Comcast and a 54g Linksys wireless router if that helps.


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## syphix (Jun 23, 2004)

I guys are lucky. I have Frontier DSL (only broadband ISP in my rural area), and they cap at 5 GB per month.

Yeah. 5 GB.

I'd kill to have 20-60 GB...


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## bsprague (Feb 24, 2007)

I disconnected all the wires with Comcast and Quest. Instead I got cell phones and a "Unlimited Use Broadband Aircard" from Verizon. For TV, of course it is DirecTV. 

I use the aircard in a specialized router so two of us can use it for daily tasks. We don't do "On Demand" TV. Most months we will get up to about 3G of use and have never hit the 5G limit. 

About a year ago Verizon was sued in New York for having impeding or disconnecting some customers' aircards for going over 5G. Now Verizon (and Sprint, maybe others) have a 5G limit in their contract and include a totalizer in their connection software.

My point is that 5G is really enough until you start factoring in major entertainment features. I don't know what I will do when Blu-Ray from Netflix by mail no longer keeps me happy.


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## KoRn (Oct 21, 2008)

You have got to be kidding me! 5gb is nothing. How much do you pay each month for it and at what speeds? Just curious......



syphix said:


> I guys are lucky. I have Frontier DSL (only broadband ISP in my rural area), and they cap at 5 GB per month.
> 
> Yeah. 5 GB.
> 
> I'd kill to have 20-60 GB...


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## bsprague (Feb 24, 2007)

KoRn said:


> You have got to be kidding me! 5gb is nothing. How much do you pay each month for it and at what speeds? Just curious......


Read my signature. I am a gypsy. I travel a lot in our motorhome. I want to go where I want, when I want. Wireless works. The Verrizon aircard cost $60 a month. I can't tell you the speeds in tech terms, but it works well for everything I want, except for on demand video.


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## julesism (Feb 25, 2004)

you forgot to include Time Warner Cable to the list... 5-40GB trial caps in Beaumont TX article from 01/08 - http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/91047.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

We will only have to deal with telco companies for the next 5 to 10 years... Then, they will get rid of their caps or die... The FCC apporved plans for companies to build massive wifi networks (and by companies I mean Google and Microsoft, which have the money and desire to do so...) using white spaces in tv airwaves... It just a matter of time before cable has to get rid of caps... unfortunately, its not next week... That also might completely changed the mobile phone carriers rates as well.....


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## T_N_T (Sep 9, 2008)

U-Verse TV is IPTV, so what happens if someone watching U-Verse TV sends them over the FAP limit? This reeks of Hughesnet & WildBlue.


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## mx6bfast (Nov 8, 2006)

mx6bfast said:


> I'd like to capture the amount of bandwidth I am using between the pc's and HD DVR's hooked up to my lan. Is there a way I can do this? I have Comcast and a 54g Linksys wireless router if that helps.


Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe some recommended software?


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## MountainMan10 (Jan 31, 2008)

mx6bfast said:


> Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe some recommended software?


The only way to capture the usage is with a firmware upgrade for your router. I use http://www.dd-wrt.com. This is not for everyone. Upgrading your router firmware has the potential of turning it into a brick. Support for the 54G is questionable. Yes for WRH54G, no or maybe for other versions. I have the Linksys WRT310N. dd-wrt works greate with it.

I just checked my router. I used 111 gigs last month. So far Qwest does not have caps.


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## ABQ_bound (Oct 24, 2008)

LarryFlowers said:


> You have just supplied the basis for the lawsuit...
> "AT&T Max (U-verse only) Up-to 10.0 Mbps 150 GB per month"
> If AT&T restricts (caps) based on having their U-verse, I smell a big fat lawsuit coming...


What's the basis for a lawsuit in this?


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## T_N_T (Sep 9, 2008)

ABQ_bound said:


> What's the basis for a lawsuit in this?


I don't know about a lawsuit for having to purcahse the "bundle" for the 150GB cap, but since U-Verse TV is IPTV, what happens if U-VerseTV takes you over the limit(depending on how much you watch and if its HD I would imagine it requires a greater amount of data) is there a lawsuit in that? Thats like AT&T calling bad on themselves.


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## jvmjr (Feb 12, 2008)

How many GB you are currently using? I have ATT DSL. Just upgraded to the best level they have. Just curious.
Thanks.


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## syphix (Jun 23, 2004)

KoRn said:


> You have got to be kidding me! 5gb is nothing. How much do you pay each month for it and at what speeds? Just curious......


Not kidding. They sent me a letter to let me know of the "cap", but state they won't start enforcing it until they give us software to meter our usage, which should be early 2009. I don't care anyway...I'm gonna be over their caps, and they'll be charging me for it, I guess. <shrugs>

I don't even use DirecTV onDemand because of the caps and my DSL speed...I tried it out when it came out, but never really saw a use for it in my current condition.

$40/month, for 1.5gb DSL. Yeah, it sucks living where there are no real choices.

Some say, "SATELLITE!" Yeah, their caps are actually HIGHER (part of my fight with Frontier, my ISP), somewhere around 15gb/month. But the latency for gaming or networking into work PC's is a deal breaker for me.


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

What's a two hour movie....maybe 4GB-ish?

We don't do a lot of VOD but I do a lot of surfing and what about email?

This could get expensive.

Mike


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## kevinwmsn (Aug 19, 2006)

Don't forget about all these flash ads in webpages.


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## Crypter (Jun 21, 2007)

jeeez... I pay $39 for 5 MB DOWN 2 MB UP and no caps.... it's Charter Cable (but I get a business line though my company) not sure if the regular residential service has caps or not.


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## HDJulie (Aug 10, 2008)

syphix said:


> Not kidding. They sent me a letter to let me know of the "cap", but state they won't start enforcing it until they give us software to meter our usage, which should be early 2009. I don't care anyway...I'm gonna be over their caps, and they'll be charging me for it, I guess. <shrugs>
> 
> I don't even use DirecTV onDemand because of the caps and my DSL speed...I tried it out when it came out, but never really saw a use for it in my current condition.
> 
> ...


Satellite may be higher overall, but the limit is per day rather than per month. I'm on Hughesnet & I pay $80 for 1.5 meg down speed & am lucky if I get 500kbs. For the downloads -- we get 400 meg a day. There was a 2-hour free period that I believe is now 4-hour (1AM - 5AM, I think) but if you go over 400 meg outside that time, they throttle you to less than dialup speed for 24 hours.


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