AT&T Jumps Into The Metered Broadband Game
from the not-too-surprising dept
As was widely expected, AT&T has officially jumped into the metered broadband game, initiating a system in Reno, with caps ranging from 20 to 150 gigabytes per month, depending on tier, and overage fees at $1/gigabyte. These caps are significantly lower than Comcast's caps, though higher than we've seen elsewhere. At this point, it's become pretty clear that all of the major ISPs seem to want to adopt such tiers and overage fees, which I still think will come back to bite them. It would be an opportunity for others to offer more competitive offerings if the FCC hadn't done everything possible to kill off competition in the broadband space.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: broadband, broadband caps, tiered service
Companies: at&t
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
I can use as much water as all of my taps will pour out. If I am away on vacation for a month I might not use any at all. If my house is on fire, I can use the hydrant out front to deliver a whole lot of water really quickly.
Give me broadband net access with basically unlimited bandwidth when I ask for it (fire hydrant), AND no fees when I don't use it and I am sold.
If I want to download an HD movie on my AppleTV, I would know that it costs 35 cents in bandwidth. I would know my IMAP connections cost 7 cents per day. If I needed to upload a bunch of stuff to my webserver/office/buddy I would be able to do it quickly and would knowingly pay for the privilege.
I'm sure the Canadian service providers would find some way to ruin it with caps and 'system fees', but in an ideal world metered bandwidth is exactly what we need to convert Internet access from a luxury like cable TV to a basic commodity like water.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I agree with bjc
Which is epic fail instead of epic win.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
you want to pay *less* to a telecommunications company? i want to be the first non-catholic pope. you know what, i'll get my wish before you get yours.
cable and telco bills always go up. you can't pay less. that's physically impossible. that's *never* going to happen.
you always pay more. always. forever.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is a Step Backwars and Is very bad.
Also if the cable providers laid out there networks and managed them properly which they have more then enough $$$$ to do in the first place they would not have to take these measures services such as fios and other fiber based services do not have these limitations.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is a Step Backwards and Is very bad.
Also if the cable providers laid out there networks and managed them properly which they have more then enough $$$$ to do in the first place they would not have to take these measures services such as fios and other fiber based services do not have these limitations.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This is a Step Backwards and Is very bad.
Can you imagine if Intel/AMD took the same mindset on their CPUs? We'd be stuck with 1 GHz single core processors that have a limit of 1000 calculations per day. If you want more than that, you'd have to pay them to get more calculations.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I don't want to pay for spam
Charges could also come into play with advertisements. How much is brought down in flash ADs, images and pop-ups, solicited or not? Let's talk about spam? Is the ISP metering my b/w utilization with respect to email? What a mess, what a mistake...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Western Internet Caps
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Metered Broadband
What's next? They slow down or control our up/downloads to milk more money from you? They try to restrict access to competitors web browsers or other sites?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stop whining, I'm stuck on 20GB ;)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I stream audio and video podcast throughout my day as background noise while I work. When I get home I often have Hulu up to watch some tv episodes. The kids are constantly streaming videos from a variety of websites. My girlfriend has music streaming on he computer. Now there's another bandwidth sink coming up with netflix streaming HD to the xbox.
Because the big entertainment companies managed to screw the pooch when it came to the next gen HD standard rather than having a BD player in the house I will be streaming my HD over my internet connection.
So what I'm getting at here is its fairly easy to hit any cap implemented. As more and more of our home entertainment comes in over the internet to the big screen we're just going to use more bandwidth.
For those who say Americans should feel lucky to have such huge caps. The ISPs are changing the rules at a time when bandwidth consumption is about to explode again. The overage charges are going to make the companies some money. Why should I feel lucky to go from unlimited to metered with no realistic choice to take my buisness elsewhere.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bob V..... very well stated
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If that limit happens where I am I'll switch to something else.
It's your own fault if you are downloading movies illegally, if you get caught then let the courts decide your fate not the ISPs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Putting the Squeeze on Content Providers
Now, as to the people who constantly say "you ,ust be downloading tons of pirated movies", have you ever stopped to think about all of the streaming content that is now used? So many sites stream video, Flash, audio, etc. that will all go against the caps. Are you going to block all of that now? Services like Apple TV and Netflix, which LEGALLY distribute movies by download or streaming (Apple TV now, and Netlix soon, in HD) will see the use of their services fall because of the caps.
So, basically, what comes across the Internet is evolving at a rapid pace, but the ISPs refuse to evolve with it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Seriously? You allowed them to do that to you. We're saying we aren't going to allow it here. I enjoy watching my streamed HD content from whatever provider I want to download from.
"At this point, it's become pretty clear that all of the major ISPs seem to want to adopt such tiers and overage fees, which I still think will come back to bite them." Did I miss something, or has Verizon said something about a cap? I thought their entire platform was built on no caps and more bandwidth. If they ever get fios to me, I will vote with my dollars.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If everyone does it, where do you go?
This sucks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Death of Online Backup
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
AT&T's charges
You're right on target that this wouldn't be happening if we had better competition. France and Japan have twice as many competitors as the U.S. in broadband. None of the major companies in France has any cap at all. One does in Japan, 900 gigabytes upstream, unlimited downstream.
However, the U.S. needs a different solution to this problem than competition, because it's prohibitively unlikely for the next decade. Wireless is a small factor, without the capacity for high quality video and similar that is what drives people towards these caps. The best on wall street tell me no one would finance an alternative wired network in the U.S. .I love solving problems with competition, but it isn't likely here.
If my assumptions above are accurate, how would you you deal with this problem?
Dave Burstein
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If (who am I kidding? WHEN) they institute a cap in my state, I'll drop them. I still have at least one other choice that hasn't (as yet) capped their service. Hopefully by then Verizon FIOS will be available in this area.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Monthly Capping Limits
[ link to this | view in chronology ]