Internet access being limited?

[Draggon]

I got an email from a friend notifying me that AT&T will be limiting internet access to 150GB per month as of May. If you go over you get warned and then more fees. What the ?? Is this true? Has anyone heard of this? I cked Snopes and it doesnt appear to be a hoax. This is unbeleiveable.

Edited March 19, 2011 by Draggon

[Keef]

i know Comcast already limits their customers to 250gb of bandwidth a month, due in part to people who download numerous movies, music, etc. If they go over their allotted bandwidth they have to pay extra for anything over 250gb. i dont know of anyone that downloads over 250gb a month so im not too worried about it.

[Harry P.]

I got an email from a friend notifying me that AT&T will be limiting internet access to 150GB per month as of May. If you go over you get warned and then more fees. What the ?? Is this true? Has anyone heard of this? I cked Snopes and it doesnt appear to be a hoax. This is unbeleiveable.

I checked AT&T's site and couldn't find any info, but many other sorces say it's going to happen, and AT&T customers should get a heads-up in the mail between now and the end of the month.

We shall see...

[dougp]

I've read several articles where the providers are either running out of capacity and/or are trying to control heavy bandwidth users to keep their systems from bogging down during peak use hours. There is even some saying the internet is running out of bandwidth due to the proliferation of mobile devices capble of streaming video and on demand movies. So it's anyones guess.

[LOBBS]

I saw an article in the paper yesterday about AT&T limiting their DSL to 150 gigs/mo of data transfer and U-Verse to 250 gigs/month. According to the article it affects less than 2 percent of their customers. Unless you're moving hundreds of full length movies each and every month it's more than likely a non-issue.

[Ghost1]

A lot of it has to do to the the battle they are having with the FCC.

[Kaleb]

Im with ATT and i have not heard anything.

[Guest]

I have dialup, so there is no way I could download that much.

[Terror]

:lol:Thats ok I haven't seen a movie worth downloading in ten yrs. It's safer to wait a year for Walmart to sell em for $5.

[Tony T]

Man, in Canada, I wish we could reasonably get 150GB a month!! I'm paying $50 per month for 60 GB!!

[crazyjim]

Sorry, but I have no idea what you guys are with internet access being limited to 150Gb per month. I don't download anything (I don't think). Could this affect getting to this forum?

[Guest Johnny]

The notice is out. I got it two days ago. I don't download enough to worry about it. But then if they get an inch they will take a mile and they will probably keep tightening the limits until they milk the customer for everything they can get in the end.

[SkinnyDan]

The 150 gb for dsl/250 gb for Uverse is correct. Unless you spend most of your time streaming videos from places like youtube, hulu, or netflix, and I mean MOST of your time, you shouldn't really come near those limits. One of my co-workers with AT&T monitored his usage for a month and he hit 100 gb and he watches a lot of Netflix streaming.

[niteowl7710]

Sorry, but I have no idea what you guys are with internet access being limited to 150Gb per month. I don't download anything (I don't think). Could this affect getting to this forum?

I wouldn't worry about it. 150GB is about roughly equivalent to reading every single on of the 400k+ threads from beginning to end on this forum about 275 times a month. You'd have to watch about 100 feature length films to hit that 150GB threshold.

[highway]

I have dialup, so there is no way I could download that much.

If you could, it would probably take a month just for one movie!

[sak]

Don't forget things like netflix add to that bandwidth. If you stream a HD movie thru your internet that about 15 gigs right there no? Is the reason for this is to disable the movie piraters, I hope it excludes things that we download and payed for.

[crazyjim]

This mornings paper said AT&T is buying T-Mobile and will then become the largest cell phone company.

[Draggon]

I wouldn't worry about it. 150GB is about roughly equivalent to reading every single on of the 400k+ threads from beginning to end on this forum about 275 times a month.

Umm, I do that Maybe I have a problem.....

[ra7c7er]

Just to let you guys know that is EVERYTHING that goes through your internet connection. Have kid with a Xbox, PS3, or Wii everything they do on the internet will add to your total. Have an instant watch Netflix account every movie or tv show you watch will add to it. Work from home everything you download from your employer will add to your total. I don't think that very many people will go over but you will probably be surprised at how much you use.

This whole thing was supposed to be used to get more money out of large businesses that use lots of bandwidth but even Comcast and ATT are saying the get/will get roughly 10-20%% of residential accounts with overage bills.

Just like the banks starting to charge $5 atm fees this is just another way for the big corporations to get more money from you.

Want to know the best part about this. The providers went to congress before they started doing this. Just make sure they had all their ducks in a row so the didn't get in trouble. They told congress if they start charging for exceeding bandwidth they would be able to lower base account prices (some lobbyists claimed base account prices would go down as much as 75%). Well guess what they LIED base account prices still keep going up and now they are getting even more from us.

[niteowl7710]

Just like the banks starting to charge $5 atm fees this is just another way for the big corporations to get more money from you.

Want to know the best part about this. The providers went to congress before they started doing this. Just make sure they had all their ducks in a row so the didn't get in trouble. They told congress if they start charging for exceeding bandwidth they would be able to lower base account prices (some lobbyists claimed base account prices would go down as much as 75%). Well guess what they LIED base account prices still keep going up and now they are getting even more from us.

Well ya know large corporations aren't benevolent charities, they exist to make money. That's the point of running a business to make as much profit as possible, not give your product away. They have shareholders to answer to, and those shareholders are pretty much anyone who has a 401(k), IRA, pension, or other retirement account. Their users are using more and more of their resources which require them to go out and buy more and more equipment to handle that usage. I mean the internet just sorta exploded onto the consciousness of the world in the past decade and a half. Who do you think built and paid for all of that network? The government or AT&T? I'll give you 3 guesses and Uncle Sam isn't the answer.

No one is holding a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to sign up for internet service. Netflix will MAIL you the movies, you don't have to watch them right this instant. Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie!! Now, Now, Now! Faster, Faster, Faster! What I have to pay for my instant gratification...THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!! High-speed internet is a luxury item, not a civil right. If you can't afford the going rate *shrug* you don't have it. I was once so flat on my butt broke I didn't even have electricity for 3 months...

Lastly, the $5 ATM fee is for using out of network ATMs, so geez stop going to the other bank and use your own, and *poof* no fee.

[Joe Handley]

Anybody else with AT&T having a bunch of slowdowns in service lately too? I've been running into slow downs ever since right before this thread was started too

[Draggon]

Yup. Slow as in molasses. This forum is pretty good, but other places I can click on a link, go get my coffee, say Hi! to my son, get back to the computer and MAYBE the page is open. AT&T email, news, and ebay all seem painfully slow right now.