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AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL
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Author:  Cylord [ Thu 05-05-2011 12:46PM ]
Post subject:  AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

Quote:
AT&T says it 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. AT&T will also charge overage fees of $10 for every additional 50GB of data, with two grace periods to start out -- in other words, the third month you go over the cap is when you'll get charged.


Justification:

Quote:
The top 2 percent of residential subscribers uses about 20 percent of the bandwidth on our network. Just one of these high-traffic users can utilize the same amount of data capacity as 19 typical households. Lopsided usage patterns can cause congestion at certain points in the network, which can slow Internet speeds and interfere with other customers' access to and use of the network. Our new plan addresses another concern: customers strongly believe that only those who use the most bandwidth should pay more than those who don't use as much. That's exactly what this does – and again, 98% of our customers will not be impacted by this.


Source: Link

Me: :cry:

Author:  cmptrnrd16 [ Thu 05-05-2011 7:04PM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

Do you know your average monthly usage? You could download several 720p TV shows, or a bundle of blu-ray rips and still not hit 250gb.

Though it sucks I think caps are better than throttling.

Author:  ShadowCat38 [ Thu 05-05-2011 8:33PM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

This can have a serious effect for Netflix/HULU users... I hope this isn't the start of a trend.

Not only that, but don't subscribers already pay a premium for higher bandwidth allocation (i.e. 17Mb/s vs 1.5Mb/s)? What advantage does this policy actually implement?

To me, it looks like AT&T is getting more and more greedy.

Sometimes, people really suck.

Author:  Cylord [ Fri 05-06-2011 1:58AM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

While their "justifications" (my word) may look good on paper, anyone with brains knows that statistics supporting nothing except what you want them to support.

cmptrnrd16 wrote:
Do you know your average monthly usage
Here on campus? I could probably dig it up (from my firewall if nothing else), but no, I don't know it offhand. I do have a Usenet subscription, though, and a forum #12 related device that utilizes said account reports these metrics:

Quote:
7.4 G Today 216.0 G This week 230.6 G This month 2.6 T Total
. Even if I only used half of that, 2 weeks into a month (note: U-verse isn't offered in my area) and that plus all of my other network traffic (2-3 PCs, phone, tablet, etc.) probably means I should look forward to a nice huge overage fee on the next bill. Oh and then there's the matter of the rest of the month.

As much as they're ready to embrace this bandwidth cap, I wonder how easy it would be to check my account's current internet usage... or if that's even possible.

Author:  amd2800barton [ Fri 05-06-2011 11:21AM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

Cylord wrote:
While their "justifications" (my word) may look good on paper, anyone with brains knows that statistics supporting nothing except what you want them to support.

cmptrnrd16 wrote:
Do you know your average monthly usage
Here on campus? I could probably dig it up (from my firewall if nothing else), but no, I don't know it offhand. I do have a Usenet subscription, though, and a forum #12 related device that utilizes said account reports these metrics:

Quote:
7.4 G Today 216.0 G This week 230.6 G This month 2.6 T Total
. Even if I only used half of that, 2 weeks into a month (note: U-verse isn't offered in my area) and that plus all of my other network traffic (2-3 PCs, phone, tablet, etc.) probably means I should look forward to a nice huge overage fee on the next bill. Oh and then there's the matter of the rest of the month.

As much as they're ready to embrace this bandwidth cap, I wonder how easy it would be to check my account's current internet usage... or if that's even possible.


You use 216GiB in an average week, Or is that internal on your network? If that's internet usage then I can understand AT&T feeling that you need a business account. Even when I was in Rolla with three other guys (and no TV service) we didn't hit 250GiB in a month. We torrented and hulu'd a lot too.

If it's true that the top 2% generate more than 20% of traffic then I don't see what's wrong with expecting them to account for that. Its unfair for AT&T to charge a person who uses 1TiB in a month the same as my mother who probably uses less than five. Now if this cap stays at 250GiB for the next 20 years I can see it becoming a problem. But I expect that it will increase as the networks improve. If you don't like it vote with your wallet. And remember that just about every other developed country pays by the MiB - we're just catching up.

Author:  Cylord [ Fri 05-06-2011 4:47PM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

amd2800barton wrote:
Even when I was in Rolla with three other guys (and no TV service) we didn't hit 250GiB in a month. We torrented and hulu'd a lot too.
Really? So each person used less than 80 GB/mo? Seems like I could easily hit that... Idunno, though, never really had to track my internet usage before to be honest.

amd2800barton wrote:
If you don't like it vote with your wallet.
I wish I could. Unfortunately, the only way to "vote with my wallet" in this case would most likely be either go without internet completely or double (and then some, most likely) the $/mo and go with an inferior local cable company. Since I'd also be voting with my brain, I can't really justify either of those options.

amd2800barton wrote:
And remember that just about every other developed country pays by the MiB - we're just catching up.
I guess it's a matter of opinion whether "catching up" means conforming to what everyone else is doing whether or not it's for better or worse.

Author:  ShadowCat38 [ Mon 05-09-2011 9:27AM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

@AMD So are you saying that time-based bandwidth charting is archaic? That is what is currently used, and it is what I think is most fair. There is a physical limit to the amount of data that can be transferred when your transfer-rate is throttled, and I don't see a problem with that.

If this new price-program removes all throttling, then I might be able to see it used used in a reasonable manner, but I doubt that happens.


Physical maximums in a 30-day month:
X Mb/s * 3600 s/hr * 24 hr/day * 30 days/month / 8 Mb/MB / 1024 GB/MB = max GB/month

1.5 Mb/s = 474 GB/month
3 Mb/s = 948 GB/month
10 Mb/s = 3.09 TB/month
15 Mb/s = 4.63 TB/month

This is assuming a constant connection with your throttle constantly maxed out for 30 days straight.
Based on AT&T's plan, if your connection speed was 1.5 Mb/s, they'd charge you extra if you used more than 25% of your potential (that you are paying for with your subscription anyway).

Something here isn't looking good.

Author:  Cylord [ Mon 05-09-2011 12:05PM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

ShadowCat38 wrote:
Based on AT&T's plan, if your connection speed was 1.5 Mb/s, they'd charge you extra if you used more than 25% of your potential (that you are paying for with your subscription anyway).

Thank you, SC. I had started a reply that went along the lines of yours but then gave up on it.

For example, since U-Verse isn't available to me, the best plan I can get is their 6Mbps (or 0.75 MBps) plan with the new 150 GB/mo limit. If I used that connection for 2.5 days at maximum bandwidth (let's call it 0.72 MBps), I will have used ~152 GB. Woops - I just encountered an overage fee 2.5 days into the "month" of service I paid for. How? By simply using the service.

Even if your argument is that "well you paid for a 'residential' plan and you're not using it like a residence should" (which I think is garbage to begin with, but let's just go with it)... it still doesn't seem logical that I am able to go through an entire month's worth of service in 2.5 days by simply using the service I paid for.

At the very least, calling it a $xx/month plan is a lie, since I clearly showed that the $xx really only lasted me 2.5 days (and 1 month != 2.5 days no matter which calendar I can find). If AT&T wants to call it a $xx/150GB plan, fine, at least get marketing to label it properly so we know how badly we're getting screwed instead of hiding that fact between the lines of the fine print.

Author:  ShadowCat38 [ Mon 05-09-2011 9:56PM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

Maybe I'm looking at this wrong...

Take an electric utility for example...

To draw a decent analogy, lets say that bandwidth speed is equivalent to voltage (a set limit, always present, the definition of potential), and data volume is amperage (varies dependent on usage, not usually constant, constrained by the capacities of the transmission lines).

An electric utility charges by kWh (Voltage*Amperage*time).
If the analogy is carried along, a data utility would charge similarly (bandwidth potential * data transmitted * time or Data^2 for the purposes of this idea), meaning if you don't use your internet, you aren't charged, and the more you use, the more you're charged based on a set rate per Data^2. Since you can pick your potential where you can't pick your house's voltage supply (standard 220V), the price is natively self-correcting for usage. It would take some experimentation to find a fair price, but I think it could work very well.

What AT&T is doing is essentially charging you for your voltage supply at a fixed rate, and an assumed usage of amperage. Once you pass that "amperage", they charge an extra fee. It is close to what I've described, but it stipulates a minimum charge and a variable fee afterwards that is at best inconsistent and at worst a punishment.

They could fix their system if they used a kWh-type unit to base data usage on...
Subscription speed * usage during billing period * length of billing period = data^2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A. 1.5Mb/s * 250GB * 720 hours(30days) = 118700 GB^2
B. 1.5Mb/s * 80GB * 720 hours = 37970 GB^2
C. 10Mb/s * 250GB * 720 hours = 791333 GB^2
D. 10Mb/s * 80GB * 720 hours = 253230 GB^2

Notice the difference the data rate makes here, and the difference the amount of data transferred makes. Most utilities have a minimum usage charge (1000kWh usually). Lets say that the first 100000 GB^2 is a flat rate monthly charge of $0.0003/GB^2, or $30, and extra usage was $0.0001/GB^2

Bills would be:

A. $31.87 / month
B. $30.00 / month
C. $99.13 / month
D. $45.33 / month

The higher bandwidth speed is already figured into the cost, introducing a premium that is fair and consistent across the board. They could even provide a discounted Data^2 rate for higher speeds, and still make a nice profit.

I dunno, maybe this is a flawed line of thinking... obviously a case study is needed to perfect the price mapping, but I hope I've made my point.


...upon further review, maybe this is what they had in mind altogether, and their marketing team just really sucks balls.

EDIT: In order to account for sucky service, there could be a data rate stamped to each packet of data, meaning that if a downloaded file capped out at a rate of .768Mb/s, it was charged as such, since it was not using your full bandwidth. I might be complex, but it would more accurately distribute the cost and usage among users...

Author:  zeroluck [ Sat 05-14-2011 8:02PM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

make internet a public good and run fat fiber along every highway

think new deal programs... maybe it could help our economy too. fuck healthcare spending we need 10gb internets everywhere

Author:  Chankster [ Sat 05-14-2011 8:34PM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

Already been tried:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.2428:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2428

EDIT: Added additional link.

Author:  ShadowCat38 [ Sun 05-15-2011 8:18AM ]
Post subject:  Re: AT&T busts a cap in my... DSL

Chankster wrote:



LINKFAIL!

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