Shed a Tear: The Age of Broadband Caps Begins Monday

Originally posted by DerepentLEstranger
reply to post by wonderworld

 

dial-up involved the using of a account used by phone technicians received as payment for repairing a guys computer.

and for all your Wi-Fu needs: www.backtrack-linux.org...

there is a thread on sat hijacking somewhere here on ATS

free phones

when will people learn that nothing is for free?

Even though I have high speed satelite internet I also bought a dial up for 9 bucks, because when I overuse my badwidth and get slowed down for 24 hours, dial up is much faster. Hard to believe isnt it? Commies

Plus during a power outage the phone still works.

There's a little more than just the bandwidth usage cap in the latest round of changes to the AT&T Terms Of Service Agreement, one I find even more outrageous:

Conversion from DSL to U-verse High Speed Internet: We have added language to this agreement that will allow us to convert customers from our DSL network to the AT&T U-verse High Speed network, where available.

What they're talking about here is forced migration of existing DSL customers to the U-verse service, combining broadband internet with your choice of TV only, or TV & phone service, all over your phone line.
Of course, said service costs considerably more than DSL/phone or DSL only, but that doesn't appear to be a major sticking point for the company at this time.

As for the idea of "simply" changing ISP's, here's how it works for me: for DSL, I can get it from AT&T, or from a few other remaining CLEC's (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers), all of whom use AT&T's broadband equipment & phone lines; I can go to Comcast Cable & pay almost twice what I pay now for their broadband internet (not sure if I still need to accept unwanted cable TV with it as in the past), & still have my usage capped; I can use satellite service, which in my area is provided by Dish Network, who is partnered with their supplier, AT&T. What I have is a choice between getting reamed by my current ISP, or getting reamed by their only other serious competitor in my area.

At this point, the only difference seems to be in how much lube I'd need after bending over.

Since U-verse became more feasible to more locations, AT&T has seen it as the wave of the future, & let''s not forget that for them, it's all about beating out Cable to become the Uber-supplier of Phone/TV/Internet. With the increasingly successful deployment of U-verse, they have a serious shot at doing that. They're not gonna let a little thing like Customer Satisfaction stand in their way.

I don't like any of it, the usage caps or the threat of forced migration of my service, but so far I'm okay here. AT&T was kind enough to supply their captives, uh, customers with a bandwidth usage gauge, & my heaviest month of the past 3 months only involved 105 GB of combined download/upload (yes, your uploads are counted into the cap). This came as a surprise to me, as I watch streaming movies & TV courtesy of Hulu & Netflix, download movies like a fiend, & even post large files regularly to Usenet.

As for U-verse, there's no way the phone lines in my neighborhood will handle it, so I'm in no danger of being forced over to it. Knowing what would go into upgrading those lines enough to handle it, with at least partial fiber, and given the physical layout & logistics of doing that in my neighborhood, I'm not sure I'll live long enough to see U-verse become available here.

This is what comes of a former monopoly being allowed to quietly "merge" with its former split-off parts in order to reassemble that which the Federal Government once saw as an increasingly abusive monopoly badly in need of breaking up.

The only way we can win this is to ask for a Add free internet, that would cut down on the bandwidth that is needed, to use the internet.

That would Piss of Google and now there is a big player in on the game, why should we have to see adds that are on line if it make us use more bandwidth and we have to pay for it.

We should all ask the ISP to filter out all of the Adds before they can cap use because adds only help Google not you or me that would put Google on it's head because most of it's money comes from Adds.

That would place a big company at the for front of this cap stuff.

Let Google fight for the people for more bandwidth for there adds, it would be a good fight to watch.

As a Computer Science major, let me state clearly the following..

AT&T is as corrupt as it gets - technology is advancing, data is becoming cheaper, and faster - exponentially so every year.

AT&T is a fraud and they will more than likely end up becoming the target of Anonymous and who knows what good stuff they'll dig up on them.

However, my ISP has no bandwidth cap, and I actually get faster speeds than I should. No complaints here

reply to post by BuzzCory


This is insane to switch DSL to whatever that name is. I'll make a bet they dont mess with T1 customers! SHTF over this one.

reply to post by Revolution-2012


I think Verizon is the fastest, besides T1. Is that what you have?

What is odd were I live is Comcast announced a 105Mbps service for our area......... However the 250gb/month cap/limit is still in effect.. What is the point of making a faster service? Make people pay the insane rates of overages per month... Just waiting for the $10 per gigabyte overage charges to be announced..... They also charge $200month for the 105Mbps service.. I have the standard 20Mbps service and can easily hit the cap if I don't pay attention just using netflix.

I hit 245gigs last month streaming a high definition TV series on netflix. This was only for a few hours a day..... Comcast and the likes keep saying how wonderful Highdef is and how they are speeding up their networks to stream it yet the 250gb cap stays.....

Comcast 105mbs Service

Not defending telcom companys, but most people don't know or understand the business.

Deregulation was a bad thing, it did as mush good as deregulating the banks.

With most of the changes in the last 30 years, phone companys had to upgrade and improve, and even with the upgrades phone companys were becoming obsolete.The basic service that phone companys provide now is dial tone.
Providing newer, faster and different services is the new way with new fees.

Every phone call goes through phone company offices even cell phones, except sat. phones, but the phone companys own most of the satellites.

Phone companys were ordered by the federal gov. to upgrade in the 80's.
With fiber optics the feds don't have to go to your state, or your city telco office to tap your phone, they just need access to the fiber network , anywhere, to tap your phone or computer.


And as for phones working during a power outage. The phones will work as long as the batteries last , that is about 12 hours and the desiel tanks that run the generators stay full maybe 2 or 3 days if we're lucky

There is more fiber optic cable in the ground now, than we all need so to make a good profit your going to get charged by bandwidth. Welcome to the new age.

reply to post by againuntodust

Originally posted by LS650
"Shed a tear"?

While I might consider such a cap annoying, I wouldn't cry over it. If you aren't happy with one service, go to the competition.

Originally posted by BioStatistic
AT&T is a crap service. I can't wait to get my phone moved to Verizon. I'm glad I have a different ISP.

Originally posted by CanYouHandleTheTruth

Originally posted by BioStatistic
AT&T is a crap service. I can't wait to get my phone moved to Verizon. I'm glad I have a different ISP.

Seems like a stupid move to me...clearly, as shown by the above post, people will simply move to ISP's who have better internet plans.

Some of us, however, have NO choice. Where i live, AT&T is the ONLY available broadband service. So, we either switch to outrageously priced satellite service (which also has a data limit), return to the stone aged dial up, or go without service.

The monopoly in our area that they hold, and the reins based upon usage, concern me.

Data is constantly downloaded when one is on the web. Most of-it is miniscule, but for those who require the transfer of large personal files (mediafire, yousendit, even email based downloads), this is troubling. And the article even mentions this:

(For those not accustomed to calculating their bandwidth usage, video streaming and online gaming use much more bandwidth than web browsing or e-mailing. For instance, Netflix ranges from .3 GB per hour to 1.0 for normal resolution movies and up to 2.3 GB per hour for HD content.)

I have Netflix. I also film and require uploads to share with friends and colleagues.

So for those of you saying "oh, just switch services," you need to close your mouth and understand the situation before you speak.

Once again, corporate rape under the guise of "efficiency."

Originally posted by againuntodust
reply to post by Sly1one

 

I was under the impression that online gaming (World of Warcraft, etc) didn't really use THAT MUCH bandwidth. You can look at this thread on another website where those game users discuss broadband caps and gaming.

I think at this point, the people paying 60-100 bucks a month for internet to use solely for their MMORPG addiction, wouldn't mind even an extra 50 a month to sustain that addiction.

The larger portion of WOW players are NOT addicts. the larger portion of ALL online gaming users are actually casual users and would find the extra 50 a month "not worth it" as they could cut that fat from their budget and save themselves that casual time elsewhere.

Its not JUST gaming that will cause caps to be impractical but internet radio, you tube, internet movies, AND the gaming that will severely limit the overall experience of anyone who is interested in those things even casually.

They are offering higher and higher bandwidth options with services where I live such as the Xfinity where you can get close to 20mb download for extra $$ of course. This is a far more practical option of increasing revenue and maintaining a practical approach to internet.

I only say that caps are not practical because I lived in an area once where Satellite Internet was the only option available. They had high speed internet available but they also had a "bandwidth" cap.

I tried this out and well, after the cap was hit they reduced your bandwidth to something that dial-up would laugh at. Needless to say I was hitting my cap roughly 15 days into the month and had to endure worse than dial up connection speed for the last 15 days of the month meanwhile I was being billed for a "monthly service" I could only experience for half a month....It made no sense, so I cancelled that faster than a cat covering up S***...

The age of internet users we have now are accustomed to non-restricted internet use and anything less won't be accepted by the internet users at large especially if they will be paying more for less.

They may try to do something silly like imposing caps but I think it will fail miserably especially with groups like Anon and 4chan, pirate bay and all the other multitudes of hackers and technological internet guru's out there who probably designed the software and hardware needed for anyone to do anything on the internet...

Thank god the pioneers of the internet are obstinate and rebellious otherwise the age of the Intranet would have came long ago...

Originally posted by badw0lf

Originally posted by SerenityGained
Isn't this a good thing though? It's like your mum limiting your TV exposure when a kid.

Maybe time to get outside and enjoy life, rather then using the net?

Ummm nah.

You don't 'lose' internet - you just either get charged more, or lose speed.

When I'm capped to 256 - Oh and btw, shed a tear? How about WELCOME TO AUSTRALIAN NET HELL, we've been here for years now... gah!! - when I'm capped to 256kbps I can still browse the web fine, Hell I can still download apps that I need if theyre not gigs... 25kb/s is not too shabby, and above that I have 200gb quota a month and never run out even when I'm downloading tv shows^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H linux distros, despite 100gb being on peak (midday till 2am PEAK, 2am till midday Off PEAK)...

Yes, i dont think some people realize just how good they've had it, its like how Americans whine about Petrol costs yet the rest of us around the world pay 5-6 times as much as they do and the price doesnt change regardless of our currency compared to the American it only keeps going up.

Hell we still have monthly data caps in my country, and while they are getting alot more reasonable 50$ for a 21gig limit is what we currently pay with our provider it is still mind numbingly horrid.

Oh to have had unlimited data per month... even for a little while. Sure be angry about a lose, but just remeber you've been on the fatted calf for decades.

Originally posted by neo96
reply to post by wonderworld

 

yeah man high definition content and high def gaming changed the name of game on them

when internet tv takes off and a huge way sorry bout our luck isp imposed caps.

its total garbage.

edit on 30-4-2011 by neo96 because: (no reason given)

Yes, the HD thing. Go buy an HD TV or get a converter box. After I get the HD TV there's a cable war halting me from viewing the super bowl. I tried getting Fox redirected from LA but too many waivers went in and being female I didnt have a chance.. Then gaming bandwidth. Who knows, next season we may not even have a super bowl, things are really screwy now.

I have satellite TV, similar to Satellite internet, is that next? Maybe they want some royalty taxes.

Data is infinite Bandwidth is finite So why do i get arbitrarily charged on an infinite resource when it costs nothing n the first place? Why not just charge a flat and REASONABLE rate for the bandwidth and infrastructure? Why do we allow these business models to continue?

Something i asked somewhere else not to long ago

Originally posted by Azador

Data is infinite Bandwidth is finite So why do i get arbitrarily charged on an infinite resource when it costs nothing n the first place? Why not just charge a flat and REASONABLE rate for the bandwidth and infrastructure? Why do we allow these business models to continue?

Something i asked somewhere else not to long ago

We have to pay for air space usage. Crazy! The original plan was to cut down on internet bandwidth to save more for cell phone useage. There is plenty to go around.

I am also going to start charging ads, pop ups and updates for various things for using a reasonable chunk of my internet. I think they should contribute to about 25% of my bill. Seems fair

Another piece of my rant.
Just be lucky you dont live in NZ where i pay $100 per month for landline phone(not including calls out of my area or cell) and 30gig capped internet. I dont even want the phoneline but only just now are they starting to offer "naked broadband" packages at ridiculous prices.
Im going to punch all these isp providers in the face

Originally posted by SerenityGained
Isn't this a good thing though? It's like your mum limiting your TV exposure when a kid.

Maybe time to get outside and enjoy life, rather then using the net?

Yeah...

Like my buddy who plays games a lot, his legs are paralyzed. He has back surgery a few times the last year also.

The internet actually gives him something to do rather than lay there bored all day.

reply to post by BigfootNZ

Yes, i dont think some people realize just how good they've had it, its like how Americans whine about Petrol costs yet the rest of us around the world pay 5-6 times as much as they do and the price doesnt change regardless of our currency compared to the American it only keeps going up.

Whiners?

No.

We just won't put up with stupidity.

reply to post by againuntodust


There are so many ways to pass a cap though, I doubt this will last long..

Originally posted by LS650
"Shed a tear"?

While I might consider such a cap annoying, I wouldn't cry over it. If you aren't happy with one service, go to the competition.

Competition? THERE'S NO COMPETITION.

This is for ALL ISPs... in Canada anyway. Everyone has caps.

reply to post by Azador


Those prices are unbelievable.

Portuguese people always say that their country is the worse, but in cases like this we are not, and it looks like we start a little late but we catch on the good things quickly.

I pay a little less than 60 Euros a month for 100+ TV channels (some 20 of those are HD, with a 3D test channel), telephone and 30MBps, unlimited internet.