AT&T Threatening Overages Without Providing Meters? Cap and Overage Effort a Rather Sloppy Affair Last year we were the very first to report AT&T was planing to apply caps and overages to their U-Verse and DSL services. More than a year later and the effort appears to still be a rather ham-fisted affair. AT&T caps on DSL and U-Verse users were supposed to officially go live on May 1 of 2011, with DSL users facing a 150GB monthly cap, and U-Verse users facing a 250GB monthly cap (both paying $10 per each additional 50GB consumed). At the time, AT&T confirmed that not all customers had access to the meters, though the company was never clear on when all users would see the option. More than a year later and many users say they aren't seeing any meters, and many of those who do continue to insist that the meters don't accurately track usage. At one point one user was informed AT&T had had trouble accurately tracking U-Verse usage, something AT&T denied to us when asked. Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM notes that AT&T continues to warn users about using too much data and threaten overage fees -- while at the same time failing to provide a meter to track usage. AT&T gave Higginbotham this statement in response to their no-show meters: All customers will hear from us early and often if they are close to exceeding their data plan. Before a customer’s usage surpasses his or her data plan and an additional charge is applied, we send that customer an alert when they reach 65, 90 and 100 percent of their monthly data plan. And we offer two billing grace periods.
The majority of our customers have access to the tool today and we continue to deploy the needed technology to make the measurement tool even more widely available. We'll not once again for the record that no regulator in North America has deemed it important enough to ensure that carriers are measuring usage accurately (as a result, many aren't). AT&T customers: have you been billed for overages yet? Do you have a meter? If so, is it accurate?
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  morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | Monopoly style greed Charging overages without providing an accurate meter for customers to use to monitor their usage is monopoly style greed: "We will do whatever we want and charge you whatever we want. Independent attempts to verify our charges are not permitted." | |
|  | elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | Re: Monopoly style greed U-Verse is not a monopoly.
That said, gotta love their stupidity. Whitacre lives.
Putting customers on double-secret probation is just begging for legislation. Mom will not be pleased.
Judge Greene, who started this whole mess, is probably chuckling with Cliff Robertson over a cold one, wondering "When will they ever learn?", while Cliff mumbles regrettably, "That's AT&T.". | |
| | | lkrupp
join:2001-07-14
Collinsville, IL | Re: Monopoly style greed Broadband service is NOT regulated as there are numerous choices for consumers. It's called the free market. AT&T DSL service is NOT a monopoly, period. If you don't like the service or terms go elsewhere, cable, satellite, 4G/LTE. By the way, where is the class action lawsuit if this is so egregious? Blathering away about the unfairness of it seems so petty. | |
| | | | Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Monopoly style greed said by lkrupp:By the way, where is the class action lawsuit if this is so egregious? The same change to the terms of service that introduced the caps, also forbid users from participating in class action lawsuits. Which is now legal for them to do, thanks to the idiocy of the supreme court. | |
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| Reviews:
 ·Time Warner Cable
·Verizon FiOS
 ·voip.ms
| I question the need for a meter. What exactly are you charging for? The infrastructure is a fixed cost so any utilization under 97% is inefficient. Not to mention that meters has nothing to do with congestion (a supposed reason) or traffic control.
Most people don't even know that AT&T makes money TODAY from netflix. For instance Netflix owns their own global CDN platform, and they house servers/proxies in AT&T datacenters for which they PAY for. In addition they pay for the transit to ingest that data (via their CDN) into said AT&T datacenters, so in effect AT&T transit cost for said content is already ZERO--they are actually paying for the benefit, meaning once the content is in their networks it costs them NILL, ZERO to deliver it to you.
So now that they already charge Netflix to get your data and it costs them nothing to deliver it sans a small infrastructure cost of say $3-$4 per month, and that any network under 97% utilization is inefficient, why exactly are we even talking about meters?
This is the biggest fleecing of American's yet and everyone is arguing about "accurate" meters like a free byte on a pipe is something that actually costs money to provide. Ok maybe its a billionth of a cent, but it's not tied to the byte, its tied to the traffic utilization and management.
People this is not water, electricity, gas. Nobody has to drill it, refine it, or put chlorine in it. And a network pipe that is not being fully used is being WASTED not PRESERVED like an actual utility.
OMG... | |
| | | morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | Re: Monopoly style greed said by elefante72:I question the need for a meter. What exactly are you charging for? T
I agree with you. However, that point is simply lost on many. It's confusing. The very least that should be done if overages are charged is to provide a meter that works. Can you imagine if cars didn't have speedometers, but police could still give you a ticket for speeding? That is what AT&T is doing. | |
| | | | Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Monopoly style greed This to me is more similar to having a regulated utility (AT&T and others would really hate being regulated!).
If you're being charged per unit, then that unit must have an 'approved' meter to validate it (similar to water, gas, electricity).
Imagine if my house bill hit $750 for one month while my disconnect was off... I'm not saying that it couldn't happen with an unregulated device, but having a meter on my house that isn't regulated could allow something like that to happen - no checks and balances. | |
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| |  tshirtPremium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
kudos:3
·Comcast
| said by elefante72:People this is not water, electricity, gas. Nobody has to drill it, refine it, or put chlorine in it. And a network pipe that is not being fully used is being WASTED not PRESERVED like an actual utility.
OMG...
You are right, it is not a utility, the HSI protion is an unregulated private network that can be controlled however the owner feels is appropriate.
The only portion that is currently regulated is the POTS portion that is a regulated utility. | |
| | | |  ieolusSupport The Clecs
join:2001-06-19
Duluth, GA | Re: Monopoly style greed Gasoline at the pump isn't a utility either, and it has meters regulated by the State. What is the difference?
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"Speak for yourself "Chadmaster" - lesopp | |
| | | | | tshirtPremium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: Monopoly style greed That gasoline sales ARE regulated, this is not.
The chief reason states ended up tightly regulating gas pumps is that's where TAX is calculated and everystate AND the federal gov't relies partially on gas tax for road building.
If you were willing to have even a minut tax per byte, you'd see 57+ bills in your state legislature calling for certified metering NOW.
As you pay tax(if any) based on a monthly charge metering is a non issue...UNLESS you can create a verifible legal case proving constant or deliberate inaccuracy. | |
| | | | | | | | Re: Monopoly style greed I'm not sure exactly what you are saying,
But you would be charged tax on the overages.
--
Yes, I am not employed and looking for IT work. Have passport, will travel. | |
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| |  jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA
kudos:1 | The problem isn't exclusively limited to consumer ignorance, but also to many at AT&T that create the policies. They don't have a clue either. They understand only that it makes them more money, and lies are often repeated because, in part, they don't really understand how their own network actually works any better than the average executive at any other company. | |
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 maartenaElmoPremium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
kudos:1 | This is BULL. I have U-Verse, and I have no meter.
And you can't charge users without users being able to check what they are being charged for at any given time of the day.
I can check my gas meter, I can check my water meter, I can check my electricity meter. I check my phone minutes + how many minutes I called that are being charged (e.g. international), almost down to the second.
And how can we even TRUST AT&T? With so many reports of inaccuracies, who guarantees that their meter displays the correct information? With utilities, you have options. There are county officials and state officials who check the accuracy of meters on a regular basis, and if there are inconsistencies the public is informed.
In other words, there is a 3d party, other than the customer and supplier, who is allowed to determine how accurate their meters are. Why should we believe AT&T on their word that what they say is correct? And how good does it really look if they are HIDING that information?
Any provider I have seen that has some sort of cap that has MONETARY charges attached to it, has come up with a accurate way of measuring the data and displaying how much you will be charged next month. E-Mails that warn you will just not do.
Shame on you AT&T for even TRYING this.
Oh, and by the way: In May I did a number of HUGE data transfers, probably totalling about 300 GB. I never received ONE! e-mail from AT&T besides their almost WEEKLY spam trying to sell me U-Verse TV as well.
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" | |
| |  wings10I Am LegendPremium
join:2004-06-09
South Elgin, IL
 ·AT&T DSL Service
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: This is BULL. I have U-verse and do not have a usage meter as well. When I called AT&T last summer they told me to not worry about it. I have never been charged any overage fee.
--
"Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul."
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| | | | | Re: This is BULL. I have ATT UV Still No meters for me, And No over changers even though I am running slsk 24/7 | |
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| tshirtPremium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Comcast
| said by maartena:I have U-Verse, and I have no meter.....
....probably totalling about 300 GB. .. So you have no certified meter of your own, and you can only vaguely describe your usage level, but have a feeling that is less then whatever metering system they use without showing it to you.
i.e. your guess maybe no more accurate then theirs, IF in fact they are guessing, of which you have no PROOF. | |
| | | maartenaElmoPremium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
kudos:1 | Re: This is BULL. said by tshirt:said by maartena:I have U-Verse, and I have no meter.....
....probably totalling about 300 GB. .. So you have no certified meter of your own, and you can only vaguely describe your usage level, but have a feeling that is less then whatever metering system they use without showing it to you. i.e. your guess maybe no more accurate then theirs, IF in fact they are guessing, of which you have no PROOF. What I know is that I downloaded 12 virtual machines that month over the web from a remote datacenter to my private home for testing purposes. I can give you the exact detail of each virtual disk used in VMWare and the size of the corresponding virtual disk files if you like. I never took an exact look to how much each virtual machine was, and I did not count up each exact virtual disk file to see how much space/time it would take to transfer. I just started the transfers, and at some point the virtual machines were present on my harddrive, after I could proceed to migrate them into my ESXi test setup. The space on my harddrive for all the virtual machines was about 215 Gb - now THAT data is hard data. Of course there is no proof I actually downloaded that, I could just be saying that.
But I know that I transferred a LARGE amount of data that month, PLUS my regular web usage, streaming usage, etc, which in previous months (according to the 2Wire unit) usually is 100-120 Gb or so, sometimes a bit more.
Using the U-Verse RealTime tool - which now includes a way to check the 2Wire Unit to see how much data I use - I made an estimate. You have to manually reset the U-verse realtime tool at your billing period to get the best results, but in the end it is still relying on what 2Wire/AT&T provides.... so yeah, it may be highly unreliable. I had not reset the meter since some time in March, and it totaled over 500 Gb at that point - which was late May, so a period of 2.5 Months.
Additionally, you speak of "no certified meter". No one but AT&T themselves have "certified" their meter, so their word is as good as mine or yours. A "certified" meter usually entails a third party, such as a state or county official, to actually certify the meter, just like they do on gas pumps, scales in supermarkets, water meters, electricity meters, etc.
And that is really the point I am making. I don't care if they cap their product, this is a free market. If that is what they feel is needed, fine. But don't deceive the customers by not providing a meter.
If you go to the gas station and you fill up your tank.... don't you want to see on the spot how much you are filling it up for, so you can STOP at say.... 10 gallons? (using a CC at the pump). What good is it that you fill up your tank and then you have to go find out how much you exactly put in later at the register? AT&T is blindfolding people here, and what they are doing is somewhat the same as the gas station attendant shouting from his booth: "Pump #4, you are now at 10 gallons", when by that time you probably already reached 11 gallons by the time he finished that sentence.
If you want to cap a connection, make sure you provide meters. That way we can check OURSELVES what our data usage is, and adjust accordingly. What do you think will happen if at day 11 AT&T says "okay, you have now reached 65%". Does the customer just keep GUESSING till they reached 95%?
No. We need a METER, and one that actually WORKS.
--
"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" | |
| | | | tshirtPremium,MVM
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA
kudos:3 Reviews:
·Comcast
2 edits | Re: This is BULL. said by maartena:No. We need a METER, and one that actually WORKS.
That would be nice. That would be smart. That is not a legal necessity, at this time. They are choosing to put the onus on you to track your own usage and to provide your own PROOF should you protest their accounting.
I'm not defending their action, I'm saying if you want to build a legal case, and have legal standing to protest their lack of a public meter, YOU need to begin by being exteme accurate in your statements and ascertions. Then find the agency with legal standing to regulate the broadband protion of the service, find out EXACTLY what they would require to bring regultory action on this specifc issue. Then find others will to work towards that goal. | |
| | | | | | | Re: This is BULL. said by tshirt:said by maartena:No. We need a METER, and one that actually WORKS.
That is not a legal necessity, at this time. Doubtful. Consumer protection laws almost always apply to use charges.
Before these laws generally did not apply as there were no overages, just cancellation of accounts. | |
| | | | |  myosh
join:2001-05-03
Cupertino, CA | said by tshirt:That would be nice. That would be smart. That is not a legal necessity, at this time. They are choosing to put the onus on you to track your own usage and to provide your own PROOF should you protest their accounting. Wait, so if a DSL user were to be charged $100 in overages with no functioning meter for the user to monitor his/her usage, it's up to the USER to prove AT&T is wrong? I can picture the following conversation...
User: Why was I charged $100 in overages for my DSL service?
CSR: You went over your cap by 500 GB... at $10 per 50 GB, that's $100 in overages.
User: Wait... what? I didn't use that much internet and there's no way to check my usage.
CSR: I'm sorry sir but our system says you went over. Do you have any proof you didn't go over the cap?
User: No because you're not providing me with a means of monitoring my usage.
CSR: I'm sorry sir but that's not our responsibility.
User: So it's basically my word against yours and I know AT&T is *never* wrong (sarcasm).
CSR: Unless you can prove you didn't go 500 GB over your cap, there's nothing I can do.
User: Well F*&! this... I want to cancel my account! | |
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|  GbcueP.E.Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
kudos:8 | I have U-Verse, no meter, nothing about overages either by mail or e-mail. | |
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| | Trust them AT+T won't do anything tricky to you this is just to protect the average customer against those lawless downloading pirates who use more than their fair share of bandwidth. The customers just have to be educated on how this is good for them. | |
| | maartenaElmoPremium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
kudos:1 | Re: Trust them said by Corehhi:AT+T won't do anything tricky to you this is just to protect the average customer against those lawless downloading pirates who use more than their fair share of bandwidth. The customers just have to be educated on how this is good for them. I am thinking this is a sarcastic remark, but I will grant you the entertainment of a reply. 
If you think piracy is the only way to use large amounts of bandwidth, your are grossly mistaken.
Many families have teenage children, have 4+ computers, an xbox, a netflix account, DirecTV/Dish with their on-demand service that runs over the internet, everything gets backed up to cloud services such as Mozi or iCloud, running the monthly updates on the OS-es on all computers, etc, etc... you name it.
With just me and my wife, we use an average of 100-150 Gb a month, and NONE of that is piracy. Now expand that to a family of 5, instead of just 2.
Additionally, protect customers from what? Their copper lines are dedicated to the CO or VRAD, and every person I have ever spoken to that works at AT&T or knows about their network all claim that from the VRAD fiber, there is more then plenty of bandwidth to go around. And then of course they add to it that this isn't cable where bandwidth IS shared. (Which is only partially true these days, but that is another discussion).
No. This isn't about protecting their fragile network that doesn't have enough bandwidth because of evil pirates, this is all about trying to make some money off of people and especially families who are well connected and use dozens of devices (including laptops, phones, gaming consoles, tablets, etc you name it) to run their daily lives.
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" | |
| | | Reviews:
·Hargray Cable
| Re: Trust them said by maartena:said by Corehhi:AT+T won't do anything tricky to you this is just to protect the average customer against those lawless downloading pirates who use more than their fair share of bandwidth. The customers just have to be educated on how this is good for them. I am thinking this is a sarcastic remark, but I will grant you the entertainment of a reply. If you think piracy is the only way to use large amounts of bandwidth, your are grossly mistaken. Duh?????
I have no idea how much bandwidth I use but I have childern and I have almost cut the cable off, just lifeline basic (13 channels). At any given time I could have two people streaming NetFlix and another on the computer, maybe another playing Mario Kart over the internet. I would think I use a fair amount of bandwidth compared to most households. | |
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 veloslaveGeek For GodPremium
join:2003-07-11
Pleasant Hill, CA | Coming from someone in North Cal I smile and have myself a happy sigh when I see these articles...
I have not had an Pac Hell/SBC/ATT bill for 3 or 4 years now... none, zip, nada.
Life is too short to have to deal with such an incompetent, rude and monopolistic bunch of thieves... AKA, ATT.
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Mom was right.... I NEED fiber! | |
| | | | Re: Coming from someone in North Cal Were supposed to trust big giant greedy AT&T, not only their crappy speeds suck, now we gotta pay for bandwidth with broken meters that dont work so that AT&T can rape us more money without us known. Amazing how NAZI AT&T with their leader Hitler has complete control to monopoly their business.
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Like My DSL!!! | |
|
Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| The "metered" Uverse is just talk... Let's be honest, they announced it to please the investors so it's now checked on their list of actions.
I highly doubt they will start charging anytime soon. Probably it costs way more to actually implement working meters than what can be collected, so it's not worth it. And if you have to argue with someone over the phone for 30 minutes over a $10 charge then it's a net loss even if the charge sticks... | |
| | maartenaElmoPremium
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA
kudos:1 | Re: The "metered" Uverse is just talk... said by cowboyro:Let's be honest, they announced it to please the investors so it's now checked on their list of actions.
I highly doubt they will start charging anytime soon. Probably it costs way more to actually implement working meters than what can be collected, so it's not worth it. And if you have to argue with someone over the phone for 30 minutes over a $10 charge then it's a net loss even if the charge sticks...
Supposedly, they will not charge the first 2 times you go over the limit.
For me, receiving an email that I have gone past some sort of threshold, will mean I will make a call to Time Warner Cable next.
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"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" | |
| | | Reviews:
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: The "metered" Uverse is just talk... This caps suck, specially if you have ondemand with directv, since the series or movies you get you have to download and you eat that 150 gig of cap like ethiopian in an all you can eat buffet.
Now ATT released an uverse app and i wonder if for the streaming videos under their app is going to be metered?
Unfortunately ATT is the only dsl provider in miami, fl all other companies are just resellers | |
| | | | | | Re: The "metered" Uverse is just talk... Do you think AT&T wants you to have DirecTV?
No, they want you to watch U-Verse TV, with all its crisp, pixelated, macroblocked Youtube images.
AT&T will enact caps on U-Verse when they figure out how to get all that TV traffic out of there.
Their capping and metering is more blatant to me than anyone else's considering all TV delivery is via IP.
The best solution to U-Verse and their metering is simple: Just stop paying AT&T money for anything. Let them die a painful death.
No matter how bad any of these companies are, none of them are worse than the Deathstar. | |
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| | Just One Email When I got the email notifying me I had exceeded my "Data Plan" for the month I immediately began a search for an alternative internet provider and within a couple of days signed up with DSLExtreme.
I wish I could also drop the landline just in spite. | |
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See 6 replies to this post | |
djrobsd
join:2002-01-24
San Diego, CA Reviews:
·Cox HSI
| Overages huh? If you have the max plan (12mbps) you get 250 gigs a month. I don't know how people could be going over those caps unless they are just hoarding a bunch of movies and content that they will never have time to watch because they are too busy greedily snatching up more content to fill up their 10 terabyte mega RAID server. LOL
They haven't implemented this in San Diego yet I can't even see how much I've used and it even tells me that it's not yet implemented. | |
| | | | Re: Overages huh? I can eat 250GB in a matter of weeks SOLELY on backups to the cloud (user files and system images). So for you to claim that 250GB is plenty for you is kind of arrogant as not everyone has YOUR usage patterns. | |
| | moes
join:2009-11-15
Indianapolis, IN | I can eat up 250gb easily, backups, downloading vm backup images from works, updates, ect. It's very simple. | |
| | KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | one can rack up lots of data streaming netflix. | |
| |  NormanSPremium,MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
kudos:9
·SONIC.NET
·Pacific Bell - SBC
| said by djrobsd:If you have the max plan (12mbps) you get 250 gigs a month. I don't know how people could be going over those caps unless they are just hoarding a bunch of movies and content that they will never have time to watch because they are too busy greedily snatching up more content to fill up their 10 terabyte mega RAID server. LOL
In a household with four teenagers, and a wife, and everybody doing just legal stuff, assuming just 2/3s of my single user 95G (last time I checked the AT&T meter before throwing them under the bus), I could easily hit 380G per month.
There is nothing funny about it; but I did get the last laugh: I fired AT&T and went with a provider offering uncapped service.
Despite that I will be hammered with a new modem rental fee when I set up my new premises, Sonic.net, LLC is still the best deal around.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum | |
|
|  TomS_Git-r-donePremium,MVM
join:2002-07-19
London, UK
kudos:4 | Provide an API and let the users create the apps In Australia where caps have simply always been the way of life online, ISPs rarely release their own meters. Instead, and since their backends are already set up to account a users usage and bill appropriately, they provide access to a simple API which pulls data directly from the ISPs backend and allows practically anyone to write their own usage meter app.
This has tended to work quite well, with several meters being available for any given ISP offering various features and working in different ways (widgets vs toolbar vs app etc), *AND* supporting a wider range of OSs than an ISP might otherwise care to cater for.
ISPs only tended to offer web based usage meters accessible by logging in to your account from their website (so many user created meters started as screen scrapers.) There are benefits to working with and allowing the users to create something like this, perhaps along side an ISPs own official offering... | |
| amungusPremium
join:2004-11-26
America Reviews:
·KCH Cable
·AT&T DSL Service
| total crap I never thought I'd see DSL be metered like this, what a sham.
Anyway, no, I probably hit close to, or slightly over my 150GB a couple of times w/DSL when I had it, never heard a peep. Never heard about getting a meter, or notice of use. They certainly wanted to sell me on U-Verse though....
Interestingly, my final bill was double the normal amount. Just got a letter the other day saying I had credit, on a cancelled acct. Great. Sooooo... where's my check?????? Credit for a service I'm unlikely to ever sign up for again, at least, anytime within another year, is kind of useless.
If they can't even get their billing right, I have no faith in monitoring for and enforcing usage. They've become such a huge monster of a company that one tentacle has no idea what the other tentacle is doing in so many cases.
Not that it's really worth the trouble, but it'd be nice if they just give me my money back, please. Thanks. | |
| | | This is BullSh*t I know I use well more than 250GB a month in my household. I already monitor our bandwidth fairly accurately with a DD-WRT/Tomato firmware on the routers in my house. With 4 people stream netflix/hulu all the time and downloading TV shows and download games from Steam, we go through 300-500GB regularly (up/down combined). If they start charging $10 extra per 50GB, my bill will be up to another $50 bucks!!! That's f*cking crazy. That's more than we pay now for our currently line!
Given how shady AT&T is they'll always say we're using WAY more than what I track with my own router, as others have shown in previous articles here.
Honestly...how can anyone trust AT&T with their already shoddy bandwidth measurement of their wireless network? Its already been shown AT&T can't meter their wireless network, or their U-Verse network properly, so how can we as consumer fight the injustice of these overage charges?
Before saying, 'go to _____ carrier instead' realize that's not an option when you only have AT&T in your area...... | |
| | | Caps do not equal service One thing that really bothered me is when I had Uverse I ordered it (when I asked they told me no caps) I got the Max Turbo 25 down for $75 month. A week later they started caps. If you paid $75 for 25 Mbps you got 250GB. If you paid $15 (with tv special) for 3 Mbps down they gave you 250GB. You got no extra data for paying a lot more even though your speed can use it much faster. So if you used remote backups you could not buy up. Honestly I don't think they cared about remote backups more than they did not want someone on a $75 plan watching to much VOIP any more than someone paying $15.
As some scream that they are a private company should do with the entire country's ability to talk and communicate as they wish. If they do get to push that view we'll all be forced eventually onto something like Time Warners Internet Essentials (5GB cap 1$ GB over) as our allowance to use the internet will be caped by every provider we can buy from playing the same game (the greater shortage you create the more you can squeeze the market) blocking all major networking markets for the ISP providers to sell these services themselves (VOIP, cloud, etc). | |
| | Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| Re: Caps do not equal service said by whiteshp:One thing that really bothered me is when I had Uverse I ordered it (when I asked they told me no caps) I got the Max Turbo 25 down for $75 month. When I signed up for U-Verse, I specifically asked about caps, since I'd heard that other ISPs were capping usage. I was told point-blank that AT&T had no need for caps because they were continuously upgrading their network and that they had plenty of bandwidth to handle any amount of usage.
When the caps were announced, I canceled my U-Verse account and switched to Cablevision. I now have service about 3x faster and (currently) no caps. | |
|
BiggA
join:2005-11-23
EARTH Reviews:
·Comcast
| They tell you... at 65%, 90% and 100%. I'm not saying it's exactly right not to give you a meter, but at least they tell you.
What baffles me is that since they are obviously keeping track, they can't they make a simple few lines of code to output that into a number that you can see on a web page?
While the concept of metering is wrong, especially given that U-Verse isn't a shared medium like cable, their rates are very reasonable compared to the competition, and $10/50GB isn't going to cause anyone to have a massive phone bill. I'd rather they work on global roaming charges on the cell phones than worry about this. | |
| | | Crappy Service With Crappy Meters Their service is such sh^t they need to meter it because of their crappy network. So they gotta rape our butts even more for low quality service.
Their service is a hell of alot slower then most services offered with better speeds...
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Like My DSL!!! | |
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Customers treated like mushrooms!
I have a concern because in the future I will be moving to an area where the only ISP's are AT&T U-Verse or Brighthouse for broadband service. Unfortunately AT&T does not indicate in any in their TOS documentation what the customer is charged for. Is it the TCP/IP payload or every byte that passes through the ISP's network to the customer. Remember PPPoE has more overhead than DHCP authentication. Will subscribers to an ISP that uses PPPoE, be given a usage credit to give them parity with ISP's that use DHCP for their subscribers.