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atttt
@12.189.13.x

atttt

Anon

From the AT&T web page

Broadband Usage FAQs

Are there any usage limits for my broadband service?

Yes. As of May 2, 2011, AT&T's residential DSL High Speed Internet plans will have a usage allowance of 150 Gigabytes ("GB") per month, and its residential U-verse High Speed Internet plans will have a usage allowance of 250 Gigabytes ("GB") per month. The usage allowance is the amount of data you can send and receive each month.

Why is AT&T implementing a usage allowance?
AT&T has experienced a dramatic increase in the amount of data that is sent and received over its wireline broadband networks. This dramatic increase is driven primarily by a small fraction of our customers. In fact, the top 2% of customers use about 20% of the total capacity on our network. A single high traffic user 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.

What is a gigabyte?
A gigabyte is a unit of measurement of the amount of data that is transmitted over the Internet. Approximately 50,000 single-page e-mails (without attachments), for example, equate to about 1 GB. It is important to remember that a GB represents the amount of data sent over the network, and not the amount of time spent using the Internet.

How much is 150 GB?
150 GB is far more data than most customers ever use in a month. Our average DSL customer uses only about 18 GB per month. In fact, less than 2% of DSL users utilize more than 150 GB per month. We estimate that 98% of our customers will not be affected by this change because the monthly usage allowance includes so much bandwidth.

How much do I get with 150 or 250 GB?
You can do a lot with 150 or 250 GB. Here is an example.

Monthly Activity 150 GB 250 GB
Send/receive one page emails

10,000 emails

-and-


10,000 emails

-and-
Download/upload a medium resolution photo to social media site like Facebook

3,000 photos

-and-


4,000 photos

-and-
MP3 Songs downloaded

2,000 songs

-and-


3,000 songs

-and-
Stream a one-minute YouTube video (standard quality)

5,000 views

-and-


5,000 views

-and-
Watch hour-long TV Shows (high quality)

100 shows

-and -


200 shows

-and -
Stream full length movies (Standard Definition: SD; High Definition: HD) 20 SD or 10 HD movies 25 SD or 13 HD movies

Usage examples are estimates based on typical file sizes and/or duration of file transfer or streaming event.

Will spending a lot of time on the Internet cause me to exceed my monthly usage allowance?
Time alone is not the determining factor; it is the activity that matters. You could spend several hours reading e-mails, for example, and use less than 1 GB of data. You could spend 30 minutes downloading a movie, on the other hand, and use 2 GB of data. It is important to remember that it is what you are doing on the Internet, not how long you do it, that determines the amount of data that you use.

Can anyone other than someone in my immediate household affect my bandwidth usage?
If you have not secured your wireless gateway/router, someone nearby with a computer or Wi-Fi enabled device could access your home network and use your High Speed Internet Service, which could increase your monthly usage. AT&T recommends that you secure your wireless router/gateway to prevent others from using your High Speed Internet Service. We suggest that you use common encryption protocols, such as Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) for security. Check www.att.com/esupport for support with AT&T provided devices, or your manufacturer's support website for help with securing your wireless router/gateway.

What will happen if I exceed my monthly usage allowance?
You will receive a notice the first time your usage exceeds the applicable monthly allowance.

In the following months, we will send you additional notices each month when your usage exceeds 65%, 90% and 100% of your monthly usage allowance. If you exceed your monthly allowance a second time, AT&T will send you a notice advising you that the next time you exceed your allowance - the third time - you will be billed $10 for each 50 GB of data over your allowance.

We will continue to send you courtesy notifications when your usage exceeds 65%, 90% and 100% of your monthly usage allowance to keep you informed about your usage patterns. All of these notices will remind you of what your monthly usage allowance is, provide you with information to help you understand broadband data usage, offer you tips on how to effectively control your usage to stay below your monthly allowance, and explain what your options are if you exceed your allowance in future billing periods. For example, you can modify your usage patterns to stay below your monthly usage allowance; continue your normal usage patterns and pay $10 for each additional 50 GB of data over your monthly allowance; or terminate your service, consistent with the terms of any special pricing offer that you previously accepted.

Importantly, if you do not receive a notice from AT&T, it means that you have not exceeded your monthly usage allowance. In some cases, it may mean that we cannot measure your usage yet. Either way, you should not be concerned about your usage patterns for billing purposes.

Where will I receive notices about my broadband usage?
You will receive notices about your broadband usage at the primary e-mail address that you set up when you registered for Service. We will send a letter by U.S. mail if we cannot reach you by e-mail or do not have your e-mail address.

How will AT&T help me to monitor my usage?
AT&T will provide a website with two options to assist customers in managing their High Speed Internet usage.

First, AT&T will provide a personal usage report at www.MyUsage.att.com where customers can view how much actual data they have used in a given month from the January 2011 bill cycle to the most recent billing cycle. To protect confidential customer information, this site is password-protected. The login process requires your Internet access login and password. The login is your AT&T primary account email address (e.g., John_smith@att.net). The password is the same password used to access your att.net homepage and primary email account.

AT&T initially will report usage data on a weekly basis. When a customer uses 70% of their monthly usage allowance, we will supplement their personal usage report on a daily basis. A customer's usage will be posted on the website within 1 - 4 days after it is collected.

Second, AT&T will provide a website with examples of what kind of Internet activity can impact your actual usage. In addition, on the same site AT&T will provide a usage calculator, which will enable customers to input data about how they typically use their Service and calculate an estimate of how much data they are likely to use in a given month. This website will be available in late April 2011.

I can't seem to access the usage tool. What should I do?
Many of our customers have access to this tool already. For those who don't today, until your usage is available for viewing on www.MyUsage.att.com, you should not be concerned about your usage patterns for billing purposes. Once the tool is available, you will be notified if you exceed your allowance.

Tom86
@ucdavis.edu

Tom86

Anon

what website did you get this page??

Ronin7752
@bellsouth.net

Ronin7752 to atttt

Anon

to atttt
You can always believe what AT&T says -- they never lie, cheat, or steal -- although they *have* farmed out your email to Yahoo, who uses your personal information, including the addresses on your emails to sell for marketing purposes.

Sure, we're getting a GREAT deal from them!
jhayann1
join:2008-04-22
Painesville, OH

jhayann1 to Tom86

Member

to Tom86
I was about to copy/paste that same thing from AT&T as well. They sent me an email, containing a link that pointed me to that very same page the previous poster had copy/pasted here. I couldn't view the link without having to log into my AT&T account first, so not sure if anyone else will be able to view it without being a subscriber.

Here's the link:

»www.att.com/esupport/art ··· JMjT8bqT

They claim that the average subscriber uses about 18GB a month, and after checking out their usage tool to see what we used, I realized that they have been tracking our usage since January 2011 without informing us. So yes, this has been in the works and behind the scenes for a while now, I'd say. Anyways, we used 65GB in one month, and that's with 2 desktop PCs, 2 laptops, a PS3 with Netflix, DirecTV, a BlackBerry, and a PSP connecting to the internet. We often watch an HD movie at least once a week if not more, and there's 3 of us who are online gamers at least 2 hours a day.

What compounds this problem is that Netflix is planning on eliminating their DVD service altogether; meaning that streaming movies will be the only option or no Netflix at all. When that happens, our bandwith usage will go up, or else we'll have to cancel our Netflix. And do you know what will happen then? Then AT&T will come up with their version of movie-streaming for us to pay additional fees for & they'll block anyone from accessing Netflix anyway - since they will have something to offer of similar service.

Then you've got a monopoly on your hands, and chaos will begin.
jhayann1

jhayann1

Member

Oh, and along with that email I got about the caps & stuff came the new terms I've supposedly agreed to unless I cancel membership ASAP. The way it's worded, it sounds like (a) AT&T has been getting a lot of gripes lately, and (b) if you need to call a support/customer service rep, you can only call to say "good job" or anything that isn't remotely insulting/bad. Here's the portion of the terms I speak of (in bold):

AT&T and/or Yahoo! may, however, immediately terminate or suspend your Member Account and Sub Accounts, and all or a portion of your Service without notice if:
(a) your payment is more than 30 days overdue;
(b) you provide false or inaccurate information to AT&T;
(c) you (or a Sub Account associated with your Member ID) violate this Agreement or the AT&T Acceptable Use Policy;
(d) you (or a Sub Account associated with your Member ID) engage in conduct that is a violation of any law, regulation or tariff (including, without limitation, copyright and intellectual property laws); or
(e) if you engage in conduct that is threatening, abusive or harassing to the AT&T or Yahoo employees, including, for example, making threats to physically harm or damage employee or company property; frequent use of profane or vulgar language; or repeatedly contacting our customer service representatives for reasons that do not pertain to our provisioning, maintenance, repair or general servicing of your high speed Internet access service after you have been asked to stop such conduct.
fixitman0
join:2005-10-27
Rockford, IL

fixitman0 to atttt

Member

to atttt
Back in the days of dial-up service AT&T also started to cap their "un-limited" service.

There are approximately 720 hours in a month, AT&T decided that a "heavy user" was anyone that used over (I believe) 250 hours a month. The overage charge was $1 per hour.

I'm sure that the bean counters at AT&T were anticipating that they would make an extra $470 a month from the evil heavy users.

They actually made nothing extra from me. I signed up with a second ISP for the $15 or so that they charged per month and got at least another 250 hours at a cost of 6 cents per hour.

I feel that if U-Verse is not available in your area that the cap (if any) should also be 250 GB.

RandomGuy
@swbell.net

RandomGuy

Anon

Just FYI to those of you who complained about AT&T tracking your usage - I just tried to check my usage and got this message:

"AT&T is not able to capture usage data on all of its customers. Customers whose usage is not available for viewing should not be concerned about their usage patterns for billing purposes."

So I suppose that means they've been tracking the usage of those customers that hit a certain threshold of bandwidth. At least, that's the impression it gives me.