AT&T to Cap DSL & U-Verse Bandwidth; Overage Fees for Repeat Offenders

DSL Reports discovered that AT&T will be charging overage fees for customers using more than 150GB per month on DSL, and 250GB on U-Verse.

This is how it will work: only users who exceed the new usage cap three times -- across the life of your account, not per month -- will be forced to pay these new per byte overages. Overages will be $10 for every 50GB over the 150 GB or 250GB limit they travel.

AT&T claims their average DSL customer uses around 18GB a month, and these changes will only impact about 2% of all DSL customers -- who the company states consume "a disproportionate amount of bandwidth." 

"Using a notification structure similar to our new wireless data plans, we'll proactively notify customers when they exceed 65%, 90% and 100% of the monthly usage allowance," AT&T tells us. The company also says they'll provide users with a number of different usage tools, including a usage monitor that tracks historical usage over time, and a number of different usage tools aimed at identifying bandwidth-hungry services.

This was expected for a long time as Comcast started capping bandwidth in 2008.

Engadget got the following statement from AT&T confirming the caps:

 

We are committed to providing a great experience for all of our Internet customers. Less than 2 percent of our Internet customers could be impacted by this approach - those who are using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. We will communicate early and often with these customers so they are well aware of their options before they incur any additional usage charges.

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.

Are you using AT&T DSL? I am, and I'm curious as to how much bandwidth I'm using each month.

 

Comments

[BP]

@ Jeb

The harm is to AT&T's bottom line. Because they're not stealing your money via overage charges.

That's what this is about. Nothing else.

[Tecmo SB Guy]

@e

I tried that (http://www.myusage.att.com/) and got:

"We're sorry, but we're unable to display your Internet usage.

You must access this tool using your primary AT&T U-verse or DSL account.

Please try again." With no sign of January and February usage.

And I'm logging into my primary DSL account.

[e]

@Tecmo
I checked my DSL,(not uverse,as I don't have it) acct yesterday & showed my history.I logged in with the same name/pw I use to access modem.
Anyone else try successfully or not??

[brownhat]

i'm with Centurylink and found out recently that my DSL has an 80GB/mo. 150 looks pretty good from here, but the squeeze is underway. god save the net.

[Tecmo SB Guy]

@e I just checked it just now and I'm still getting the same message I posted above.

It sucks because I did download my own bandwidth meter off the Internet yesterday but it doesn't show the bandwidth my Xbox uses so I do need AT&T to come up with their own meter and it needs to be a real-time meter.

[Lynne]

To Tecmo SB Guy,

I used the website previous mentioned - http://www.myusage.att.com - I was able to read my current and previous February and Historical as January (months). I am using about a third of the 150 GB a month if it is accurate for Jan and Feb. It says they calculate per week unless you go over the total then it is (daily with a four hour lag). So I am happy about that. I read that individuals that own their own Routers could read the bandwidth used from the routers themselves. Hope this helps.

[Lynne]

To Tecmo SB Guy:

The http://www.myusage.att.com -- will only work with your main telephone internet e-mail user and password -- in other words your main Internet E-mail account user ID and password you used when you first signed up with AT&T DSL service.

Try AT&T Phone Customer Support if you continue to have problem reading it. If you have remote access on your computer the AT&T Customer Service can take over the cursor and do it for you -- you can ask them to save your user id and password so you can access it when you want.

If you use the wrong user ID and password you get that error message:

You must access this tool using your primary AT&T U-verse or DSL account.

Again, I hope this helps! :-)

[Lynne]

To Tecmo SB Guy:

Try to simplify it:

I have three e-mail accounts with AT&T

My main one for Personal e-mails that is the one I sign up with myusage.att.com it is the very first e-mail account I made when I got my DSL AT&T Internet.

Two other AT&T e-mail accounts which won't work with the myusage.att website -- they are for facebook and yahoo friends not main one for personal e-mail.

The http://www.myusage.att.com -- will only work with your main telephone internet e-mail user and password -- in other words your main Internet E-mail account user ID and password you used when you first signed up with AT&T DSL service.

[Tecmo SB Guy]

@Lynne

Thanks for the info. I might call AT&T Customer Service later because I'm still getting that message I said above and I'm logging in with the e-mail address and password I used when I first got the DSL. That kind of sucks that doesn't look like a real time meter, that the best is a 4 hour lag. But it's better than nothing I suppose.

[Lynne]

Here is the link to AT&T's Broadband Usage FAQs for those who are interested:

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB409045#fbid=RsiUG1TMOg1

Includes charts and myusage website including other support usage questions.

[mike dee]

This will not be good for the porn industry!!!

[Jes]

My hubby and I were just wondering last week if AT&T Uverse (our provider) was going to pull this. I work 8-13 hours almost daily from home online (constant internet use from beginning of work day to end). I know too many other people to count who work from home, too. What will AT&T do as more companies expand their work at home capabilities, and separately, even more entertainment devices go online? I sometimes put Netflix Instant Watch on while I'm working (old TV shows), and then we watch each night when we retire. Reminds me of how cell phone users were nickle and dimed to death. I do not trust that AT&T will keep me informed of my usage in a timely manner, without my having to do some leg work. I also do not want to have them email my usage, and we have to keep track so that we know the email really arrived. If this this cap doesn't work out for us, we will drop Netflix. I need to work more than watch things on TV. We will drop AT&T if they become a pain in the tush to us, too. Luckily, we live where there are lots of choices.

[tsrblke]

You know, one thing they still haven't answered is what about our TV usage? My TV is just plugged into my router. Now it seems they are already able to discern TV traffic from my normal line (since I cap at 5.5mbps normal and TV usage should be beyond that. But still, I'd hate to find out my TV addiction costs me more money.

[scamexposed]

Well if the only thing you did with the internet was watch movies, this wouldn't be as much of an issue. AT&T knows as well as you do that e-mail, WI-FI (smart devices), and internet browsing - everything from banking to bill payment, to social sites all come out of that 150GB pot. I guarantee you many people are going to hit that cap. It's another way of charging you additional fees ... like the airlines. If bandwidth availability was such an issue, than tell me why TV and voice service is EXCLUDED - of course if you buy ATT voice and TV service. Imagine if United said "we're going to charge a checked bag fee for all passengers, but we won't charge the fee for those who buy luggage from United."

[Ryan]

ATT 6.0Mbps "Elite" subscriber here. My ATT speedtest says I get 5.0Mbps down, even though no actual activity seen (...). However, third party tests show 3.0Mbps. And when connecting to Netflix or Vudu (or use Vudu's speedtest) I get not even a steady 1.0 Mbps. Translation: ATT, the only ISP in my area, is throttling connections to Netflix, Vudu, and the like. This in addition to the bandwidth caps is their campaign of anticompetitive evil. They know most dumb users will call Netflix or Vudu and bury their call centers in complaints about service quality. They will not publicly admit they are throttling connections to specific sites. If found out they will say they have "network congestion" and have to preserve quality of service for their subscribers. In fact, they never have to prove they have network congestion problems to implement such a policy, and so long as all the big ISP's do this, Netflix and Vudu and Hulu and Amazon are all dead.

[Mit]

I believe this only affect the couch potatoes whom are lazy and collect government supports, parents that don't care about their children and criminal activities people.

[Zealia]

I watch 6-10 shows on netflix a night, this is freaking me out!!! My question is that I signed up for unlimited Internet usage so is this grounds to break my contract without penalty?
THIS CAN NOT BE QUIETLY ALLOWED TO HAPPEN!!!!

[FuckATT]

AT&T sucks balls anyway. Last week I asked them to cut me off as of next week (moving). They cut me off immediately.

Then they gave me a new account, and said it couldn't be activated for 4 days. I went "wtf?" they said ok,ok, tomorrow.

I said, well you cut it off BY MISTAKE, so I want it back on right now, TYVM. They said no can do, billing department just went home, and they have to give the go-ahead.

So yeah, AT&T internet is controlled by BILLING, and they don't care enough to have anyone on-call when they're the only ones who can initiate anything.

[JR]

everything att says is lies there is no reason waht so ever for a bandwith cap. a high bandwith user uses 19 households worth thats a lie its oh dear someone is actually using what we say we can support and now that they do because we oversell and refuse to properly fund our network and isntead line our pockets with cash the network is congesteed. but wait we will be happe to let you congest our network for extra money. IT MAKES NO SENSE IF THEY WERE CONGESTED THEY WOULDNt LET YOU KEEP CONGESTING FOR MORE MONEY. ATT IS NOTHING BUT LIERS AND THEY HAVE PAID OFF THE MEDIA TO BE ON THERE SIDE, BUT US AMERICAN ARE TO STUPID TO STAND UP AND FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS.