AT&T starts capping broadband

[Barrister]

  There are advantages to being in the south.

[Habbaku]

I hope this only includes the internet. My television comes down the same fiber and is essentially all "downloaded". Come to think of it, I got a big letter from them yesterday with a new set of terms and whatever. I think I should actually read that...

AT&T's service is only including the internet in its caps, yes, and you get "extra" bandwidth (100GBs) if you're part of their TV/internet/phone bundle service program.

[DGuller]

The cost to provide 1 gb of data is estimated to be 1 to 3¢. The faster the pipe is, the cost becomes cheaper.

Are you including the cost of capital in that?

[katmai]

  There are advantages to being in the south.

Show us home speeds.

[Maximus]

How much do you use?  I use the internet quite a bit, download a goodly amount of shows, etc. (though I don't use Netflix) and my usage came nowhere near the cap that AT&T's starting this month.

Yep, I just found it. With 3 computers in the house and someone always on them, we've so far stayed below 34 GB.

[Grey Fox]

The cost to provide 1 gb of data is estimated to be 1 to 3¢. The faster the pipe is, the cost becomes cheaper.

Are you including the cost of capital in that?

I don't think so. I'm not viper.

[DGuller]

[Habbaku]

How much do you use?  I use the internet quite a bit, download a goodly amount of shows, etc. (though I don't use Netflix) and my usage came nowhere near the cap that AT&T's starting this month.

Yep, I just found it. With 3 computers in the house and someone always on them, we've so far stayed below 34 GB.

Careful, the usage-cap bogeyman is coming to get you.

[Barrister]

  There are advantages to being in the south.

Show us home speeds.

But I'm at work.

[DGuller]

I think the most I've used in a month was 40 gigs, and that was when I bought a DVD player, and went crazy streaming all kinds of stuff on Netflix.

[Maximus]

Careful, the usage-cap bogeyman is coming to get you.

If we used netflix streaming video more I bet that would change. I can rarely find anything on there worth watching.

I wonder what the relative costs are for on-demand TV vs streaming video over IP.

[MadImmortalMan]

My household streams roughly 10 hours a day on average of Netflix traffic. Counting mine and my wife's. It's the primary viewing medium by a long shot. Second being the DVR. Live TV is almost an insignificance during non-NCAA football season.

[derspiess]

Time Warner have done a good job of avoiding the temptation to cap.

Research shows that Time Warner was testing it out a few years ago but faced outrage. With Comcast and AT&T aligned on this issue though, it seems like Time Warner would jump on the bandwagon.

That's what was said about Time Warner 3 years ago; hopefully it's just as wrong this time.  There is some TV and ISP competition seeping into my area, so hopefully that will help things.

[derspiess]

I get 15mbps down at home & a pitiful 500kbps up.

On my phone, from inside my work building:

[Faeelin]

I really don't get the outrage at all.  First of all, they're not capping it, they're just metering it, turning it from a flat price to a variable price.  Second of all, isn't that an economically efficient decision?  Shouldn't people who incur relatively more costs for the provider pay more?  If they don't, then users who don't use Internet a lot subsidize those who do, and the whole pie is less efficiently allocated.

Did I misread the article? I don't see a mention of lowering the price for people who stay under the limit...