AT&T begins capping and charging its broadband users

by Stevie Smith - Nov 6 2008, 21:28

In a move likely to infuriate certain portions of its customer base, U.S. communications behemoth AT&T has followed in the wake of fellow industry heavyweights Comcast and Time Warner by implementing a pilot scheme placing data caps on its broadband service users.

AT&T set to trial broadband capping service in Reno. Image: AT&T.

Rolled out for initial assessment in Reno, Nevada, AT&T will now issue and enforce a set monthly broadband usage limitation for certain service customers, charging them an additional fee should they stray beyond their allowance.Brought into action this past Saturday, the trial alterations will initially only include new DSL users, who will duly find themselves restricted to between 20GBs and 150GBs of combined monthly downloads and uploads, depending on their specific service agreement.Those exceeding their set monthly ceiling will receive two warnings from AT&T before then being billed for an extra $1 USD for each gigabyte (GB) of data they consume.According to AT&T, the largest cable provider in the U.S., its capping plan has been designed to clamp down on a minority of ‘bandwidth hogs’ within its customer base that consume an unusually large amount of broadband capacity.“Our goal is to look at the best model for getting [a] fair and affordable broadband service for everyone,” commented AT&T spokesman John Britton, who also noted that a mere five percent of the company’s account holders were responsible for some 46 percent of total network traffic.The trail period will run through to some time in 2009, at which point AT&T is then expected to outline whether service capping will be extended. In terms of those likely to feel the touch of capping, Britton insisted that the service alterations were unlikely to affect 95 percent of the company’s user base, not least because the maximum cap of 150GBs would be the equivalent of some 30,000 music file downloads. Based on connection performance, new AT&T subscribers who pay for 768Kbps will receive a limit of 20GBs, while 1.5Mbps, 3.0Mbps and 6.0Mbps users will receive monthly limits of 40GBs, 60GBs and 80GBs respectively. Existing users in Reno will all be issued with the 150GB cap.

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AT&T begins capping and charging its broadband users

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