House of ZAN Forum

[Plague]

So according to this article AT&T is going to cap their normal internet services for those with DSL and Uverse. Now the cap are pretty high, but this is an attempt limit a customer's service usage.

I don't like the cap on my cell phone internet, so a cable/dsl company telling me I have to limit the amount of service I use is stupid, I am paying for the service it shouldn't have a limit.

So I might have to drop Uverse on principle alone.

what do you think?
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"Never fear, I is here!"
Jared Sellars (a.k.a. Plague)

[Admiral Trell]

TAAAAAAAARDS!!!!!!

But yeah, all the companies are gonna start doing that now.... they are BUNGHOLES!!!!!

[Dana]

I'm not sure everyone will follow... this will be a VERY unpopular decision, evidenced by the fact that AT&T is the first company to be arrogant enough to implement it.

AT&T claims that 2% of its users use 20% of their total bandwidth. I say, if you know who these jabronis are, why don't you cap THEIR accounts and leave mine alone? The entire customer base shouldn't face restrictions because a tiny amount of them are abusing the system.

But, try explaining common sense to AT&T.
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[commandertracker]

This is the first step towards cable companies trying to move back to the 'pay-per-byte' model; when AT&T does this and you see much fewer people care about it than you might think would (the average person what, checks email and looks at a web page still? Though use is going up, almost everyone depends on cable for TV/movies and not the internet, so there will be no big uproar from this move) the other companies will follow suit.

Maybe this sort of thing will nudge Google into ISP services after all?

I thought they were just doing this w/ DSL though, didn't realize it was U-Verse too. Guess I'm glad I stuck w/ Time Warner.

(should add, I don't know what my monthly usage is, so I don't know if I'd hit a cap if I had one. I suspect not, but then all my TV is through the internet now...).

/edited for fun
//FUNZ!!!
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[Ravage]

Well...I'm not going to excuse it, because it seems to suck balls...but I think there could be potential benefits.

For example, if rates are based on usage, who is to say that I couldn't lower my average bill with this move? I do not eat the bandwidth of, say, a rabid bit-torrent-er (madeupwordftw), however my gaming will obviously put me in a higher use category than many people.
If many in the public (aka free market) will see their rates drop, and only those of us who use it up at the highest levels see increased costs, then the system is kinda working properly. Yes, it will suck bad for us, but we ARE the exception to the market average...and those people will determine our fate insomuch as cost control is concerned.

Now that's assuming there is any NEED for the regulating at all...there probably isn't, and I'm not sure I see yet how companies can make money with this. Common sense seems to imply that once this model is picked up by most mainstream cable companies, someone will come along and build a package for "us" that will lure our market share away from the big boys. Honestly, if AT&T pulls higher rates on me, I probably won't drop them, just their cable TV, and start actually USING all the bandwidth I can. I'll still be money ahead, unless they're crazytarded.

Of course, I really think satellite/global wireless will take over completely in a reasonable amount of time, and access will become so normalized that prices will drop by necessity (see landline telephone bills...up until cells became the norm). Cell phone plans will drop as well, as PC and Phones continue their hybridization right up to the point where we have Communicator Badges and PADDs (Gene knew his shit). That new device will be the norm, and thoughts of "plans" will barely be a blip on the radar.

Assuming the Democrats don't fuck it all up by passing Net Neutrality...ahem...wrong topic...

Overall, my opinion is that the current system isn't terrible as-is, and I don't see the profit motive (but I'm no expert). However, I don't think the arguments against this are very strong unless you happen to be in the smaller portion of the market (like all of us) who do use fairly high amounts of bandwidth.

[Admiral Trell]

How can we measure the amount of data we are downloading?

[Ravage]

Graduated Cylindar...of course, first you have to liquify your bandwidth, and for that, you need a Hulk-Hogan Brand blender (with the optional Quantum Physics Purifier).

[Grand Master Sef]