AT&T may limit Web subscribers' data use

It appears as if the internet might be headed towards how much capacity you have, not how much speed. AT&T is debating putting limits on how much users can download from the internet each month rather than charging for speed. This method is already used on cell phones and servers, but bringing it to your own personal computer is fairly new. This strategy, AT&T claims, is used to prevent “data hogs” from using their internet to its full capacity. These “data hogs”, AT&T claims, are only 5% of its internet users, but make up more than 50% of its internet traffic. So if you have the 768 kb/sec internet, your limit will be 20gb per month. The limit goes up with whatever speed of internet you have, up to 150 at the 10 mb/sec limit. These limits will start in November and are already being tested in the Reno area to see if it will work out correctly. If you go over your limit, you will have to pay $1 per gigabyte you go over. Other ISPs have limits set already, but they do not charge for whatever extra you use. Comcast has a 250 gb limit on all of its internet speeds, but only warns you a specific number of times and then they cancel your service and don’t charge you extra. TimeWarner is thinking about capping their limits too, with ones with as little as 5gb limits which is easily exceeded if you watch even 3 dvd quality movies online in a month.

It seems to me that this is another example of the big internet companies trying to get a hold on their customer base. They just don’t want to put in the new lines to support the bandwidth they use, so they are charging the customers unfairly for it. So, instead of working for the consumer’s money, they are making the consumers work for them by making them limit their bandwidth. This is a ridiculous idea and if I was affected by this I would feel insulted. It is also interesting how Verizon, who is mentioned as a company not buying into this concept, is the only one out of the companies who has upgraded to fiber optic networks, which can support a lot more bandwidth and only require upgrading of the transmitters and the receivers at either end, not the cables themselves. This is why I think it’s just the companies themselves being stubborn and encourage anyone who uses a lot of bandwidth to switch to Verizon soon, or you may pay for it later.