Gene Moore
EF3
from AP news:
AT&T is looking at charging extra for heavy Internet use, following in steps of cable NEW YORK (AP) -- AT&T Inc., the country's largest Internet provider, is considering charging extra for customers who download large amounts of data. "A form of usage-based pricing for those customers who have abnormally high usage patterns is inevitable," spokesman Michael Coe said this week.
The top 5 percent of AT&T's DSL customers use 46 percent of the total bandwidth, Coe said. Overall bandwidth use on the network is surging, doubling every year and a half.
AT&T doesn't have any specific plans or fees to announce yet, Coe said.
Most cable companies have official or secret caps on the amount of data they allow subscribers to download every month. Time Warner Cable started a trial earlier this month in Beaumont, Texas, under which it will charge subscribers who go over their monthly bandwidth cap $1 per gigabyte.
This will likely impact those streaming video, but to what extent remains to be seen. One dollar per gig is not that much but it could be easy to lose track of overages. We've been streaming with Alltel this season, no problems so far. Since Verizon is buying Alltel next year's Internet provider landscape will be changed considerbly from this season. The slower AT&T will have to react.
Gene Moore
AT&T is looking at charging extra for heavy Internet use, following in steps of cable NEW YORK (AP) -- AT&T Inc., the country's largest Internet provider, is considering charging extra for customers who download large amounts of data. "A form of usage-based pricing for those customers who have abnormally high usage patterns is inevitable," spokesman Michael Coe said this week.
The top 5 percent of AT&T's DSL customers use 46 percent of the total bandwidth, Coe said. Overall bandwidth use on the network is surging, doubling every year and a half.
AT&T doesn't have any specific plans or fees to announce yet, Coe said.
Most cable companies have official or secret caps on the amount of data they allow subscribers to download every month. Time Warner Cable started a trial earlier this month in Beaumont, Texas, under which it will charge subscribers who go over their monthly bandwidth cap $1 per gigabyte.
This will likely impact those streaming video, but to what extent remains to be seen. One dollar per gig is not that much but it could be easy to lose track of overages. We've been streaming with Alltel this season, no problems so far. Since Verizon is buying Alltel next year's Internet provider landscape will be changed considerbly from this season. The slower AT&T will have to react.
Gene Moore
