AT&T caps broadband data for download-hungry subscribers
By Taylor Hatmaker - Yahoo! Tech Blog
An era of carefree internet usage will draw to a close today for some web-goers — today AT&T will introduce data caps for its U-verse and DSL broadband subscribers and charge users who exceed set monthly data limits. The company announced the planned data ceilings back in March, and AT&T broadband customers should be aware that the changes take effect today.
Under AT&T's new plan — which imposes a 150GB cap on DSL accounts and a 250GB cap on U-verse accounts — subscribers will be notified if they approach the monthly data allowance. The policy, while unpleasant for customers who aren't happy to be watching their web usage, is fairly lenient. AT&T will only begin leveraging overage fees after a customer has exceeded the data cap 3 times and the company only expect its new limitations to affect 2% of its subscribers who gobble up a disproportionately large chunk of network data.
Most "unlimited" mobile data plans offered by the major U.S. carriers have a data cap in the fine print. With bandwidth-heavy activities like streaming video through Hulu and Netflix sharply on the rise, it was only a matter of time before internet service providers started following suit with their mobile counterparts.
While users do gulp down increasing amounts of online media, the vast majority of users don't use enough data to bump up against such provider-imposed data ceilings. Still, monitoring your own mobile or home internet usage is the safest way to be sure you don't get slammed with overage charges with your monthly bill. According to AT&T, you'll be able to monitor your own habits at MyUsage.att.com when the data cap officially kicks in for your area.
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Originally Posted by Hal-9000
