I think we all need to remember that this thing happened with AT&T when people were using their 3G network as home internet service. I think ISPs have an right to limit how much data we use, especially because these caps aren't that small. However, they better tread carefully with any more limits they impose on their consumers. I think a better solution would've been to target the people using way to much data instead of holding back all of their customers. However, people these days are going way overboard with the Internet on their phones and in their homes.

Since our first DSL provider came on the market, it imposed monthly caps (10 Gb / month at the beginning, when fast DSL connexion was somthing like 1 Mbps...) Of course it raised that cap every couple of years, to reach now an average of 150 Gb / month (upload AND download added), depending on what kind of subscription you have. Almost all of the other providers in the country followed that kind of subscription. We pay an average of 35 EUR / month, 5 EUR for an additional 20 Gb when we go over the 150 Gb cap, anf if we're not willing to pay additional cost for those "Volume pack", we're simply slowed down to something like 128 Kbps until the end of the month... And those I only hear complaining about those caps are the heavy DivX downloaders; lambda user doesn't give a sh** about it.

It boggles my mind how many people don't understand this issue and are actually OK with the idea of ISP's charging you for how much "data" you use... as if ISP's "own" or "produce" data!!

It's not the same as billing for gas or electricity at all. In that case you are being delivered an actual physical commodity. But ISP's don't "own" data or information. They only transport it for you. And that's what you're paying for: the cost of transporting information.

Does that cost go up the more you use? Not really - it's so insignificant it's pure robbery to charge for it.

There are only 2 reasons why ISP's charge by usage:

1) To make more money (and it's a pretty sweet deal for them - they charge you for something they don't own or produce - information)
2) To try to keep people from using the internet all at the same time - and when you think about it, usage-based billing is an incredibly poor way of dealing with the "too many users on the network at the same time" problem. Just because everyone has a "limit" doesn't prevent them from all using the internet at the same time.

I'm shocked at how many people have bought into their dogma and are OK with this.

it appears that at&t has adopted a backwards market strategy ? as it's traditional voice services are loosing customers on a daily basis , it's data services are the source of 100% of all customer growth . and as a reward to all it's new data customers , at&t has adopted a new ambiguous pricing policy ?
i say ambiguous because with so called " bandwidth caps " at&t has opened the door to all sorts of new revenue gimmicks ? at present this cap is said to be figured on a monthly basis . but we all know that " peak hour " rates will quickly show up on our bills . and at present at&t sells all of it's data plans based on the speed of service that the customer has chosen to pay far . and millions of at&t customers can get nothing better than the so called " dsl - lite " ! the at&t " dsl - lite " customer gets to wait as web pages load and as email opens and gets to see " loading " and " buffering " even for a 30 second advertisement . so , for give me MR or MS at&t , but most of your at&t customers are already suffering from a bandwidth cap !!
this cap is the speeds that at&t delivers or should i say at&t does not deliver to it's customers ! on May 05 , i logged into my at&t account to see the bandwidth data that had been collected on my internet usage , ... here is what i found ?
AT&T IS NOT ABLE TO CAPTURE USAGE DATA ON ALL OF IT'S CUSTOMERS .
CUSTOMERS WHOSE USAGE IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING SHOULD NOT BE
CONCERNED ABOUT THEIR USAGE PATTERNS FOR BILLING PURPOSES .
so it appears that at&t only wants the right to charge it's customers more at some uncertain date in the future ?

but right now at&t doesn't really have the technical ability to monitor all it's customers or does it ??

i regularly go to the fcc web site to fill out their online complaint form with my at&t problems .

and from my experience , if you convey a legitimate complaint to the fcc , they do contact at&t and tell them to resolve the problem .

too bad that at&t hasn't put all this extra effort into better customer services instead of revenue gimmicks ????

That a small fraction of users consume a large fraction of bandwidth is simply a reflection of the expected bell-shaped distribution of user consumption. Some users use a lot, while a comparable number use little. So what?

Bandwidth caps have a long and negative history of impeding technical progress. The internet is now the air passage through which the the economy and productivity growth breathe. Aside from entertainment, many corporations and the government is moving to "the cloud", i.e. internet web services. So is education and training. So if anything is a public utility the internet is.

The ISP's want to take a profitable business, which they have now, and turn the internet into a goldmine monopoly, or, more accurately, oligopoly, where they have a choke hold on the very air passage the economy is increasingly needing to survive.. Well it is obvious why they would want that. It should also be obvious why that wouldn't be a good idea. Once caps are established one can safely bet that they will proliferate and become as complicated as the tax code, which, in effect, they will be.

If this goes through the government will need to watch system like a hawk because there will be no quicker way to kill the economy than forcing users at all levels to limit their use and access to the internet.

may i suggest that those horrible users of bandwith represent the future mass market. if cable stopped wasting bandwith streaming tv garbage which is mostly repeats, and users instead choose intelligently what they want, i think you will find plenty of bandwith leftover. penalizing the trend setters is throttling and fights progress. comm providers who go against this wave of change will pay in market loss. turned off comcast yesterday and not looking back!