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AT&T To Match Google Fiber In Kansas City, Charge More If You Want Privacy

Posted by Soulskill on from the K.C.-and-the-sunshine-bandwidth dept.

An anonymous reader writes: When Google Fiber started bringing gigabit internet to cities around the U.S., we wondered how the incumbent ISPs would respond. Now we know: AT&T has announced they will match Google Fiber's gigabit offerings in Kansas City. Of course, there are some caveats. First, AT&T's rollout may stop as it fights the Obama administration over net neutrality. Not that it would be a nationwide rollout anyway: "AT&T does not plan to offer the ultra-fast Internet lines to every home in the market. Rather, he said the company would calculate where demand is strongest and the investment in stringing new cables promised a decent return."

There are also some interesting pricing concerns. The company plans to charge $70/month for gigabit service, but that's a subsidized price. Subsidized by what, you ask? Your privacy. AT&T says if you want to opt out of letting them track your browsing history, you'll have to pay $29 more per month. They say your information is used to serve targeted advertising, and includes any links you follow and search terms you enter.

5 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Please note: by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "AT&T may collect and use web browsing information for other purposes, as described in our Privacy Policy, even if you do not participate in the Internet Preferences program."

    So, there's the $100/month 'Yup, definitely spying on you' tier where "your Internet traffic is routed to AT&T's Internet Preferences web browsing and analytics platform"(good luck finding out exactly what that entails; but it's probably bad); or the $70/month 'Ominous and vague "other purposes"' tier.

    How much evil do they manage into their 'browsing and analytics platform' to be $30 worse than their baseline level of spying?

  2. Thought process by Kokuyo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder about the thought process behind this.
    Our competitor launched an offering that blows everything out of the water that we offer. Let's provide a product to compete! But here's the catch: Let's make it suck! That'll show 'em.

    Are consumers just that dumb or is AT&T just that arrogant?

    1. Re:Thought process by dAzED1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      so, do you think google isn't doing the same with their fiber installs? https://fiber.google.com/legal...

    2. Re:Thought process by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except there isn't anything to indicate that Google is actually spying on you when you use their internet service.

      The whole point of this two tiered pricing system on AT&T's part is to make it seem as though Google is doing the same, but that doesn't appear to be the case. The reality is quite simple: AT&T wants to charge you $100 for the service, and if they can't, then they are hell bent and determined on claiming their pound of flesh in some other way.

      It isn't exactly a secret that AT&T (and Verizon) has been running a campaign to try to get consumers to value bandwidth at a higher price than they presently pay, because in their mind that is the future cash cow (since they've discovered that text messages, voice minutes, and cable TV aren't "cool" any more, and thus triple play is dying.) Haven't you ever wondered why them (and Verizon) got rid of their unlimited mobile data plans? Hint: It has nothing to do with a lack of spectrum (they have plenty in their possession.) Meanwhile T-Mobile and Sprint (with much lower spectrum holdings) have not.

    3. Re:Thought process by MichaelMacDonald · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ^ This -- They aren't providing a better alternative, they aren't trying to compete at all with Google, they are simply protecting their by offering a similar product that's slightly worse, and confusing people with it. Their marketing will make it sound very different from this article.