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AT&T Caps Are A Giant Con And An Attack On Cord-Cutters (dslreports.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Following a report from DSLReports that ATT would be imposing usage caps on the company's U-Verse broadband customers, ATT has announced it would now be following Comcast's lead by "allowing" users to pay $30 more a month if they wanted to avoid usage caps entirely. However, ATT has taken it to a new level by "allowing" users to graciously avoid the $30 fee -- if they subscribe to DirecTV or U-Verse TV service. These data caps allow ISPs like ATT and Comcast to cash in on internet video and make cord-cutting less viable by making streaming more expensive. And now, ATT is using caps to force users to subscribe to traditional TV if they want their broadband connection to work like it used to.
Everyone hates them. Go in with tanks and disband the treasonous bastards.
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$MY_CURRENT_CABLE_PROVIDER is the worst. I thought $MY_PREVIOUS_CABLE_COMPANY was the worst for years, but then I moved from $MY_PREVIOUS_REGION to $MY_CURRENT_REGION and sometimes I actually feel like I owe $MY_PREVIOUS_CABLE_COMPANY an apology.
Sonic.net is doing this in San Francisco. Unfortunately, I live literally 50 feet outside the neighborhood they're running fiber to right now. I'm thinking of moving just to get out from under AT&T. I've never had to suffer through such a consumer-unfriendly ISP before. The only alternative where I live is Comcast so I'm screwed either way.
FCC, you are supposed to protect and look out for the public good rather than be beholden to the corporations. I can't imagine a more appropriate use of your authority to ban this type of crap.
Seems pretty clear to me, you pay $30 and get unlimited internet. Seems pretty clear and non-donnish to me.
Paying for something you are not getting would be a con.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Several types of predators migrate alongside their prey. You go where the meat is.
If ATT could find a way to keep charging you for not using their wares, don't you think they would?
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
So, do you live in a place where another company is free to run a sewer line to your house so you can subscribe to their service?
Or do you think maybe the final infrastructure which comes into peoples houses shouldn't be the property of a corporation?
It's time to stop pretending that infrastructure which we've paid for, and which has rights of way on public and private property should be treated as the exclusive property of some asshole corporation like AT&T.
That's just idiotically subsidizing AT&T to remain a monopoly, while saying if people don't want monopolies they can build their own infrastructure.
Like the water, sewer, and electricity coming into your home ... the network needs to be considered part of the municipal infrastructure.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Honestly, if you give a company -- especially a company like AT&T -- the ability to just take your money, you deserve it.
Send me a paper bill, in the mail, and I'll pay it. If you just make shit up, I'll call you and yell.
But if you demand the right to just take money from me? Fuck you, fuck off, no way in hell I'm signing up for that bit of stupidity.
Companies like AT&T are too greed and incompetent to be trusted with that.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Yeah, I won't give AT&T my credit card number because I don't want them just reaching in and taking money whenever they feel like it. I certainly wouldn't give them my debit card money--then the money that they take is the money I'm using to, like, buy food and pay rent.
I use my bank's billpay thing to pay AT&T every month. I'm pretty sure I can set it up to be automated, but I just log in and check it each month to make sure nothing's changed, and then I push the button. Easy, and keeps AT&T from rummaging in my bank accounts.
They provide two levels of service, to get the better service you either pay more money or also purchase a separate service from them.
What part of this is the outrage? This is just how buying things works.
When some companies had caps on "unlimited" plan, that was obvious bullshit. (I hit the cap with Comcast a couple of times, they told me that bandwidth wasn't the aspect of the service that was unlimited)
What's all the whining about here, though?
sic transit gloria mundi