AT&T hiding broadband caps from DSL customers until after sign-up
The company's bandwidth tiers have 20 to 80 GB limits, but users aren't informed until after lock-in.
Perhaps taking lessons from Time Warner's Cable's recent and spectacular public relations nightmare surrounding its metered broadband trials — actually scrapped as a result of widespread customer outcry — AT&T appears to be taking a much quieter and more sinister approach to implenting broadband caps. Customers signing up for any of the four main DSL service tiers in the two markets where AT&T is conducting the metered trials (Reno, NV and Beaumont, TX) are getting notices only after the fact about monthly bandwidth limits from 20 to 80 GB depending on which of the Basic, Express, Pro and Elite plans are chosen. Like Time Warner's abandoned plans, the overage charge is a dollar per gigabyte.
While it's not entirely surprising that the concept of metered broadband isn't quite dead yet, what is disturbing is that AT&T is being disingenuous about their continuing trials. While a spokesperson for the company told GigaOm's Stacey Higginbotham that customers can get the information about the trials from the att.com website, neither she nor we could find any mention of the trials or caps mentioned or linked to from a plan comparison using a Reno or Beaumont zip code seed. There appears to be no mention of the trials in any of AT&T's online marketing copy or ToS, and one customer reported being told directly by a sales representative that there were no usage limits on the DSL plans.
Even if this is a case of oversight and not intentional obfuscation, AT&T should be far more concerned with being up front and transparent about these trials considering what's at stake with metered broadband, especially in light of the recent experience of their competitor Time Warner. If you've had any run-ins with AT&T DSL bait-and-switch in the Reno and Beaumont trial markets, be sure to let us know about your experience.
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- Gigabyte, DSL, Broadband, ToS, metered broadband
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Comments (1)
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Anonymous (8:28 PM on Tue Dec 8, 2009)
The market has created a monster really. People have been coerced into technology and the demand is extremely high for speed speed speed. The technology is there to meet the demand. But companies aren't willing to fork out the dough for it. Why? Because CEO's, VPs and etc arent willing to take a pay cut. I see too much profit in the dirty hands of business.
The consumer comes first or else. I can predict what will happen the same way I did years ago about music and movie piracy. Credit means nothing. You can get an account from ATT and suck the bandwidth 100% no matter what the cost. Once the service goes off at some point, it is easy to get another. If everyone did this, ATT would eventually lose so much that they would fall flat on their faces. We really need to suck the life out of shabby corporations like Time Warner, ATT, and others. That way the good companies can come forward and serve the consumer properly. Just look at what music and movie piracy has done. It brought down prices of media, and is forcing the quality to improve. Remember the changeover in the 90s from good music to cookie cutter crap? Piracy is our best friend. Now lets give an enema to ATT the way they deserve it.