[RTC List] Your Future Broadband Will Cost More, for Less

[JBilderback]

> AT&T this week said it would join other broadband providers 
  in trialing tiered broadband

from the AT&T "news release":

" Britton said that 5 percent of AT&T's users account for 46 
percent of network traffic, and the top 1 percent represents 21 
percent of overall use. He said the trial project would not affect 
95 percent of AT&T users."

It's interesting that the above statement of the problem leads to 
the following solution:

" The caps for new users are tiered according to the broadband 
service they receive, with the lowest tier, at 768 Kbps, allotted 
a 20-GB monthly limit. Subscribers who pay for 1.5 Mbps, 3 Mbps 
and 6 Mbps will receive monthly limits of 40, 60 and 80 GB, 
respectively."

Which is obviously just a lame excuse to raise rates and has 
little if anything to do with the supposed 5% of users abusing 
their service agreement.