Tech | April 04, 2011 | 15 comments

AT&T's Internet Usage Billing is off by 4,700%

source: http://figrd.blogspot.com/2011/04/at-internet-usage-billing-off-by-as.html

Image
figgdimension
( and these people should be allowed to merge w/ T-mobile ?! geez what would ever be a reason not to...)
If gas goes up this summer above $4 per gallon, or even $5 per gallon, how comfortable would you be pulling in to a full-service station whose pump dial spun randomly and you were charged according to how many gallons the attendant figured had gone into your tank while holding down the lever and counting "one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi" at about 50 cents per Mississippi?


It might happen to your Internet costs if carriers are able to move to usage based billing under current FCC regulations and a shocking degree of their own incompetence.
Two weeks ago, according to a story in DSLReports.com, AT&T confirmed that it is putting caps on data customers can download -- 150 GB per month for its DSL customers and 250GB/month on subscribers to its U-Verse fiberoptic service, which offers speeds of up to 24 Mbit/sec downstream.
Customers who go over the limit three times during the entire life of the account will have to pay $10 for every 50GB over the limit.
Usage-based billing is routine for business users, though it's unusual in consumer markets. AT&T and other carriers have experimented with it, to widespread complaints from customers.
Those complaints got louder following AT&T's revelation of the usage-based billing plan when it became clear it had a real problem measuring the volume of data individual customers use.
In one case AT&T's metrics varied so wildly it under-reported one household's usage by 91 percent on one day and over-estimated it by 4,700 percent another
  1. groups:
    Community,   Tech,   Current Tonight,   US Politics,   14 more
  2. tags:
    AT&T,  FCC,  Net Neutrality. Billing wrong
  3.     
    |

15 comments // AT&T's Internet Usage Billing is off by 4,700%

  • AmericanStandard
  • figgdimension
  • Warren_Merrill
    • -2
      Warren_Merrill  

    • Thank God for free market competition. A competitor will provide a better service. ATT will lose customers and back off. A lot of "great" business plans fail due to competition.

    • 2 years ago
  • figgdimension
    • +2
      figgdimension  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Your a dumbass no they are the competitors douche...they are cornering a market and the few players will all fall into step as always in the game of monopoly hence the reason they all fell into fighting the FCC net Neutrality Conservative MOLE-TROLL.. your not even welcome on my threads BIATCH! ( and your the only one except hindotckas but he banned!)

    • 2 years ago
  • Warren_Merrill
    • 0
      Warren_Merrill  
    • figgdimension:

      I get it. Like most liberals you're into censorship of the people who disagree with you. Let me help you with a little grammar mistake you always seem to make. I know you don't want to type like a teenage texter. There's a difference between "your" and "you're." Your demonstrates possession. You're is a contraction for you are. Now go ahead on respond as I expect. Many posters on this site are so predictible in their responses.

    • 2 years ago
  • leftleftgivemeyourleft
    • +3
      leftleftgivemeyourleft  

    • Got my noticed today of the crap ATT is trying to pull. Phone and all will be dropped as of next week. In the list of BS,( caps included) they have now that ATT can cancel subscription if verbal abuse from customer happens with their employees. This tells me that the greedy S.O.B.'s are already getting an ear full from customers. It's a shame that customers can't get to the top assholes and the workers have to hear it.

      AT&T was greedy in the past and the a-holes are still are...thanks to buttbush and the wiretap program that ATT is no better than cock-koch bros.
      Look forward to telling them bye.

    • 2 years ago
  • Milieu
  • CalgarC
    • +4
      CalgarC  

    • already happening in canada. i have 95gb usage a month and am charged extra per gig. personally thats not gonna stop me from posting comments and speaking out...

    • 2 years ago
  • figgdimension
  • CalgarC
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
    • +6
      COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM  

    • If it can't measure reliably, then it shouldn't be able to charge based upon measurements. But this now skirts a more important consideration. Internet access is now a necessity, as is energy, water and gas, as well as banking. Public necessities should be all be public utilities. While private industry is free to provide the market places with whatever they can and want to, the public is entitled to, and should be providing itself with the most basic essentials of life, at the lowest possible cost.

      It can not be overstated that private industry has NOT provided the public with the best and most reliable essential services and products at the least expensive prices! We have public waste removal in most areas of the country, and no one finds that cost prohibitive or unreliable. We have public law enforcement in most areas of the country, and no one finds that cost prohibitive or unreliable. WHY, should we abandon even more life essential issues and needs to the volatility and manipulation of the private sector? We will each pay for the goods and services, one way or the other, from our taxes or our after tax income. It would cost us less if we paid for them with our taxes, instead of the money that is left over after taxes. After all, we don't get tax deductions for the costs of life's necessities, do we? But corporations get tax deductions for all of the goods and services which they pay for. In that respect, Congress had already given Big Corporate more "personhood" than we as individuals have.

      We, the people, are merely a legendary myth in this light. We, the people, are a bee hive without the knowledge that we have stingers, in this light. In this light, I can both hear, and understand, the logic, and reason, of the powers which are enriching themselves at our expense. The reasoning concludes that "if the people are content under our exploitation of them, and with what's left over after our exploitation of them, why should change the model. Everyone seems content, let's put more weight in the ballast and keep this ship steady and sailing just as it is. No such self enriching merchant ship will change course of it's own will until it understands and feels inevitable danger in front of it. And then, it will seek a path to go around it, again and again. It will take as much offense, as defense, to turn that ship of exploitation around.

    • 2 years ago
  • FoosMaster
  • figgdimension
  • ArthurDent
  • figgdimension
more from Tech:
from the community

top videos