06-10-2012 08:35:54 PM
I had installed recently business-class U-verse internet (24/3 FTTN) and television for my home office. I was assured repeatedly by the salesman and installation tech that business class has NO bandwidth caps and NO throttling, much like Comcast Business.
Lo and behold, I receive my "welcome packet", and it says, "Your connection comes with 250GB a month of bandwidth". I use 400GB a month alone in full (2) and differential (28) online backups (incremental is unreliable), and an additional 300 or so on top of that (thus why I chose business class, in addition to the more permissive terms of service in regards to servers and VPNs). That's not counting the rest of my household. So, say, 1 TB or 1.5 TB even. As seen, that's (disregarding the price), more than the $200 at $10 per 50GB that I was allowed to pay for overage on residential.
I'm not an opponent of overage in all circumstances. If I use fifteen times more than the average customer, I probably should pay more: but, unlike gasoline, bandwidth is not an absolutely limited resource at the moment, and the current internet is probably 50% dark to deliver the kinds of bandwidth it does (even FiOS). So, it's not even a "resource" in the proper sense of the term yet, as, as of now, it's completely unlimited (you should charge for an IPv4 address and not bandwidth, because IPv4 addresses are actually scarce; bandwidth isn't, yet).
I have searched the internet and received contradictory information. I will take answers from anyone who has business class U-verse, but would appreciate one from an official representative of AT&T: was I repeatedly lied to by people, and is the information packet correct, that business does have bandwidth caps, and I switched for no reason whatsoever, and need to cancel and switch back to residential? (For, if I'm going to pay overages, I'd rather pay overages with a better television package and DVR for $30 less a month, and your competitor, where I live currently, is, sadly, not Verizon FiOS, but Insight Cable - I should have checked that before I moved - which offers the literally third-world speeds of 15/1 as it's "highest tier" for some ridiculous price - and I'm in the middle of Columbus, OH, not the sticks!)
Or, is the packet of information outdated or not correct for business class, and were the representatives correct in stating that no matter the level of use, business class U-verse has absolutely NO bandwidth caps and absolutely NO throttling of any sort?
06-10-2012 09:05:03 PM
Contact Alex, one of the AT&T Community Managers via PM. He can put you in touch with someone to answer your concerns.
Alex
