Bandwidth Usage

[Killercod]

Where are the tools to measure my bandwidth usage, better yet where can I see my historical usage over time?

I guess we'll never see the data that supposedly supports the "only 2% will be effected" mantra we've been hearing, will we?

[DemiA]

Thank you for your interest in this sir.

To check on your bandwidth usage you simply need to go to: www.MyUsage.att.com

You will need to log in using your primary Member id

to view your usage information and the tools.

Let me refer you to an article from our helpsite that will give you more information regarding your inquiry.

Here's the link for the article:

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB409045#fbid=bvNBb3il20R

or you may go to www.att.com/internet-usage

For Information about the recent changes in the Terms of Service please refer to the link below:

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB400363

To view the full revised terms please click here:  www.att.com/tos2011

[Killercod]

Thank you.  Since you are the first person from AT&T that I've seen respond with useful information, I'd like to ask another question please:

Why am I being discriminated against and capped at 150gb per month on my residential DSL account, when it's AT&T that does not even offer the Uverse package in my area.  I have no choice in the matter, yet my usage is arbitrarily capped 100gb lower than other users.

[Tecmo SB Guy]

I was wondering if somebody here could help with this?

Whenever I login here (www.MyUsage.att.com) to check my bandwidth I get this:

We're sorry, but we're unable to display your Internet usage.

You must access this tool using your primary AT&T U-verse or DSL account.

Please try again.

and I'm logging with the e-mail address that I received when I first got the DSL.

[DocFont]

Just four weeks ago I upgraded to the fastest available plan, 3mps. It was great. I asked if I could get the 6mps plan but it is not available even though the tech who was here tested the line and said it tested at 6mps. We have 9 computers in our household. A mac, 2 linux, 5 windows XP and a Vista laptop. My wife is in College. We have 5 homeschool kids who also watch a lot of anime and play WarCraft, Minecraft, Amnesia, Roblox, Pirates of the Carribean. I play WarCraft on my main computer while I listen to the radio and websurf at the same time on a secondary PC.  I am learning programming, working on designing a website with linux programming. I'm hoping to turn that into my full time job. Wife plays farmville and chats on Ivillage. We signed up for NetFlix trial after the bugs were worked out of our internet upgrade. I listen to online streaming radio stations more than 12 hours a day. I want to see our bandwidth usage but your link doesn't work. We use the internet a lot. I was happy with the service and price.

I first heard about the bandwidth cap on Clark Howard's radio show today. Did a quick websearch and read the articles. Ok, on this forum and others. AT&T has made a lot of people unhappy. I'm unhappy.

I did a quick websearch for alternative DSL providers. If I find a better deal, I have no reason to feel loyal to AT&T. You did give me the motivation I need to dump my landline phone.

Once I can see my bandwidth usage history, I may take an option not many have mentioned. I will add a second DSL line to my house. It is cheaper to add a second DSL plan for $20 first year then $40 a month to get another 250gb than to spend $10 for 50gb. If it costs me a little more to use as much bandwidth as I want, I'll cut back somewhere else in our household budget to come up with the money.

Hopefully somebody at AT&T will come up with an unlimeted bandwidth plan upgrade before May if they don't drop this idea as bad marketing in the first place. Or before I find another provider without a cap. I'm sure the I-village folks and other forums where this is a topic will suggest  DSL providers. That is what "Smartmobs" are for.

DocFont

[mericlee]

I am so upset by this. So much for moving to the cloud...I guess AT&T is missing the trend in computing and networking. I am in school, have a son in college, two in high school, and my husband has a computer for himself and a company laptop. We game online, watch Hulu, YouTube, download music, movies, and games, upload files for classes, watch videos for classes all online. We are not the only family I know that utilizes the Internet this way. I am shocked and so very angry about this change to service.

When I received the email I used the link to check our usage, and we're at 64GB for 12 days and I know our usage has been light as we haven't all been home. Is AT&T so out of touch they don't realize how many homes have more than one computer online...not to mention gaming systems? I am really upset Uverse customers get 250GB. Not only is it unfair to those of us that were still waiting for this service, but even 250 GB could be considered low.

My local cable company offers tiered service, the highest being 500GB but the service I am considering is our power company's CDE Lightband. Not only does it's speed blow AT&T away at 10MEG upload and download, but their cost is much less at $34.95 per month. I hadn't switched over because I liked AT&T service and was willing to keep waiting for Uverse. Now I think I'll keep my cable tv and just change my Internet to CDE and my phone most likely. With this kind of "fair" service change, I'm thinking I may as well let my contracts expire and head to Verizon with my cell phones too.

Frankly, if AT&T had any idea of actual network usage trends they'd realize residential usage is only growing with more and more options available to customers online. Even my older parents are a two computer home. My dad rents movies all the time. Guess it is a good thing he went with the cable company for service. I really am beginning to think the only clouds AT&T understands are the ones that make rain.

[bek1]

It looks like I am going to have to go to the local city cable modem.  I despise bandwidth limitations, but I really dislike the ploy where you can get a higher bandwidih limit if you use their "U-Verse".  This is a flat-out attack against Netflix, imo.  I've had Bellsouth (now AT&T) for somewhere around a decade.

I can't even log into the bandwidth meter... it says my login/password is incorrect.  I am afraid to see the details, with us using lots of Netflix, Skype, software downloads (I'm a software developer), and other entertainment.

I am incredibly disappointed.  [Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

[Pake]

Exactly. This is AT&T's move to monopolize streaming content over AT&T internet connections. Unless they make U-Verse content count against the 250 GB cap on the U-Verse line, they are showing just how anti-Netflix, anti-Hulu, anti-Playstation Network, anti-Xbox Live, anti-Amazon.com, etc. they are.

After 10 years as well, still using a Bellsouth account, this will most likely be the last couple months with AT&T. I can not support a service that places a priority on their on internet cost-based services.

And to keep on topic, how can AT&T even attempt to limit usage when their usage tool is broke?

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Says-Theyre-Working-On-Meter-Accuracy-113370

[ercjncpr1956]

Actually, I think this might be only an issue for gamers. I am a very heavy user of internet video (You Tube, Netflix and other video on demand usage)  and my total for this month is only 32GB. If you are neither a heavy video downloader or gamer, then these new limits may not be an issue for you.

[shelleyp]

This is the error I'm getting also.

Does anyone from AT&T know why some of us don't have access to a usage meter?

[shelleyp]

---

Tecmo SB Guy wrote:

I was wondering if somebody here could help with this?

Whenever I login here (www.MyUsage.att.com) to check my bandwidth I get this:

We're sorry, but we're unable to display your Internet usage.

You must access this tool using your primary AT&T U-verse or DSL account.

Please try again.

and I'm logging with the e-mail address that I received when I first got the DSL.

---

This is the error I'm also getting. I'm using the same email address that's used in my DSL modem. But I keep getting this error.

When can we actually see the usage meter?

[shelleyp]

I was incorrect. I am able to login but the error I get is the following

[KeyStrahd]

I Play alot of Online Games plus youtube and such.My online usage for this Month was only 23Gb so I don't think it will Impact online gaming at all.MMO's use very little bandwidth.I think it's probably going to effect the Torrent People the most.

[glicksty]

3000 kilobits per second /(divided by) 8 bits = 375 kilobytes per second X(times) 60 seconds = 22500 kilobytes per minute (times) 60 minutes = 1350000 kilobytes per hour /(divided by) 1024 kilobytes =1318.3 megabytes per hour /(divided by) 1024 megabytes = 1.28 gigabytes per hour X(times) 24 hours =30.89 gigabytes per day X(times) 5 days = 154.45 gigabytes.  My point is if I'm paying for 3 megabits it doesn't seem fair that I only get to us it for 5 days out of the month. How about you credit me the other 25 days if I don't go over.  $40 per month /(divided by) 30 days = $1.33 X(times) 25 days without service = $33.33 credit due each month. If not received my attorneys will be in contact. thank you.

[badmodo]

This action on ATT's behalf is an odd way to encourage customers to subscribe to their higher tier internet packages (I get the sense that many customers who currently subscribe to AT&T's higher Teir services will ether cancel or lower the speed to the lowest)

I subscribe to the 24Mbps internet package. This is thru the U-verse system, so the speed throttles down if i'm using multiple HD streams. I'm willing to accept the throttling limitation, for that is within my control. 

It just doesn't make sense for me to keep the higher speed internet teir, if I am capped at the same amount of usage as customers whom subscribes to the 3Mbps package.

So, my question is this:

What encourage me to pay an extra premium for the 24 Meg internet connection, if all it allows me to do is reach my cap in less time than the 3 Meg internet service?

This of course is a loaded question. For it seems very clear that there would be no compelling reason to keep the higher teir internet service.

[John R. Sellers]

The following JPG shows my bandwith usage for the past 3 months:

I depend on my RSDI check every month.  If AT&T goes ahead with these usage caps, I'll be forced to switch to Mississippi's own fiber optic, no usage caps Telepak Networks,

[John R. Sellers]

After having a conversation with an AT&T rep,  I wonder if I've read my bandwidth usage wrong, and it's actually no where near the limit.  I think what threw me off was the lack of a decimal point (150GB  instead of 150.00GB).

[toonraver]

Actually...if you download any games via steam or any other service that counts against your usage.  Modern games can run up to 25gb in some cases.  Then combine that with any sort of movie or Internet TV service as well as mmo usage and you will hit the cap in a hurry.

[John R. Sellers]

Well, I'm not big on gaming, online or offline. 

Also, I don't watch full length movies online, I download them, maybe 2 or 3 month.  It depends on my fundage.

[zgamer]

I don't get the games reference eating up your bandwidth for breakfast. Game traffic is typically under 80Kbps with the exception of WoW on the larger BG's....the 40-man BG's take around 150Kbps. Gaming all week/month long will have usage but not the hundreds of gigs people are worrying about. If you are streaming non-hd video you may get close to this. However if you are doing heavy HD video streaming then you'll have an issue. Users who have lots of kids streaming youtube/hulu/ect all day long even with SD content may get near this cap. The other users hitting this cap quickly would be the heavy torrent users which are in a category of its own. The caps are put it to place partially as a way to make even more money (less needs to upgrade their feeds to some of the heavy usage vrads = more money in their pockets) and more so to "encourage" users to watch there video content through AT&T's set-top boxes. ...both are really about the bottom line, money....they look every day for new ways to make more money per customer for the services they offer. In case you’ve been living under a rock it’s called Capitalism. I’m not saying I agree with the caps, personally I wish there was more competitors out there with similar service offerings….then they will be forced to keep more honest on their prices and the services they offer. In areas where they are the only game in town they charge more and offer less, why? Because they can, where are you going to go? Where I live currently there is one other option and the particular cable company had a monopoly on the area for almost the last decade on broadband services until two years ago…so what? They offer slower speeds and charge a little over a 20% premium on TV service alone against what they charge in more competitive markets within the state. So AT&T is doing very well in my local area until the cable company gets there heads out of there ….(censored)….. and rolls out DOCSIS 3.0 in order to compete with U-Verse for internet and drops there TV pricing by at least 20%(which won’t happen).

[warterra]

No it's easy to go through the limt by gaming and streaming HD. I'm already at 85GB this month and 164GB last month.

Wish they had Uverse here with it's 250GB cap.  I'll just have to sign up with the small business option after 2.5 months.  Already paying about $95 with taxes for 6MB and LongDistance so $115(with taxes) to take away the cap will be worth it.

[front71]

It's currently 4/24, and the new TOS goes into effect May 2.

I still do not have access to the bandwidth usage reporting feature.  This is completely unacceptable.  This will leave me little to no time to do my due diligence in reviewing my past usage (from Jan 2011 on) to see how this cap will affect the way I use my internet, and allow me enough time to make a decision if I want to stay with att or cancel (not accept the new TOS) and get out of my service contract.

Let me ask you att, if you make a change that will affect me so, how do you expect me to continue to do business with you, when you have no business etiquette as to allow me enough time to review all data needed to make a determination as to whether or not I would like to continue to use your service?

I'm pretty sure some other company would like my $2000 a year account, as they would a lot of these other fellow users.

[KeyStrahd]

Once They Start Losing thousand's of Customers.They will change it Back or Up the Cap atleast.There are alot of people ticked off about this AT&T.You might want to think this over a little While Longer and oh Yeah.FIRE THE {word filter evasion} THAT CAME UP WITH THIS IDEA!!!!!

[John R. Sellers]

---

front71 wrote:

I still do not have access to the bandwidth usage reporting feature.

---

Neither do I, and it's getting ridiculous.  Actually, I can view my usage for January thru March, but not my current usage.  I'm most likely well under the limit, but I'd still like to see my current usage.

[John R. Sellers]

Just logged  on.  Got "We're sorry, but we're unable to display your Internet usage at this time."  I'll be check ing my usage every day.  If I see this error message, I'll be posting it here every day until it's fixed.

[Michael9090ky]

Try  viewing the history  not current ,, that gave me the last 3 months ,, I really thought i used allot more  bandwidth than i do 61gb   was the most i used  that thats in febuary..... 

[John R. Sellers]

We're sorry, but we're unable to display your Internet usage at this time.

[NX1]

AT&T is not able to capture usage data on all of its customers. Customers whose usage is not available for viewing should not be concerned about their usage patterns for billing purposes.

To learn more about how to manage your usage, please visit www.att.com/internet-usage

[Creimire]

If AT&T can not capture the usage data on all of its customers, then how can they rightly bill me for my usage?   I am always concerned about any possible limit  that is floating out there waiting for me to exceed.  This is especially true since previously I didn't care about my usage as there was no limit.  So I have no idea how much I am using on average.  I now have relatives from another country staying with me, they skype and stream video constantly.

I have numerous friends who now have AT&T Uverse, each one I talked into getting it because its a great product.  Each of these friends are heavy internet users, 3 are network administrators who work globally.  They dont understand the needs to put a cap on the bandwidth because bandwidth is much cheaper now than it was just 5 years ago.