Less than six weeks before AT&T is set to put in place usage-based billing plans for DSL users, its bandwidth-monitoring tools are in some cases wildly off the mark, according to some members of DSLReports.
AT&T customers can access the new tool via www.myusage.att.com. The caps are to be 150 Gigabytes for regular DSL users and 250 GB for U-verse Internet customers, with $10 for every 50 GB accessed above those limits.
At least one DSLReports user said AT&T’s broadband-usage data literally doesn’t add up: The telco said this user’s total usage from Feb. 18 to March 17 was 234 GB, but when the data from each individual day was tallied up the total was 217 GB.
AT&T didn’t respond to a request for more info.
Note that AT&T has set May 2 as the date when the cap-and-surcharge plans go into effect, and it may still be getting the kinks worked out of its usage metering tools (see Cable Likely To Follow AT&T Into Usage-Based Broadband Pricing: Analyst and Last Call At the All-You-Can Eat Broadband Buffet). Still, you’d think the meters would be rock-solid before they opened it up to the general customer population.
Among cable operators, Comcast and Cox provide data-usage meters; they impose usage caps but don’t currently charge overage fees (see Comcast Expands Usage-Meter Rollout and Cox Launches Subscriber Broadband Usage Meter).
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