Why AT&T is hunting down broadband service hogs

Broadband service through AT&T DSL is no longer unlimited. There will shortly be a 150 to 250 gigabyte monthly cap on broadband service.

Broadband service hog on AT&T? Not for long. AT&T will cap its broadband service to 150 to 250 gigabytes a month.

Telecommunications and broadband Internet service provider AT&T will impose caps on the amount of data its U-Verse and DSL users can download starting in May, according to a report by Broadband Reports.

The new plan will cap typical DSL users at 150 gigabytes of data each month and U-Verse clients - who as well subscribe to television and home phone services - to 250 gigabytes of data each month. AT&T clients will be charged an extra $10 for each 50 gigabytes of data they consume over the monthly limit.

The hammer down on bandwidth hogs

AT&T is known for laying the hammer down on bandwidth hogs, a lesson the company learned afterwards dealing with the same problem on its wireless network afterwards the iPhone launched. It was one of the first wireless companies to impose caps on the amount of data iPhone and other smartphone users could download and upload in order to relieve some of the strain on its network.

AT&T is as well an investor in streaming video games service OnLive, which is as well a bit of a bandwidth hog. OnLive is becoming increasingly popular among casual PC users because it lets them play graphically demanding games on weak computers. Network congestion doesn't seem of the same type much of an issue for broadband users right however. Now AT&T is to all appearances preparing for a cloud revolution - when most services are run on remote servers with a lot of computing firepower - in other words going to demand a lot of data.

John Alston came to Swarthmore College to build his own résumé, and wound up building an expanding network of choruses for disadvantaged youths.