ATT Begins SPEED LIMIT- So that may impact gameplay speeds

[Siabra]

Dear AT&T High Speed Internet Service Customer,

We previously notified you that your AT&T High Speed Internet service includes 150 gigabytes (GB) of data for each billing period.

You have reached 00% (or 00.5 GB) of your 150 GB data plan.*

If you exceed your data plan this billing period we will waive the charge for additional data. However, if you go over your data plan in subsequent billing periods, we'll provide you with an additional 50 GB of data for $10. You'll be charged $10 for every incremental 50 GB of usage beyond your plan.

• Track your usage* by visiting att.com/internet-usage. Just log in using your primary AT&T email ID and password.
• Secure your wireless gateway/router. If you use Wi-Fi at home and you have not secured it with a password, someone nearby with a computer or Wi-Fi enabled device could access your home network and use your high-speed Internet service, which could increase your monthly usage.
• Manage household usage. If you have family members, children or friends who share your Internet connection, remember that their online activity will count toward your 150 GB data plan. AT&T Parental Controls is a free tool included with your service that enables you to customize access to websites, e-mail, instant messaging, chat, message boards, and more for each family member. You can even set time limits for access to the Internet.

For questions or additional tips on managing your Internet usage, please feel free to review our helpful FAQs and take advantage of our data calculator at att.com/internet-usage.

Please visit att.com/internet-usage to review our helpful FAQs, view your personalized usage report**, and take advantage of our data calculator.

Thank you for choosing AT&T.

Sincerely,
Your AT&T High Speed Internet Customer Care Team



Anyone else getting notified by their service provider? Cause there goes out NetFlix / Hulu accounts - if it impacts online gaming speed - guess they go as well*As of 06/09/2012.

**On average, usage information will be reflected on the website within 1-4 days.

 

[Uriah Heep]

Yeah Suddenlink sent a notice almost exactly the same out several months ago. For me, the limit doesn't really impact right now, they gave us almost twice the monthly usage on our record. BUT, like I've said before, this kind of corporate money grab is like government taxes, once that train starts moving, you cant stop it. So I figure within a few years, you can look to see your allotments coming down, and down, until the internet is practically too expensive for the average gamer adn video watcher.

Honestly, I'm the paranoid type anyway, Internet, FB, etc., all allow to too rapid dissemination of information, it's too easy to get a group together in a hurry, start a movement, etc etc. And tbh, I'm not sure the governments of the world are real comfortable with that, so yeah, they gonna start cuttin g it down. Just like Obama and Homeland Security slipped a bill thru congress allowing them to kill cell phone communications anytime they want to declare a disaster or state of emergency

*carefully adjusts tin foil hat and goes to lunch*

 

[Mapper]

Here in the UK my ISP throttle me every month to like 1Meg speed when I reach the 100GB limit and I notice no change to UO speed during when im throttled.

 

[Arrgh]

this kind of corporate money grab is like government taxes, once that train starts moving, you cant stop it. So I figure within a few years, you can look to see your allotments coming down, and down, until the internet is practically too expensive for the average gamer adn video watcher.

Honestly, I'm the paranoid type anyway, Internet, FB, etc., all allow to too rapid dissemination of information, it's too easy to get a group together in a hurry, start a movement, etc etc. And tbh, I'm not sure the governments of the world are real comfortable with that, so yeah, they gonna start cuttin g it down. Just like Obama and Homeland Security slipped a bill thru congress allowing them to kill cell phone communications anytime they want to declare a disaster or state of emergency

*carefully adjusts tin foil hat and goes to lunch*

Pass the Reynold's Wrap please...

 

[Arrgh]

Dear AT&T High Speed Internet Service Customer,

We previously notified you that your AT&T High Speed Internet service includes 150 gigabytes (GB) of data for each billing period.

You have reached 00% (or 00.5 GB) of your 150 GB data plan.*

If you exceed your data plan this billing period we will waive the charge for additional data. However, if you go over your data plan in subsequent billing periods, we'll provide you with an additional 50 GB of data for $10. You'll be charged $10 for every incremental 50 GB of usage beyond your plan.

• Track your usage* by visiting att.com/internet-usage. Just log in using your primary AT&T email ID and password.
• Secure your wireless gateway/router. If you use Wi-Fi at home and you have not secured it with a password, someone nearby with a computer or Wi-Fi enabled device could access your home network and use your high-speed Internet service, which could increase your monthly usage.
• Manage household usage. If you have family members, children or friends who share your Internet connection, remember that their online activity will count toward your 150 GB data plan. AT&T Parental Controls is a free tool included with your service that enables you to customize access to websites, e-mail, instant messaging, chat, message boards, and more for each family member. You can even set time limits for access to the Internet.

For questions or additional tips on managing your Internet usage, please feel free to review our helpful FAQs and take advantage of our data calculator at att.com/internet-usage.

Please visit att.com/internet-usage to review our helpful FAQs, view your personalized usage report**, and take advantage of our data calculator.

Thank you for choosing AT&T.

Sincerely,
Your AT&T High Speed Internet Customer Care Team



Anyone else getting notified by thier service provvider? Cause there goes out NetFlix / Hulu accounts - if it imapcts online gaming pseed - gues they go as well*As of 06/09/2012.

**On average, usage information will be reflected on the website within 1-4 days.

I don't see a thing wrong with free enterprise but when it gets to this point, if I had AT&Greed I believe I'd be looking for another provider. If they have an unlimited plan that is reasonable, have you checked it out for price comparison or did I miss that part?

The first link and the accompanying video, if you notice, claims 250 gigs is a LOT lmao. You can watch 1000 1 minute youtube videos or you can download 1000 mp3's. Geez. I hope a lot of ppl drop them and anyone else pulling this tactic.

Yep, pass the tinfoil and get my reloader out Ethel!

 

[Kafka72]

The 150 GB/month isn't a Speed Limit at all. It's your monthly Traffic Cap that you're entitled to from the money that you pay your monthly bill with. Anything above 150 GB/month will incur additional cost above and beyond your monthly set rate. It doesn't have any effect whatsoever to your connection speed. You chose your bandwidth speed when you signed up for your service. I'm pretty sure all the bandwidth speeds have the 150 GB/month data cap. I got Comcast cable internet and it's monthly cap is 250 GB/month.

 

[Zosimus]

I have Suddenlink and never had a letter telling me there is a cap on monthly usage. Then again my cable bill is always 142 bones a month with my complete cable package.

 

[Kafka72]

The first link and the accompanying video, if you notice, claims 250 gigs is a LOT lmao. You can watch 1000 1 minute youtube videos or you can download 1000 mp3's. Geez. I hope a lot of ppl drop them and anyone else pulling this tactic.

Yep, pass the tinfoil and get my reloader out Ethel!

It's all that stuff she mentioned ADDED together, not separately. 250 GB/month and even 150 GB/month is quite a lot of data and will suit the needs of most high speed internet users. There are those few though that will download above those caps, mostly peeps that stream or download a heck of a lot of HD movies or videos.

 

[Sevin0oo0]

The 150 GB/month isn't a Speed Limit at all.

my thoughts exactly. I didn't see anything about a throttle, especially since here in the states there's been several court cases about speed control. I remember my early dial-up days that had measured service like that - i think it was 20mb @mth

 

[phantus]

Yeah Suddenlink sent a notice almost exactly the same out several months ago. For me, the limit doesn't really impact right now, they gave us almost twice the monthly usage on our record. BUT, like I've said before, this kind of corporate money grab is like government taxes, once that train starts moving, you cant stop it. So I figure within a few years, you can look to see your allotments coming down, and down, until the internet is practically too expensive for the average gamer adn video watcher.

Honestly, I'm the paranoid type anyway, Internet, FB, etc., all allow to too rapid dissemination of information, it's too easy to get a group together in a hurry, start a movement, etc etc. And tbh, I'm not sure the governments of the world are real comfortable with that, so yeah, they gonna start cuttin g it down. Just like Obama and Homeland Security slipped a bill thru congress allowing them to kill cell phone communications anytime they want to declare a disaster or state of emergency

*carefully adjusts tin foil hat and goes to lunch*

I have the same fear/concern about the bandwidth limitations. I agree with everything except the Obama/Homeland Security thing. Congress makes and approves all bills and the president signs them into law. He can ask for something but it's only created by our elected officials. Find the bill and see who created and sponsored it(one would assume a dem) and you will know who to blame.

 

[MalagAste]

In my opinion this is the Industry's way of being cheap and not adding more hardware to carry the load of what they are selling.

They do that where I am only there is NO WHERE for me to go.... so what they do is load far more folk onto their "nodes" than the nodes are ever designed to handle... thereby forcing everyone into very slow limited service... they can do this because none of us has anywhere else to go.... there IS no other cable internet provider here... sure I could go to dish but who'd want that????? At one point it was so bad that I could have gone back to dial-up and been faster. The only time they got motivated to "fix" the problem was when the city I lived in threatened to actually start up their own cable internet/tv service bringing in some private contractor... Then and only then did they apologize for things and add more "nodes" to my area. Their former excuses ran from "Well you are a gamer and you are taking up too much bandwidth, There are too many gamers in your area sucking up all your bandwidth, It's all you gamers here.... to my personal favorite... "Well there are too many young people in your area sucking up all the bandwidth you need to move to an area with "old" people who aren't really on the internet." After that one I started calling them on a weekly basis to complain about my service... I complained and forced them to come out and look at my internet so many times that my calls got "escalated" to a higher and higher level until they had to deal with me..... I also complained so much and so loudly that I didn't pay for my "Highspeed" internet for almost 9 months.... I also got about 3 months free of service from my constant complaints.

I believe I finally "won" the argument. But they don't offer any more speed around here than their "high speed" which is "up to" 20MBP... I have almost never hit 20... Most times I can't get more than 8 to 12... But it beats the 4 I was getting. At one time I was seeing 24 or 25 but that was the max. Supposedly they are supposed to be working on 50MPS.. "Guaranteed" but I seriously doubt I'll see that in the next 10 years.

 

[Siabra]

Well, what I've noticed personally ( never mind the fact the fact that I' NEVER reached the max speed advertised by At&T) is that when I log onto my speed in game is cut back severely
I use ( not all at one time) an ipad, a laptop, a desktop .. NetFlix .. Hulu - UO needless to say & Vent along with ( yes) ICQ

This is something that hurts everyone - today, so many people have pc's and use them for a ton of different things

My speed in UO at this point has most assuredly been cut back .. its like run 2 steps then bam hit a wall & stop - run 2 steps then bam hit a wall & stop - repeat till you get sick of it & log off
the below link is to AT & T forums

AT&T broadband users will soon face a cap on the a... - AT&T Community Support

 

[Woodsman]

It's all that stuff she mentioned ADDED together, not separately. 250 GB/month and even 150 GB/month is quite a lot of data and will suit the needs of most high speed internet users. There are those few though that will download above those caps, mostly peeps that stream or download a heck of a lot of HD movies or videos.

The problem is that a few years ago 100GB a month would have been fine for heavy users. Now Apple and Netflix and Hulu are streaming a ton of things in HD, and I know a lot of people who have cut most of their cable and Pay-Per-View down to basically nothing and just wait for stuff on iTunes, Netflix, or Hulu. Plus a lot more people chat on video, and it seems like a lot of laptops are coming with 720p. Pretty soon "average" users will easily be running into 150GB or more a month. Easily, because they don't even realize it. Netflix has a setup for little kids shows streaming, and it wouldn't take too many days of constantly streaming several hours a day before you hit 50GB or 100GB just on that.

The problem in the US is that the same companies who sell us TV and telephone services are also selling us our internet services, If our TV/phone companies were separate from our internet providers, our internet providers would care only about keeping us around, and/or encouraging us to really take advantage of the services and getting our friends to use their service (happy customers and all that). If we cut $50 out of our monthly TV bill, say got rid of a bunch of "premium" channels, our ISPs wouldn't care. But because the ISPs and content providers are the same companies, if we cut $50 off our cable TV bill and started using Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, then they are going to eventually cap the hell out of us to get that $50 back somewhere.

If typical people knew what the ISPs were paying for bandwidth, they'd be pissed at all of this. It's not surprising, because these are the same companies that try and force us into buying upper TV channel tiers just to get a handful of channels. They have the technology to make it easy for us to just subscribe to whatever channels we want to. Instead, they try to make us pay for 200 channels we'll never use just to get the 15 that we want.

 

[Flutter]

I never got a letter but my cable company has had limits for quite some time but you have to go over them for more than half the days of a month (between 8am to 12 midnight) for you to be penalized.
Netflix is popular in my household and even after 5 hours of HD one day we didn't really go very far over, and it has to be more than just once in a billing period. I think your deal with AT&T is reasonable with national service companies.
You should watch out for a-la-carte type service offerings. Usually it's a "Get upload speeds of 50Mbps!!" type advertising with small print that only gives you that speed for a certain amount of time and then you're required to be stuck into a sickly slow service unless you pay extra money each month.

 

[Viper09]

I haven't read all the replies but this is not a speed limit but a cap on data usage. After that cap is reached it will simply charge you extra if you go over.

 

[Reth]

One thing I like about getting net from a local company is no data cap. Speed, on the other hand, is an issue. Guess it's the lesser of two evils at this point.

 

[MalagAste]

Thankfully my ISP has never mentioned any data cap..... and hopefully they never will... Personally I think that goes right back to the age of dial up and the hourly rate... which I always thought was bogus.

 

[Arrgh]

I have the same fear/concern about the bandwidth limitations. I agree with everything except the Obama/Homeland Security thing. Congress makes and approves all bills and the president signs them into law. He can ask for something but it's only created by our elected officials. Find the bill and see who created and sponsored it(one would assume a dem) and you will know who to blame.

Look up CISPA, SOPA and PIPA...your elected officials are bought and paid for. ...and that is all I have to say about that other than they try to paint the Bills rose colored and hide the turd behind it with pretty words. They want control and they want it now in the name of terror!! Fear and sex sell and they are selling well. Of course I'm sure without a shadow of a doubt there are at least 50 different opinions regarding this and they're all claiming to be correct.


As far as the AT&T plan goes locally, I called out of curiosity and the fact that I was thinking about using them with iPhone at the end of the year. I asked the sales rep what type of plans are available where I live, central USA middle of nowhere, he says the cap is 250 Gb per mth...I believe it was 50 per month which isn't that bad tbh compared to the competition locally. That's plenty for a phone, in fact that's overkill for me as I won't tether and use the phone as a modem. I asked about LAN or DSL and was told the small branch locally doesn't carry it but the next town over does and has unlimited for households. After speaking with the rep, it sounded better than my plan for the phone I have.


Woodsman, if the cable TV companies carried anything other than BS on the channels that used to carry some sort of "meat" like the History Channel (now the UFO Channel!!), Discovery (reality/drama crud channel), Nat'l Geo (which is now the prison system, jail channel), Sci-fi (turned into semi-drama BS), etc etc then perhaps Hulu and the others would be a lot less popular and myself and other ppl would consider shelling out the clams to pay for something worthwhile. As it stands now if I want drama I'll make the ol' lady mad instead of firing up the TV.
A link I find interesting Who Owns What on Television? shows that recently GE has bought Hulu...it would seem to me that if they know enough to buy Hulu, they would know enough to start actually airing something other than drama and reality based crap. Forrest Gump slightly modified, "TV is like a sewage plant, you never know what reality show you're going to tune in but they're all pretty much crap."

 

[Arrgh]

If typical people knew what the ISPs were paying for bandwidth, they'd be pissed at all of this. It's not surprising, because these are the same companies that try and force us into buying upper TV channel tiers just to get a handful of channels. They have the technology to make it easy for us to just subscribe to whatever channels we want to. Instead, they try to make us pay for 200 channels we'll never use just to get the 15 that we want.

ESPN (owned by Disney) filed a lawsuit with the providers locally a few years ago as a lot of ppl didn't want 4 or 5 ESPN channels, let alone pay extra for them and the lawsuit won. My ISP is reasonable, I used to troubleshoot the network for them and have seen what they pay and how hard they try to keep prices down regarding "packages". A lot of the problem are the backbones the information runs through and the end problem would be greed from companies like Disney, Time Warner, General Electric, News Corporation, CBS, Discovery Communications and Viacom. I have been informed about meetings in which the reps from these companies have been almost gestapo-like especially Disney.

There are some ISP's around the nation that are charging way too much imo for what they pay for the services from the backbone providers. I have 3 friends that are sysops at 3 of the ISP's locally, one is self-owned and he pays very little for his servers backbone service. I guess some people are just greedy with the info and resources they have, I expect some profit margin but not as much as I see some ISPs advertised on the net asking.

 

[Cogniac]

I don't see a thing wrong with free enterprise but when it gets to this point, if I had AT&Greed I believe I'd be looking for another provider...

Natural monopoly

 

[Flutter]

Thankfully my ISP has never mentioned any data cap..... and hopefully they never will... Personally I think that goes right back to the age of dial up and the hourly rate... which I always thought was bogus.

My cable company never mentioned it either. I just happened upon it when searching their website for prices of different speeds.

 

[Phangs_of_Phage]

The thing is they try to sell people 50 meg/s internet then cap it at 150 for at&t, 250 (i think) for verizon, and in my case Cableone at 50 Gb claiming that 5meg a sec is not enough for the avg user to do basic things and showing false webpage download differences. The fact is you will never get anymore than 1.5 mps bandwidth from any one site (be it FB, UO download host, youtube, or other random FTP site), yet they still try to upsell avg users on the speed they "need". Personally I had to pay and extra 50$ a month to cableone to get the buisness class 50 meg/sec internet since that is the only option they have without speed slowdowns after the cap is reached and it has unlimited data upload and down. Well cableone does not data cap you if you get the 1 mps internet but I have 3 TV's that are netflix enabled and with a desktop and laptop 1 meg often gets bogged down. So they got me having to pay 130$ a month just so I dont get throttled and capped.

 

[PlayerSkillFTW]

Lol. Oh yeah? You think that's bad? I live outside of town, and can't get cable internet. I used to have to pay $55.00 a month for Verizon Wifi, and it was 500 kilobytes/sec download speed, with a 5.1 gig monthly bandwidth cap! I'd get charged $0.05 for every megabyte over that cap! Beat that!

Good thing though that a local company showed up about 6 months back, and offered me 1.5 megabyte/sec download speed with NO bandwidth cap whatsoever for alot cheaper. I still don't get the full 1.5 megabyte/sec download speed they advertised though, most i've seen out of it when downloading/patching is 200 kilobytes a sec . Still, the no bandwidth cap is a hell of alot better than that piece of **** Verizon Wifi that i had before.

 

[Uvtha]

Dear AT&T High Speed Internet Service Customer,

We previously notified you that your AT&T High Speed Internet service includes 150 gigabytes (GB) of data for each billing period.

You have reached 00% (or 00.5 GB) of your 150 GB data plan.*

If you exceed your data plan this billing period we will waive the charge for additional data. However, if you go over your data plan in subsequent billing periods, we'll provide you with an additional 50 GB of data for $10. You'll be charged $10 for every incremental 50 GB of usage beyond your plan.

• Track your usage* by visiting att.com/internet-usage. Just log in using your primary AT&T email ID and password.
• Secure your wireless gateway/router. If you use Wi-Fi at home and you have not secured it with a password, someone nearby with a computer or Wi-Fi enabled device could access your home network and use your high-speed Internet service, which could increase your monthly usage.
• Manage household usage. If you have family members, children or friends who share your Internet connection, remember that their online activity will count toward your 150 GB data plan. AT&T Parental Controls is a free tool included with your service that enables you to customize access to websites, e-mail, instant messaging, chat, message boards, and more for each family member. You can even set time limits for access to the Internet.

For questions or additional tips on managing your Internet usage, please feel free to review our helpful FAQs and take advantage of our data calculator at att.com/internet-usage.


Please visit att.com/internet-usage to review our helpful FAQs, view your personalized usage report**, and take advantage of our data calculator.

Thank you for choosing AT&T.

Sincerely,
Your AT&T High Speed Internet Customer Care Team



Anyone else getting notified by their service provider? Cause there goes out NetFlix / Hulu accounts - if it impacts online gaming speed - guess they go as well*As of 06/09/2012.

**On average, usage information will be reflected on the website within 1-4 days.

Wow... Never thought I would be happy to be a Time Warner customer... I would die without my netflix.

 

[Woodsman]

Wow... Never thought I would be happy to be a Time Warner customer... I would die without my netflix.

Time Warner wanted to impose worse caps than AT&T a few years ago. My area was going to be one of the test areas, but enough people rallied to stop them temporarily. The city council also made slightly veiled threats about removing whatever monopoly agreement or arrangement they had.

This was a pretty good site for tracking Time Warner and the other ISPs (and they helped organize the protest against Time Warner in my area) Stop the Cap!

This story was posted this week

Time Warner Cable | Stop the Cap!

“We’re moving away from one-size-fits-all,” admits Jon Gary Herrera, a Texas spokesman for Time Warner Cable, which has introduced a usage-limited plan called “Internet Essentials” that limits customers to a paltry 5GB of usage per month in return for a $5 discount.

Time Warner Cable has learned from its mistakes in 2009, when the company attempted to force usage limits on broadband customers that would have left those seeking an unlimited experience with a broadband bill of $150 a month. After a consumer backlash organized by Stop the Cap!, the company quickly pulled back and put the plans on hold.

After three years, the playbook is off the shelf once again and being dusted off, although the nation’s second largest cable company is taking things a lot more slowly the second time around.

 

[Adrianas]

I tried to find this on the AT&T website and could not find it. I have AT&T DSL Extreme, so I also logged in and looked at my plan and could find nothing that stated that there is any cap on data. Can anyone else find it on their website? If so, would you kindly place a link to that webpage here? Are they just sending notices to certain targeted customers? Weird that I couldn't find it. Thx.

 

[Maximus Neximus]

I have ATT and I've never heard anything about a cap. I use PC, XBox, Netflix, etc. Must be a regional thing.

 

[Zyon Rockler]

This is why they need to have some kind of deal with isp so they can sell a con with the games that are online. Think about what will happen if they do not. Now people pay around 150 then they pay for UO. Now if that is all they do they are paying alot for UO.

If they had a deal where you could like call ea and use say 4 cons or what ever you need then they might just add that cost to what you pay for UO and other online games. What should happen soon is the internet will become free for things like a gov page news page weather and a few other things that ppl need. Also some others that help in the lives of everyone. The way it is now its all about money but that is not going to stay Like that. Some things will be looked at as to basic for someone not to have access to.

There are alot of things they could do like x-fire does and have alot of ways to access things like voice chat where you plug in to like a party on the same servers. They could have types of programs you can use for all the games they have by being plugged into it like a steam but you would not have to use it. Then you could list friends have movies live chat and not have to have any other internet but to ea for the games to work and to do all of that. Plus you would have your basic free internet.

A normal isp would have everything but it would make games more affordable with both the options rather then the box saying you need an isp they would lease out so much space from the isp"s. So a lesser charge could be given to ppl who just use the isp for EA GAMES. If you had an isp tho you would not be charged that extra access fee.

The speeds could be set and how much data they use could be charged so the games work and the players can play with no isp. All you would need to have is cable or dish net work that plugs you to the internet, most of it would be cable right now.

 

[NBG]

I am not a happy camper about this change.

AT&T sent their notification to an email that they setup from my web account (which I have not used at all since I started the subscription years ago). With a major change to their service like this, they should have sent an actual notification MAIL and not some stupid email yet they will mail endless advertising mails to their failed Internet TV service flooding my real life mail box.

Thanks to the OP (Thank you, thank you, thank you), I was able to catch this before it went too far with the overage charges but those greedy SOB got me for around $200. This is the last straw since their DSL service only deliver sub par speed to their so called high end service.

I also have cell phone service from AT&T as well and I get constant weak signals and dropped calls. Sometime I don't even get notification on missed call or voice mail alerts until 2-3 days after. Guess what, I am switching that POS as well.

I have used their services and paid through the nose without complaint and they have the nerve to say that they are not getting enough money for the low end service that they provide? They can count me out and I am never coming back.

 

[Uvtha]

I have used their services and paid through the nose without complaint and they have the nerve to say that they are not getting enough money for the low end service that they provide? They can count me out and I am never coming back.

Do it. If there is a cap on service I will go elsewhere. There are some local dudes around here and I will leave. There is zero excuse for capping service. None. The cost for providers is continually dropping and they are continually upping prices, and the idea of a cap is just absurd. The rest of the world is moving away from this nonsense, and we are moving TO it.

 

[NBG]

Do it. If there is a cap on service I will go elsewhere. There are some local dudes around here and I will leave. There is zero excuse for capping service. None. The cost for providers is continually dropping and they are continually upping prices, and the idea of a cap is just absurd. The rest of the world is moving away from this nonsense, and we are moving TO it.

Oh it is in progress. I am done supporting old greedy corporate vampires that only think about how much more they can suck out of their loyal customers.

 

[Woodsman]

A normal isp

The problem is that none of these companies are "normal" ISPs, they are ISPs and TV service providers. If people start cancelling Pay-Per-View and HBO and Starz and waiting for the stuff to show up on Netflix's streaming, or through DVDs/Blu-Rays, then those companies are going to jack up prices on the ISP side to make up costs. These companies are very worried about that, and they have no qualms about bringing it up publicly.

This is an incredibly simple analogy. Imagine you have a company that provides internet service and TV service. Both sides of the company are each making $50 million a year. The internet side of the company starts making say $10 million more because people upgrade so they can watch online and save money on premium channels. The TV side loses say $20 million because the internet streaming is cheaper. That company went from $100 million to $90 million. That $10 million is going to be made up somewhere, and that somewhere is going to be the internet side.

Very simple, but that's basically what the cable companies are saying and doing. If they were just an ISP and they were making $10 million more a year, they'd be happy, but they aren't. If one part of the company takes a hit, they will make it up somewhere, rather than accept the fact that it's just the way things are and that's what people want.