AT&T announced on Wednesday that it will boost its data caps on home internet service, but it will also expand the company's enforcement.
This would mean customers will have additional GBs they can use but they will also have to pay $10 charges on the average for every 50 GB they consume beyond their monthly limit. The scheme is very similar to what Comcast have with its customers.
In this new setup, the telecommunication giant will also allow customers upgrade their programs to unlimited data for an additional $30 per month. But that is only required for customers getting internet service.
Those who bought the bundle consisting of TV and AT&T internet will have unlimited home internet data with no additional charge. Bundles such as AT&T's wireline U-verse TV system and DirectTV satellite are eligible for this setup.
Customers who have purchased speed tiers between 768 Kbps to 6 Mbps have also been upgraded from their data cap of 250 GB to 300 GB. As the plans get more expensive, customer gets faster internet speed and larger data caps.
Those who are buying speeds from 12 Mbps to 75 Mbps will have their data caps boosted from 250 GB to 600 GB. Customers with plans from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, will get their new data caps of 1 TB, from their former 500 GB.
For people whose data caps are very small, they are given the choice of getting the unlimited plans, and that could be more than what ordinary households need.
Video downloading of HD 1080P movies from services such as Netflix can consume around 3 GB per hour. And movie watching at the streaming site for 10 hours will rack up approximately 120 GB every month.
In the past, AT&T implemented a monthly cap of 150 GB on its DSL service. But the company expanded its enforcement of caps on May 23 for its U-verse Internet service. This brought fiber service nearer to average homes to increase speeds and to enable its all-fiber service to run on "GigaPower."
