ATT is going to "Throttle" internet usage to maintain consistently high video quality? I thought the two(HSIA/TV) were seperate from each other within the RG? Am I missing something here?

ATT new TOS

Throttling internet

I was reading about this yesterday over at UU.

Most important thing to read and understand.............

In order to provide a consistently high-quality video service, AT&T Uverse High Speed Internet throughput speeds may be temporarily reduced when a customer is using other U-verse services in a manner that requires high bandwidth. This could occur more often with higher speed Internet access products. It may be necessary, for some AT&T High Speed Internet users, for AT&T to set a maximum downstream speed on a customer line to enhance the reliability and consistency of performance. While this performance optimization process will prevent some customers from obtaining the maximum downstream speed capability, service capability speed will not be set lower than the service tier you have purchased.

LINK TO ToS

It's not really saying anything in conjuction with what Comcast proposed earlier or what TWC was actually testing in TX. It also gones on to say, in the actual ToS that at no time will your speed be any less (or what would be normal) that the tier you are already paying for, or words to that effect.

If I am maxing out my TV services by recording or watching all 4 streams, then my internet may suffer some till I am done using the other UV services.

That's my take on it.

They need to be clear on what they mean by "not lower than what you pay for". I currently have Elite which is 6Mbs. With regular DSL the Elite tier is 3-6Mbs. Is 3Mbs the minimum speed for Uverse Elite also?

If this is what they intend on doing then I find this completely unacceptable. I am paying for these services separately (even though they are on the same bill) and my current throughput is a consistent 5.6Mbs.

I should not have to accept slower speeds simply because I am watching TV.

If I had the Max speed which I assume is 6-10Mbs then they could "throttle me down" to 6Mbs if necessary. If they can run at 6Mbs in that scenario then why would they have to throttle any of the "slower" speed tiers?

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dannyt wrote:

They need to be clear on what they mean by "not lower than what you pay for". I currently have Elite which is 6Mbs. With regular DSL the Elite tier is 3-6Mbs. Is 3Mbs the minimum speed for Uverse Elite also?

If this is what they intend on doing then I find this completely unacceptable. I am paying for these services separately (even though they are on the same bill) and my current throughput is a consistent 5.6Mbs.

I should not have to accept slower speeds simply because I am watching TV.

If I had the Max speed which I assume is 6-10Mbs then they could "throttle me down" to 6Mbs if necessary. If they can run at 6Mbs in that scenario then why would they have to throttle any of the "slower" speed tiers?

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Pro would be 3 Mbps on UV.

They will never drop your connection below the speed you pay for; They may however change the way that speed is allocated providing them flexibility to provide more HD, better HD, or faster internet. The down side to that is AT&T only as so fat a pipe and has to borrow that bandwidth from other parts of the service. As long as its a user selectable way say offering 4HD streams but if you use 3 and 4 it eats internet speed it is ok with me.   

I am curious now. Let's say you have the Express package that says "speeds up to" 1.5. What is the bottom end of that? Will they drop you down to 0? I know that is far-fetched. But I am paying for speeds up to 1.5. Not speeds up to 1.5 dependent on usage. Or sometimes you will get speeds up to 1.5.

Is this an issue that could possibly be alleviated with the introduction of pair bonding?

IMHO

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MarkShadid wrote: 

Pro would be 3 Mbps on UV.

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I believe these are the minimum and maximum rates for DSL packages:

                                        Minimum DL Speed             Maximum DL Speed

Express                                     768kbs                              1.5Mbs

Pro                                           1.5Mbs                                3Mbs

Elite                                            3Mbs                                6Mbs

Max                                             6Mbs                              10Mbs

I could also understand that going forward that this may be implemented for customers with borderline max sync rates. If they apply this policy to all customers then I think it is a step backwards for Uverse.

I assume AT&T determined that a 25Mb pipe is sufficient for 2SD/2HD and up to 10Mbs for Max DSL. Customers shouldn't have to throttle back their internet usage unless they are going to get MORE than they have now. If 25Mbs is not enough for these services then it needs to be increased.

I believe that regular DSL speeds do differ from UV speeds.

I had the lowest tier when I had regular DSL and when I got Uverse, I noticed a marked improvement in speed, even with just having the Express.