Metered internet is on the rise. Here's how you can stop it. in Off Topic

ID:44167
 
Jun 16 2008, 4:34 am
New York Times article

Summary:

Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner are planning to introduce metered internet, thus capping a users allotted bandwidth. For day-long net users, this is bad. For occasional users, this is bad. For everyone, this is bad.

Here's who you can call to stop it (numbers provided by user at reddit). Included are instructions for bypassing redirects. Call and tell them you will change service should metered internet become a standard, they will lose you as a customer, and tell them how unhappy you are about it.

___________________________

America Online F 800‑827‑6364 Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.

AT&T Worldnet F 800‑400‑1447 Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.

Bellsouth FastAccess DSL F 888‑321‑2375 Press 1; at prompt press 1; at prompt press 1; at prompt press 1; at prompt press 2, ignoring messages.

CompuServe F 800‑848‑8990 Press 1211.

Earthlink F 888‑327‑8454 Press 1; press 0 at each prompt thereafter, ignoring messages.

Hughesnet F 866‑347‑3292 Press 2. Juno F 888‑839‑5866 Press # at each prompt, ignoring messages.

MSN F 800‑386‑5550 Say "agent" at each prompt, until offered a representative; say "yes."

Netscape F 866‑541‑8233 Press 000.

NetZero F 866‑841‑1442 Press #### at each prompt, ignoring messages.

People PC F 800‑736‑7537 @ Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.

SBC DSL support F 877‑722‑3755 Say "sales".

Sprint Broadband Direct F 888‑996‑0001 Press 00.

Time Warner Road Runner 877‑318‑8333 Direct to human.

Verizon DSL F 800‑567‑6789 Say "agent" at each prompt, ignoring messages.

Verizon FiOS F 888‑553‑1555 At prompt say "operator"; at prompt say "yes"; at prompt say "operator"; at prompt say "yes."
#1 Jun 16 2008, 6:32 am
Bahahaha. And exactly what other ISP will you use if your internet becomes metered? That other ISP... Which also has a limit?

Just so you know, EVERY ISP has a bandwidth limit, even if they claim you have "unlimited bandwidth" (there is no such thing). ISPs just happen to be really retarded in general and went around making all these claims (which were all false). Only now are they starting to tell people the truth (your internet useage IS limited, deal with it or don't use the internet).

Also, it could be a hell of a lot worse. You could live in the UK and have to put up with one of 3 horrid ISPs.
My ISP is Virgin Media. They go around boasting unlimited downloading and super speeds. Yeah right, you can only download so much a day otherwise your speed gets drastically cut down (by 75%) and my speed just gets randomly cut down too, for no reason (I am paying for a 20Mb connection, and am lucky to get 800Kb of that).
On top of that, they are deciding to SPY on me. They are attempting to monitor everything every customer of theirs downloads, and if it is illegal... Enjoy having your internet connection cut off!
And to make it even better, they are trying to make cash of me browsing the internet (without my permission) by removing any and all ads on any websites I visit and replacing them with their own. Why? No reason, they just want extra money I guess. They are trying to force a system like this on their customers (despite it already being deemed illegal to do so).
But there is more! They don't care about things like net neutrality and called it a joke! They are on record for saying that if a content providing website does not pay them then any content they provide will/should be slower than others that do.

Man... And here you are complaining about bandwidth limits WHICH HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED (you just weren't told about them until now) when other parts of the world have this sort of shit to deal with?
I wish all my ISP did was limit my bandwidth :[
#2 Jun 16 2008, 9:18 am
The Magic Man wrote:
Man... And here you are complaining about bandwidth limits WHICH HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED (you just weren't told about them until now) when other parts of the world have this sort of shit to deal with?

This isn't what he's complaining about, though. These companies are planning to meter the content, meaning customers will be asked to pay per byte, after they pass over a certain threshold. Furthermore, most of the things you've listed (such as throttling heavy users) are already done here as well.

Of course the problem here is that ISPs cannot physically support the amount of bandwidth they parcel out to their customers, but instead of fixing that problem, they're focused on somehow making even more money off of it.
#3 Jun 16 2008, 2:04 pm
The Magic Man wrote:
Man... And here you are complaining about bandwidth limits WHICH HAVE ALWAYS EXISTED (you just weren't told about them until now) when other parts of the world have this sort of shit to deal with?
I wish all my ISP did was limit my bandwidth :[

Man...No, I'm not.
I'm complaining about the limits being capped off drastically. I have enough bandwidth to where I'll never have to worry about going over. If they cap it, then I'll get to worry about it. That's not something I, or anyone, wants.