Three months ago, Guy Distaffen switched Internet providers, lured from his cable company to his phone company by a year of free service on a two-year contract. But soon the company quietly updated its policies to say it would limit his Internet activity each month.
“We felt that were suckered,” said Distaffen, who lives in the small village of Silver Springs in upstate New York.
The phone company, Frontier Communications Corp., is one of several Internet service providers that are moving to curb the growth of traffic on their networks, or at least make the subscribers who download the most pay more.
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This could have consequences not just for consumers — who would have to learn to watch how much data their Internet use entails — but also for companies that hope to make the Internet a conduit for movies and other content that comes in huge files.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
On Thurs 8/21/08 I recieved a new AT&T Residential Service Agreement (w/Arbitration). It is 18 pages multi-fold. This comes on the heels of telecom immunity. Ma Bell is not responsible for any malfunction, loss of data, profits, privacy, anything, on and on, nada, zilch. The only option is to cancel service.
August 24th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Gee…why doesn’t he just switch back.
The power is in the hands of the consumers. This man can bitch about it, or he could cancel the service. It’s a no brainer. But no. People instead of putting their money where their mouth is just act like we are being so BULLIED into this. Nothing is further from the truth. Money talks.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
http://www.onemorepromethean.com
August 24th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
This is nothing new. In the age of the 56k modem isp’s often had a cap or limit on usage. I personally ran into this on several isp’s.
August 24th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Jen, you obviously didn’t read the whole article. The problem is that there is NO CHOICE. This man’s other option is Time Warner. Also, the fine print in contracts usually includes a cancellation fee of a couple of hundred dollars. Don’t be so quick to dismiss someone as a complainer and a whiner who doesn’t have a clue. Things aren’t just no brainers anymore. I will agree with you that money DOES talk, but the average consumer obviously does not have enough of it to create an audible whisper.
August 25th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Randy,
Cancel.
Jen,
Get a heart…and a head.
Guy, you trusted a corporation…and what did you expect? Fairness? Come on. But, I understand.
August 25th, 2008 at 6:19 am
just 25 cents to log on and then a penny per meg after that … anyone who agrees to pay this crap is a dumbass … how bout I sell you a membership fee … youll get a discount if you tell us your credit card number … we just need some information about you
August 25th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
@kt
Not just a cancellation fee, but many term contracts actually require you to pay the full amount of the contract PLUS a cancellation fee, making it MORE expensive to cancel than to just ride out the contract.
Always read the fine print BEFORE you sign up for that “awesome deal”.
Term contracts NEVER save you money, you can be sure of it. Every company increases their prices to at least stay with inflation and usually much more. Once you sign that dotted line, you can not shop around.
Even if it costs you more in the short term, say NO to term contracts. They are a scam, designed to take away the one power you have – the right to not do business with them.
August 26th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Gee…guess everyone will have to get over their addiction to the internet soon.
August 27th, 2008 at 1:51 am
This is how it is in Australia
you pay for an amount of data download and its capped at that then your speed is limited to 56k modem speed when you hit the cap