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Rogers listens, bumps data caps, lets you stream a few extra Netflix movies a month
Rogers hasn't exactly made a lot of fans with the rather draconian caps on its cable modem service. But the company wants you to know, it has heard your complaints and doesn't want to cut you off from your precious, bandwidth-intensive Netflix streams. That's why it's raising the limits on its three top tier plans later this month. Extreme subscribers are getting a bump from 80GB to 100GB, Extreme Plus users from 125GB to 150GB, and Ultimate customers from 175GB to 250GB. The company is even boosting speeds, you know, to help you make more efficient use of that newly raised data ceiling -- from 15Mbps to 24Mbps for the Extreme and 25Mbps to 32Mbps for Extreme Plus. It's always nice to see a company listen to its customers, and come on, data caps aren't all that bad.
Sprint ready to bump 4G upload speed cap, will raise (Wi)max to 1.5Mbps
Sprint has been capping its data upload speeds at 1Mbps ever since the dawn of 4G time, but the carrier is ready to welcome in a new era by raising the ceiling -- not that Verizon's sudden and prolific LTE expansion is providing any encouragement, of course. The champion of all things WiMax (at least in the US of A) confirmed with us that its speed bump will indeed be taking place, noting that the maximum will be boosted by 50 percent to 1.5Mbps. The Sprint spokesperson also emphasized that no specific date has been set for this to occur, but should be gracing all of its 4G devices sometime soon. In a day and age where data caps and throttling are becoming the norm, we're relieved to see a carrier finally run in the opposite direction... regardless of the motives.
PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website
Tomorrow is May 2nd, 2011, and you know what that means -- tomorrow is the day that AT&T will impose data caps on DSL and U-Verse Internet, and begin tallying up overage fees. At least, that was the plan on March 18th -- when the company formally announced 150GB DSL and 250GB U-Verse caps -- but even if you're a paying customer who chows down several hundred gigabytes in a month, you may not have to worry about paying extra right away. AT&T specified that folks like yourself will have access to an online tool to self-police your usage before the company even begins to calculate the cost of your formerly all-you-can-eat bandwidth buffet, and as you can see in the picture above, the tool isn't quite ready for public consumption across the entire country. Scoot on over to our source link, enter your AT&T ID, and if you see the same, perhaps you won't have to cancel your 700-hour Star Trek marathon quite yet.
Optus intros 3G Home Zone, Australia's first consumer femtocell
Friends down under: have you been craving a femtocell even more than that luscious vegemite sandwich sitting in your fridge? Undoubtedly you have, if your humble home was built squarely in a black hole of coverage. Optus has the perfect solution, but it's going to cost you; the new 3G Home Zone beefs up the signal in your abode, using your broadband connection to magically transform your dead zone into five bars of wireless heaven. All it takes is a fair amount of green stuff -- the upfront cost ranges from AU$60 to AU$240, but monthly installment plans are available -- and a minimum 1Mbps down / 256Kbps up broadband connection. Oh, and it's only available in select stores for now, so check to see if your neighborhood store has one in stock before squandering away what's left of your day. One last thing: in view of the fact that the 3G Home Zone sucks up data like a milkshake, it's a good idea to make sure a capped data plan won't leave you sidelined before the month is over. Full PR after the break. [Thanks, James]
T-Mobile unlimited plans coming April 13th with a catch
If you've been waiting for T-Mobile to introduce unlimited plans that include everything, it's time to do the happy dance! It looks like everyone's favorite magenta carrier will be adding "Truly Unlimited Data + Talk + Text" plans to its lineup on April 13th. According to the leaked screenshots, Even More customers (who purchase a subsidized phone and agree to a two-year contract) will be able to choose a $79 plan, while Event More Plus customers (who bring a compatible device and are commitment free) will benefit from a $59 plan. There's a catch, however: T-Mobile will throttle data speeds until the next billing cycle if data usage exceeds 2GB. Also, this offer only appears to apply to individual customer plans, not to family plans. So go ahead, celebrate -- just keep an eye on that data cap, OK?
Verizon can now throttle top five percent of bandwidth hogs, downres multimedia transfers
Nice timing, Verizon. Just as thousands -- possibly zillions -- of smartphone users are pondering the switch to Big Red for Apple's iPhone 4, the carrier has slipped in two critical policy changes that are apparently effective immediately. Tucked within loads of fine print in a new PDF that surfaced on the company's site, there's this: "Verizon Wireless strives to provide customers the best experience when using our network, a shared resource among tens of millions of customers. To help achieve this, if you use an extraordinary amount of data and fall within the top 5 percent of Verizon Wireless data users we may reduce your data throughput speeds periodically for the remainder of your then current and immediately following billing cycle to ensure high quality network performance for other users at locations and times of peak demand. Our proactive management of the Verizon Wireless network is designed to ensure that the remaining 95 percent of data customers aren't negatively affected by the inordinate data consumption of just a few users." To our knowledge, this is the first time that VZW has taken a notable position on throttling, and the link to its stance on net neutrality (as it applies to wireless, anyway) is fairly obvious. What's most interesting to us is the five percent of data users figure; the top one or two percent isn't a huge amount, and there's a good chance that bandwidth abusers are up in that echelon. But we're guessing that quite a few business travelers will fall within this particular range, and given that VZW now holds the right to throttle data for your existing billing cycle and the next one... well, good luck gritting your teeth and lasting through that two-year contract. In related news, the company is also implementing optimization and transcoding technologies in its network, which is a politically correct way of explaining that it can downres any multimedia you try to send through Verizon's pipes. Head on past the break for the full quote.
Validas study finds Verizon smartphones consuming more data than iPhones
You know how we've good reason to believe that Verizon Wireless is at least mulling the switch to capped / tiered data plans? Yeah. An independent Validas research report has found that, between January and May of this year (pre-AT&T caps), Verizon's stable of smartphones collectively averaged more data consumption per month that Apple's iPhone. Of course, this quite literally compares an Apple to every smartphone on Verizon save for BlackBerries, but given how much squalling we've heard from Ma Bell about this rampant iPhone data usage, we're pleased to see a few facts that spin things the other way. The company's full report is due out in September, but investigation of over 20,000 wireless bills found that VZW smartphones "are consuming more wireless data than AT&T iPhones by a ratio of roughly 1.25:1," with the average Verizon user eating up 421MB per month and the average iPhone user consuming 338MB per month. It also points out that "nearly twice as many Verizon Wireless smartphone users are consuming 500MB to 1GB per month compared to AT&T iPhone users." You learn something new everyday, right?
AT&T 3G MicroCell now available in all markets
Completing a phased roll-out that kicked off back in April, AT&T has finally gotten around to launching its 3G MicroCell in all of its markets, giving the entire customer base some flexibility when "more bars in more places" doesn't happen to include your place. Interestingly, the announcement was made in passing during comments by AT&T director Gordon Mansfield at the Femtocells World Summit in London this week, where he spent much of his time trying to quell a minor furor over the carrier's continued application of data caps when using the MicroCell. He makes some pretty strong arguments: even though all MicroCell voice and data traffic starts off traveling over your own internet connection, it ultimately ends up within AT&T's core infrastructure -- and a legal requirement that the carrier be able to intercept traffic for law enforcement use prevents it from diverting that traffic elsewhere. More importantly, though, if you're within range of a MicroCell, odds are very good that you're also within range of a WiFi connection -- and since all of AT&T's data-heavy handsets offer WiFi, the whole complaint is kinda moot. So just get one if you need one and don't worry about it, okay?
Time Warner Cable scraps broadband capping plan in Rochester, NY
It's already delayed its controversial broadband capping plan in a number of markets, and it looks like Time Warner Cable has now gone one big step further in Rochester, New York (one of the initial test markets), where it has reportedly scrapped the new tiered pricing plan altogether. As you no doubt recall, the plan was more or less modeled on cellphone pricing plans, and had intended to cap customers' data usage at a certain level and charge upwards of $1 per GB for any overages (eventually maxing out at $150 per month). That, naturally, didn't go over so well with folks, and even New York Senator Charles Schumer eventually got in on the act and complained directly to Time Warner Cable. Of course, this still doesn't officially mark the end of the pricing plan in other markets, but it certainly seems to be getting increasingly difficult for Time Warner Cable to move ahead with it.[Thanks, Phil]Update: As a few of you have helpfully pointed out in comments, Time Warner Cable has now put out a statement of its own that confirms in not-at-all Orwellian terms that it is shelving all of its consumption-based billing trials "while the customer education process continues." The company also says that it'll soon be making bandwidth measurement tools available to customers, which it hopes will "aid in the dialog going forward."
Public rage stalls Time Warner trials of consumption-based internet
Time Warner's new data capping broadband scheme was never expected to win any popularity contests, and the details of its plans are so frustrating, that this probably should not come as a surprise. Regardless, it looks like the company's plan to further roll out testing of the consumption-based billing method has been foiled, or at least stalled, because it couldn't find enough customers to participate in the testing. TWC had planned to test in several locations, including San Antonio and Austin, Texas, but the response has apparently been so negative, and there were so many complaints, that the company has "delayed" the trials until October. So... maybe if we keep moaning about it the plan will be abandoned altogether? Here's to hoping, anyway. [Via The Register]
Time Warner Cable lays out broadband capping plans, says $150 for "unlimited" use
In a move seemingly designed to further our frustrations with broadband providers, Time Warner Cable has soft-announced an "unlimited" package once its new data caps go into place... for an affordable $150 monthly charge. Responding to criticism over the company's plans to start capping usage and charging for overages, Landel Hobbs clarified the provider's stance, letting users know that the capping would be limited to a $75 ceiling, thus (when paired with its top tier plan) would provide "virtually unlimited" usage. Virtually unlimited. Here's a rundown of what the COO proposes: A limited package for "light users" at 1GB / monthly, 768KB down / 128KB up, with overage charges of $2 / GB / month. Road Runner Lite, Basic, Standard, and Turbo packages at 10GB / 20GB / 40GB / and 60GB caps, respectively, and overage charges at $1 / GB / month. A big daddy, 100GB Turbo package at $75 / month with overage fees of $1 / GB, which, when coupled with that magic threshold of $75 in charges, becomes the "unlimited" plan. We only have two questions, guys. First, how will you let end users know they're hitting caps? Right now there's no centralized solution for monitoring bandwidth. Even cell phones show minutes used, so will you give us the infrastructure for broadband monitoring? Secondly -- instead of giving users a "virtually" unlimited package, why not just sell an unlimited package at $150 a month? The impression we get is that you want to leave the door open for aggressive users, and that your capping of capping charges might be a moving target in the right situation. [Via eWeek]
