Shutting down big downloaders - Washington Post - MSNBC.com

Shutting down big down loaders - Washington Post - MSNBC.com: "Some AT&T customers use disproportionately high amounts of Internet capacity, 'but we figure that's why they buy the service,' said Michael Coe, a spokesman for the company."

And there you have it. If you sell me 6 MBPS you better assume I am going to use it all (or a high percentage of it). After all, I pay a lot more each month to have that opportunity and a higher bandwidth connection encourages higher usage. When you are dealing with dial-up there are activities you simply wouldn't consider and most others you get over with quicker due to the lag.

I can understand the cable companies concern since their pipes are shared in a slightly different way, but you must be open and direct with your policies otherwise you are falsely advertising your service.

It might be better for them to do a more tiered service offering that is layered by actual usage. This would benefit the ones who use much less bandwidth as well. This puts in more in line with a utility (water, sewer, electricity, etc.) where usage matters. You want a cheaper bill? Use less.

Sadly, this is not the way they sell the service now.