for taking to many breaths while using "their" internet, using too much toilet paper when you go to the bathroom and a surcharge on laughing if you watch something funny on Youtube.

AT&T "wanting to charge you" should pretty much enter your mind the minute you hear "AT&T".

Wait, I think they just charged me $6 bucks because I mentioned them.

I charge $8000/hour for diagnostic services. $12000/hr if it is AT&T

but let's charge ahead with monetary advantage! Victory means money flowing in!

but looking over users' shoulders + 'penalizing' them, not. May be just the way they characterize it, and imo won't go over well this way. And then, there's the competition (if only!!!)

They are just inserting themselves between you and the Internet to make extra bucks. It doesn't cost them anything.

not quite two years ago and have been sorry I ever did. I'm tired of their two - four dollars price increases every other month. It's up to $52 a month just for a freakin' home phone line. They also screwed up my phone service when I moved even though I called them a month ahead of time and gave them all the information.

Comcast is awful but AT&T made them look fantastic by comparison.

He just wants your soul. AT&T wants your soul, and the soul of everyone else associated with you.

So when I called up to ask where my bill was and what was my balance, they informed me that my bill was due the day before and there was a late fee. For each service. Which they wouldn't waive even though they'd sent my bill to an address I hadn't given them (my family's house on the other end of town- I'm still not sure how they decided to send my bill there rather than where I live and was getting service?)

So I owed $70 for my TV, phone and internet and $90 in late fees- $30 for each service. They absolutely would not waive this even though it was their screw up.

The Comcast installer was back at my house the following morning, and they wound up giving me a better deal than AT&T had to get me back as a customer.

For DSL service that she had never had, and proceeded to send threatening letters in the name of someone that didn't live at my mom's address.

My Mom has cable access from the cable company, and ONLY AT&T service for her cell phone. Yet they were claiming she had DSL service under the name of a person in another county over?

She reported it to Jim Hood's office, and being the awesome Atty Gen he is, they went away. We have some bad politicians in the South, but our Democrats down here are top notch.

now have Verizon and really regret signing that contract but there was little other choice. Verizon really hurts itself with really, really bad PR moves.

Sam

Access to high-speed internet connectivity is now a virtual necessity for all of us. It is the way students engage with one another, see their assignments, banks push statements to us, companies bill us, doctors share medical results, etc. It is not possible to live outside of the "connected world".

That said, I have no problem with ISPs charging for usage. It is no different than paying for water or electricity based on consumption.

The problem I have is with categorizing by type of consumption. If I have a water pipe coming into my home it is up to me how I use the pipe. I can use it to water my garden, wash my car, wash clothes or dishes, drink water, cook, shower, etc.

It is fairly clear that companies like ATT and Comcast who are also content providers would love to strangle out the likes of Netflix, Hulu, etc. who compete with them. Comcast and ATT continue to lose subscribers to their cable offerings because more and more people just stream TV, movies, etc.

They do not want to be marginalized and the way they plan to do it is by penalizing you if you get your entertainment content from anyone other than them.

Netflix has already warned there will be repercussions if anyone makes this move.

Amazon, et al in favor of their own broadband cable service.

Seriously, they can go frack themselves!

is a service. It just costs extra. Did you wash a load of denim? Jeans are also a service.

Not just the lines, the actual handset.

And if you were suspected of 'abusing' it somehow, Bell Corps would come in and take it all away, along with anything that looked like a computer. No trial or warrant or anything -- that was all spelled out in the phone contract. If you hooked it up to a phone line, they owned it.

Yup, I bet they miss those days.

because of fears of a monopoly.
Then slowly, over the years, the telecoms got the laws eithr changed or fixed and now they are back to no competition.
Worse yet, they now have a vertical monopoly.
6 businesses/companies own 99% of the media..print, tv, and phone...

Monopoly on media means a monopoly on thought, discussion and ideas.

they bought the right amount of politicians from both parties.

Always and forever.

..... is truly a sleazeball company, but the sad fact is that if they start doing this stuff the other big guys are almost sure to follow.

Welcome to no net neutrality.

Scrutinize it closely, because you will see another name added.

I was just looking it up to have something that would not be reliant on having high speed internet access (like a magicjack).

What do you mean by someone else getting added to my bill? I am confused.

somehow added to her bill. For DSL. Which she never had. That's all I was pointing out.

I've been wanting to search for something for more than several minutes, and Google doesn't seem to be working, just press search buttone and hurry up and wait. It used to work great on DSL from the same company.

The goal is to restrict and reduce any communication not favorable to Capitalism and the global greed mongers. Dont be surprised to see progressive sites and any site that is deemed left wing at all slowed down to a crawl or inaccessable...its going to happen...mark my words