Earlier this week, AT&T officially imposed broadband caps on both its DSL and U-Verse services. The company was also supposed to offer a tool for its customers to check to see if they were approaching those caps. But customers have complained that the meter tool is not yet available. This week Broadband Reports got an AT&T spokesperson to admit that the meter tool is not enabled for all of its broadband subscribers.
The caps themselves limit subscribers to 150 GB a month for DSL subscribers with 250 GB a month for U-Verse users. AT&T does allow people to go over those caps but customers must pay an extra $10 for every 50 GB they go over the established limits. While the AT&T spokesperson told Broadband Reports that the meter tool is available for "the majority of our customers" the spokesperson did admit, "In some locations the tool is under construction and will be available at a later date." The spokesperson would not reveal exactly how many customers have access to the meter tool.
Customers who go over the broadband caps without the meter tool shouldn"t have to worry about their bill going higher than normal immediately. The spokesperson said, "Any affected customer will hear directly from us before any account changes are made: first, when the ability to measure their own usage is available and numerous times when they approach their usage allowance -- unless and until then, there is no impact."
As we reported earlier this week, another AT&T spokesperson said that the new caps were actually put into place due to customer demand. The majority of broadband Internet customers in the US are now under some kind of cap limit, although AT&T is the largest provider that offers overage charges rather than simply shutting down a user"s account as is the case with other broadband ISPs.