And this is why you should switch to another ISP. Really. do it. Stop giving AT&T your money. They are out to screw you. Leave them right now. They are not your friends. They hate you and want your money. All of it. Stop giving it to them. They will use your money against you to extort more of your money.
Encourage your family and friends to do so.
Smaller ISPs will treat you better. They do exist.
I switched to one (sonic.net). I got a call a week after switching from them, "Hi, your internet speed is slow. We can do better. Can we come out there and fix the line noise?"
And they did. Faster than AT&T ever was - no data caps, and $10 cheaper to boot. Totally unprovoked, totally unasked for. It had been so long that I forgot what solid customer service looked like.
AT&T has been sending me junk mail offering me first $35, then $29 and now, $19/month for 12 months. Sorry --- my bar of acceptability has been set back to where it should be and you simply do not reach it. Your pricing points do not matter when I no longer value the services you provide. It's like McDonalds trying to sell a cheeseburger to a vegan.
>smaller isps will treat you better. they do exist.
That really depends on where you live. Some people have the choice between a single telco and a single cable provider, e.g. ATT & TWC or Verizon & Comcast. Some are limited to a single choice, usually because they live too far from a DSLAM and fiber is unavailable.
I had to go hunting big time to find that there even existed an option, in this case, sonic.net who had service where I live (culver city, los angeles). It's not like they had a prominent billboard campaign and youtube ads.
I had to read a bunch of forums, go through a bunch of reviews, dsl report web sites, etc. Finally found out that they do. At that point it wasn't a question of whether the company "sonic.net" did - it was "what can I get that's not comcast and not at&t."
Anyway, the point is, that I thought I was in the boat of "nothing. you are screwed", I really believed it - but I wasn't. Finally found them. Felt great.
So I say to you, keep digging - they are out there. And if there isn't, then a guy named Paul Cienfuegos has a formula for successful community rights movements http://communityrightspdx.org/ that's one of them. Fight for a municipal broadband - regardless of whether the state bans it.
What's the state going to do? Bring in the national guard to protect the rights of time warner by blocking a city truck from installing fiber? Seize city assets? Arrest the city council? No, of course not. They'll give you the finger and move on. Look into it - the "fuck you, we're asserting our community rights" seems to actually work.
Encourage your family and friends to do so.
Smaller ISPs will treat you better. They do exist.
I switched to one (sonic.net). I got a call a week after switching from them, "Hi, your internet speed is slow. We can do better. Can we come out there and fix the line noise?"
And they did. Faster than AT&T ever was - no data caps, and $10 cheaper to boot. Totally unprovoked, totally unasked for. It had been so long that I forgot what solid customer service looked like.
AT&T has been sending me junk mail offering me first $35, then $29 and now, $19/month for 12 months. Sorry --- my bar of acceptability has been set back to where it should be and you simply do not reach it. Your pricing points do not matter when I no longer value the services you provide. It's like McDonalds trying to sell a cheeseburger to a vegan.
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