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AT&T Starts Metered Billing Trial In Reno

Earlier this year, AT&T began laying the political and public relations groundwork for a shift toward metered billing, throwing comments to the press about how such a shift was "inevitable," while company lobbyists began dropping vague hints that a billing shift was coming. Last summer, executives at the company announced that the telco would be conducting a metered billing trial this fall. The time for that trial has arrived, and Broadband Reports has learned that Reno, Nevada will be the lucky first market. Last Friday, AT&T filed this (pdf) notice with the FCC that confirms the nation's largest ISP will be conducting a metered billing trial in Reno.

This local market trial underscores our commitment to bring bigger, faster and smarter broadband networks to more and more communities at affordable rates.

-AT&T Memo

Existing flat-rate profits weren't to AT&T CTO John Donovan's liking, the exec complaining last summer that "traffic on our backbone is growing 60 percent per year, but our revenue is not." Earlier this year I floated the idea that the FCC's investigation of Comcast benefited AT&T in more ways than one, and the FCC's supposed love of transparency was in part aimed at opening the door to metered billing. AT&T's filing with the FCC is clear to highlight how much this new metered move is about AT&T's love of "transparency," not protecting U-Verse TV revenues from Internet video, or ramping up already impressive profits:

Consistent with AT&T’s belief that consumers should have clear information about the capabilities of their broadband Internet access services and any meaningful limitations on those service, AT&T will be providing written notice to customers involved in the trial explaining that their broadband service will be subject to a certain monthly usage tier for the total amount of data they may send and receive, as well as a per gigabyte charge in the event they exceed the usage tier.

New customers in Reno this month are finding that their shiny new DSL tier comes with caps ranging from 20 to 150 gigabytes per month, depending on which service speed tier a customer signs up for (AT&T offers DSL tiers ranging from 768kbps to 6Mbps). The filing says that later this year, existing customers in Reno will become a part of this trial should their monthly usage exceed 150 GB in one month.

Should customers in Reno exceed the 150GB usage limit, AT&T is currently considering charging them an additional $1 per gigabyte. That's in line with Time Warner Cable's current metered usage trial, news of which we first broke earlier this year. Unlike Comcast, who also has implemented caps of 250GB per month, AT&T will be offering up a usage tool to impacted customers. The company will also provide some kind of automated alert (perhaps banner injection technology?) once a customer hits 80% of their monthly allotted capacity. From the AT&T FCC filing:

In addition, the first time a customer exceeds the applicable monthly usage tier, AT&T will send a written notice reminding the customer again about the usage tier, but we will not impose any additional charges at that time. Only after the second time the customer exceeds the applicable monthly usage tier will the customer be subject to additional per-gigabyte charges. Finally, in the event a new or existing customer does not want to participate in the trial, we will permit the customer to cancel their broadband Internet access service without an early termination penalty.

Well aren't you a sweetheart, AT&T. Combined with your planned piracy filters and wholesale funneling of customer data to the NSA (pdf), you're becoming a real charmer. Despite denying to us earlier this year that you were making subtle flirtations with metered billing, it's now pretty clear this is an idea you've lusted after for a while.

According to documents, AT&T may extend the trial into additional markets later this year, so Reno customers won't be the only lucky netizens to experience AT&T's new broadband profit vision. According to AT&T, it's for your own good. "This local market trial underscores our commitment to bring bigger, faster and smarter broadband networks to more and more communities at affordable rates," an announcement is expected to read.

Update: AT&T Spokesman Seth Bloom contacts me to add: "One minor point I’d make - we may extend the trial to ONE other market by the end of the year...not markets plural..."

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“We believe Wal-Mart is increasing its exposure to consumer electronics, video games and Blu-ray, and reducing floor space devoted to CDs and standard DVDs,” said Richard Greenfield, analyst with Pali Capital, in a note.

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“We believe Wal-Mart is increasing its exposure to consumer electronics, video games and Blu-ray, and reducing floor space devoted to CDs and standard DVDs,” said Richard Greenfield, analyst with Pali Capital, in a note.

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Greenfield said the chain’s floor space devoted to DVD, including Blu- ray, ranged from up modestly to down slightly.

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