AT&T wants customers to pay attention to their broadband account’s monthly usage limits: 150GB for DSL or 250GB for U-verse. Customers who exceed their allowance are more likely than ever to get a warning letter from AT&T threatening overlimit fees if they continue to ‘use too much’ Internet.

AT&T customers in Texas, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Florida have shared identical warnings with Stop the Cap! received during the last 10 days — in each case it was the first warning notice received about exceeding AT&T’s arbitrary allowance:

Dear AT&T High Speed Internet Service Customer,

We want to remind you that your AT&T High Speed Internet service includes 150 gigabytes (GB) of data for each billing period.

You have exceeded 150 GB this billing period.

We’ll waive the charges for additional data this month and notify you as your usage approaches 150 GB in future months.

The next time you exceed 150 GB you’ll be notified, but not billed. However if you go over your data plan in any subsequent billing period, we’ll provide you with an additional 50 GB of data for $10. You’ll be charged $10 for every incremental 50 GB of usage beyond your plan.

AT&T imposed usage caps a few years ago but has generally not enforced them, even when usage meters show an excess of 500GB in Internet traffic. Some AT&T customers still have no access to a working usage meter, making compliance even more difficult. Stop the Cap! has yet to receive a verified copy of a billing statement actually showing overages billed to customers, but the increasing number of warning letters may indicate overlimit fees are forthcoming for persistent ‘violators.’

We recommend that customers receiving these warning letters send a warning of their own by calling AT&T and threatening to cancel service over the issue of unacceptable usage caps. Let AT&T know that you consider usage-based billing a deal-breaker and you will begin exploring your options with other providers. Remind AT&T that they already earn a lot of money from you and that any overlimit fees that appear on your bill will mean the immediate termination of your account.

The Great Wall of Euronet?

France and Germany are pondering the launch of an alternative Internet to keep European data from passing through the United States, subject to eavesdropping from U.S. intelligence including the National Security Agency.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, whose own cell phone was reportedly monitored by U.S. security officials, suggests the new Euronet could avoid U.S. networks and servers and keep sensitive e-mail and other communications away from American eavesdropping.

Speaking on her weekly podcast on Saturday, Merkel said Germany had been in discussion with France over the idea, and an official at French President François Hollande’s office confirmed to the Reuters news agency that the idea of a European communications network was a positive development and Paris agreed with Merkel’s proposal.

Merkel is also upset that Internet giants like Facebook and Google could base much of their operations in countries were data protection laws are lax, even while carrying out business in countries where data privacy laws are strong.

Merkel

“We’ve got to do more for data protection in Europe, there’s no doubt about it,” Merkel said. “Above all, we’ll talk about European providers that offer security for our citizens, so that one shouldn’t have to send e-mails and other information across the Atlantic. Rather, one could build up a communication network inside Europe.”

However, it is unclear whether a European communications network would be effective in stopping the NSA and other surveillance organizations from accessing private data.

In an interview with German broadcaster ARD earlier this year, former American contractor Edward Snowden said that attempts to create a walled-off version of the Internet would do little to stop the NSA.

“The NSA goes where the data is,” Snowden said. “If the NSA can pull text messages out of telecommunication networks in China, they can probably manage to get Facebook messages out of Germany.”

Snowden’s revelations have created serious tension between the United States and its European allies over data privacy. Last week, lawmakers in the European Parliament threatened to scuttle a trade pact over the issue.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Merkel to Step Up Call for EU Internet 2-17-14.flv[/flv]

Bloomberg reports Germany and France may decide to build a new European Internet, walled off from U.S. networks that allow America to engage in surveillance of private e-mail and other communications. (2:18)

“Comcast has been laser focused on improving customer service and the customer experience and has become the industry leader in service reliability.”

Comcast and Time Warner Cable Merger Fact Sheet

Not so much if you happen to be a Comcast subscriber living in north Florida, where customers complain regularly about poor service, outages, and ever-rising prices…

Dear Editor:

[Your St. Augustine Record columnist] has Comcast nailed dead to rights. There must have been a huge incentive for the clown(s) who allowed the franchise. There has been a yearly rape of subscribers with the continual rate raises, not to mention the never-ending outages.

Comcast must be under the assumption that the term “customer service” is an oxymoron.

The arrogant on-line “chat” with someone on the other side of the world who gets totally confused and lost when you ask a question, is absolutely ridiculous and absurd. Just because a person speaks English does not mean he really comprehends the language.

The unkindest cut of all is the closing of the St Augustine office. Sort of tells you how Comcast feels about us. The next closest office is Touchton Road in Jacksonville — about 36 miles.

I know the distance, because I terminated my service on Friday and returned the equipment on Saturday to an office with eight service windows and people still holding tickets to be called. Many of the people there were returning equipment. I approached several about the return and most said they, too, dropped Comcast.

Every year a raise, no credit for outages, can’t get through on the phone — I had enough! The only way to teach Comcast a lesson is to drop them. I have been threatening to do it for a long time and now the time is here.

Harry Zemon – St. Augustine, Fla.

Comcast’s new glass and stainless steel tower will include 1.517 million rentable square feet and offer a new Four Seasons hotel and a soaring, block-long lobby with a glass-enclosed indoor plaza.

A columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is highly annoyed that a corporation ready to hand $45 billion in stock to Time Warner Cable is also getting $30 million in corporate welfare handouts, courtesy of Pennsylvania taxpayers.

Eric Hyle:

Regular readers might recall that I took Comcast to task recently for obtaining $30 million in state subsidies to help construct the new $1.2 billion Comcast Innovation and Technology Center in Philly. The public subsidy is about as necessary as any channel over the 500 level.

A Comcast official attempted to justify the public investment, saying your money is being used only on building-related infrastructure. I contended the company was sufficiently well-off to pick up the skyscraper’s entire cost, infrastructure included.

Comcast on Thursday went out of its way to prove me correct, purchasing its largest cable rival, Time Warner Cable, for an astonishing $45 billion. According to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, that amount exceeds the gross domestic products of nearly 130 nations, including Albania, Lebanon, Chad and Equatorial Guinea.

Hyle prepared this sample letter Pennsylvania readers can send off to Comcast CEO Brian Roberts to register their displeasure at having their pockets picked by a mega-corporation:

Mr. Brian Roberts, CEO
Comcast World Domination Headquarters
1701 JFK Blvd.
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Dear Mr. Roberts:

It’s appalling that your obscenely wealthy corporation is relying on $30 million in state funding to build your gargantuan office tower in Philadelphia. If you have the cash to go all Moby Dick and swallow whole your largest cable competitor, you sure as (heck) don’t require a dime from hard-working Pennsylvania taxpayers.

As one of those aggrieved taxpayers, I demand that this $30 million be returned to the state immediately. If you are unwilling to do so, I demand that you provide any Pennsylvania Comcast customer who requests it free Showtime. The complimentary cable channel subscriptions will be in effect until their combined costs total the $30 million you wrongly are removing from the public till.

A failure to exercise either of these options will be taken by me as your implied consent that I can stop paying my monthly cable bill entirely because you feel guilty over taking millions of dollars you obviously don’t need.

Have a nice day.

Sincerely,

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/TomoNews Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger sucks for consumers 2-14-14.mp4[/flv]

Must See Video: From the folks that brought you the hilarious animated revelations of Tiger Woods’ affairs a few years ago, Next Media Animation’s TomoNews from Taiwan succinctly explains the blockbuster merger deal between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. “The merger would give Comcast unprecedented gatekeeper power in several markets, turning it into the bully in the schoolyard and enabling it to put the squeeze on content companies,” writes TomoNews. “The biggest winners will of course be the US consumer who will face higher prices, weak Wi-Fi signals and slow data speeds. Sounds like a win-win situation. No?” (1:22)