AT&T is scamming Uverse Internet customers.

[lewmur]

Back when I was a kid, you couldn't "legally" buy your own phone and connect it to your AT&T line. Bell labs did make a great handset, but AT&T made a tun of money "renting" that same handset to you year after year. At times, for decades.. They never wore out.

 

The court ruled in favor their argument that third party handsets might damage the network. And, that AT&T didn't have to let you buy a handset from them. Renting you the same handset for 40 years was OK. But that changed in the 1970's.

 

Code-a-phone, a maker of an answering machine, finally spent enough money to win a court battle saying that it was a violation of anti-trust laws to not permit third party devices and there was no technical justification to claim such equipment would damage the network. Now anyone can buy their own phone. or other devices, and connect to their phone line.

 

But it seems things have come full circle. I've owned my own AT&T modem/routers for years. But, recently, I started having intermittent problems with my connect speeds. D/L's would sometimes drop from 16mbs to less than 1. Tech came out to check things and said he had to replace the modem/router. I said that since the problem was intermittent, I'd wait and buy a new modem on eBay. He informed me that not only could I not do that, but that I couldn't even buy one from AT&T. They have gone back to their old ways and will only "RENT" you the equipment and at a rate that you could buy one in a year. But the "RENT" would continue forever!!!!!

 

And to really make my blood boil, the new one hasn't done a thing to stop the problem!! I do watch a lot of Netflix and Hulu, but they aren't just "throttling" that content. Everything I connect to slows to a snails pace.

 

And before anyone tells me to "change providers", that isn't an option where I live. It is a 10 story building that has it own "cable system". We can't get Cox cable. And management won't let us mount satellite antennas. AARRGGHHH!!!! :angry2:

Edited December 26, 2015 by lewmur

[goretsky]

Hello,

 

Cable companies are similar. I have been a Time- Warner cable customer for about a decade. When they started charging me $3/month all of a sudden after being a customer for about 4 years to rent a modem I continued to do so, because $36/year for a cable modem was still below rate, but when they raised the rate to $7/month ($84/year) I just went out and bought a Motorola Surfboard modem. I understand they have raised the rate to $12/month ($144/year) in some locations, so expect that to trickle out to my region eventually.

 

Have you checked to make sure the information the tech gave you was accurate? In my part of the United States, people can buy DSL modems at various big box retailers (BestBuy, Frys, etc.) and hook them up for AT&T DSL service. It might be different for the fiber optic offerings, though.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

[Webb]

That's odd. AT&T gave me a modem and uninterruptable power supply, as in "if anything goes wrong it's your problem, not ours".

 

My HOA (through my assessments) pays for basic cable TV. Comcast rents me a high def box for $10 a month and I can't buy a compatible one. It's linked to Comcast's MAC address.

[securitybreach]

Sorry to hear that but honestly I am not surprised that ATT would pull that crap.

[lewmur]

Hello,

 

Cable companies are similar. I have been a Time- Warner cable customer for about a decade. When they started charging me $3/month all of a sudden after being a customer for about 4 years to rent a modem I continued to do so, because $36/year for a cable modem was still below rate, but when they raised the rate to $7/month ($84/year) I just went out and bought a Motorola Surfboard modem. I understand they have raised the rate to $12/month ($144/year) in some locations, so expect that to trickle out to my region eventually.

 

Have you checked to make sure the information the tech gave you was accurate? In my part of the United States, people can buy DSL modems at various big box retailers (BestBuy, Frys, etc.) and hook them up for AT&T DSL service. It might be different for the fiber optic offerings, though.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

Not only did I check it out, I raised enough stink, because the modem/router wasn't the problem in the first place, that they agreed to give me a $10/mo discount on my bill. But that is only for one year and my old modem/router was only about a year old and should have lasted for several more years. So I still get robbed in the long term.