AT&T may impose surcharge on heavy downloaders

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San Antonio-based AT&T Inc., the country's largest telecommunications provider, is mulling extra charges for customers who download large amounts of data over its Internet lines.

“Based on the trends we're seeing on our network, we believe some sort of usage-based pricing for our customers who are abnormally high bandwidth users is inevitable,” spokesman Michael Coe said.

AT&T expects bandwidth use to quadruple during the next three years as more consumers use their Internet connections to share big media files such as movies. Currently, the top 5 percent of AT&T's DSL customers use almost half its bandwidth, Coe added.

AT&T isn't prepared to unveil specifics of the new pricing, Coe said. He also declined to say when AT&T might impose the change.

Such a change wouldn't affect “the vast majority of our customer base,” Coe said. “We're talking about the people who are using up enormous amounts of bandwidth.”

AT&T isn't alone in seeking higher payments from heavy downloaders.

Time Warner Cable -- San Antonio's dominant video provider -- this month began a test in Beaumont, where it charges subscribers who surpass a monthly usage cap an additional $1 per gigabyte. Consumer groups have accused other cable companies of placing secret caps on the amount of data subscribers can download monthly.

Customers who use their connection for Web surfing, e-mail and occasional media downloads aren't likely to be affected as providers impose new pricing structures, analysts said. Those who are heavy movie downloaders, however, may exceed the caps.

Capping customer downloads also could put a crimp in the plans of services such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes that use the Internet to deliver video. DVD-by-mail pioneer Netflix Inc. just launched a TV set-top box that receives an unlimited stream of Internet video to a TV set for as little as $8.99 per month.

“Companies are going to have to keep making a bigger and bigger pipe. There will never be enough bandwidth for the consumer,” Frost Bank analyst Le Keough said. “But in the interim, the companies are going to test numerous pricing structures to keep up with the demand.”