AT&T is testing ways to limit Internet downloads

NEW YORK - AT&T Inc., the largest US Internet provider, is testing limits that would curb usage for customers whose video and music downloads are flooding the network.

The test, started Nov. 1 in the Reno area, limits customers to between 20 and 150 gigabytes of uploads and downloads a month, depending on their service, spokesman Michael Coe said yesterday. Customers who exceed the limits will be charged $1 per gigabyte.

The limits may help to discourage heavy users, who are expected to contribute to a quadrupling of network usage in the next three years, Coe said. Five percent of customers take up half of AT&T's network capacity. To exceed the upper limit, a customer would have to download 40,000 YouTube videos or 90 online movies a month, he said.

AT&T notified the Federal Communications Commission of the limits last week and may begin a new trial later this year.

Comcast Corp. has said subscribers who exceed 250 gigabytes of data may get a warning call and could lose their service. The company has said it will slow traffic for heavy users when local networks are clogged. Time Warner Cable Inc. has tested charging heavy users more.