Here's the pertinent change, in section 2:
AT&T High Speed Internet Service Description:
In order to provide a consistently high-quality video service, AT&T Uverse High Speed Internet throughput speeds may be temporarily reduced when a customer is using other U-verse services in a manner that requires high bandwidth. This could occur more often with higher speed Internet access products. It may be necessary, for some AT&T High Speed Internet users, for AT&T to set a maximum downstream speed on a customer line to enhance the reliability and consistency of performance. While this performance optimization process will prevent some customers from obtaining the maximum downstream speed capability, service capability speed will not be set lower than the service tier you have purchased.
Now, much as I said earlier, this is interesting: companies want us to use more bandwidth, and then penalize us when we do. If you don't understand, what the above says is AT&T may reduce the throughput on your line to reduce network congestion.
This sounds a lot like the changes Comcast made to its TOS earlier this year, which it called "network management" or "traffic shaping."
But it's not quite so draconian, as it's not targeted at heavy users or P2P users. It's apparently only aimed at overall performance. And they do say you will not receive a lower speed than the minimum speed of the tier you have purchased.
Still, it's not a good sign. If in fact our networks are unable to keep up with traffic (and that's what this implies), it means we may see more caps and throttling in the future --- as opposed to changes in the infrastructure to allow more traffic.
The new TOS is expected to go into effect Oct. 18th.
