Free Press, a key player in the fight against Comcast's P2P throttling, praised AT&T for telling the government and consumers what it's doing but criticized the idea of the caps.

"Consumers have come to know and love the Internet as something (where) they're encouraged to experiment and encouraged to enjoy new applications," said Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner. "Even consumers that may not even approach the caps may be discouraged from trying new and innovative services for fear they will go over the limit."

"These companies will ultimately pull their toes back out of the water and give the customers what they want," Turner said: unlimited monthly bandwidth at a reasonable price.