AT&T’s infamous data caps go into effect today. You know, the ones where if you’re a paying customer, and you use too much data on the Internet, you get charged extra? Yeah, those caps. Congratulations, paying customers.

DSL customers will have a 150 gigabyte per month usage limit (250 Gigabytes for UVerse users). Those that exceed the cap will be penalized an extra $10 for every 50 gigabytes they go over.

I can’t imagine how much more press the move would be getting, if it had not been for the Osama bin Laden death news, that currently has the world occupied. That’s not to to say the matter hasn’t had its fair share of press up to this point. The plans were announced last year.

A piece from Time Magazine points out that AT&T all but buries the info on their site “probably hoping it won’t scare customers who might opt for uncapped alternatives.”

The data limitations have been heavily criticized, particularly as online video is becoming a much more mainstream phenomenon, and uses up a lot of data, leaving plenty of concern that it will be too easy to surpass the limits, by simply enjoying web services as they are intended.

I’m guessing we’ll be seeing more tweets like this one in the future:

Earlier this year, AT&T announced plans to acquire T-Mobile USA.

Also today, AT&T announced updates to AT&G Smart Limits for Wireless. These include an increase in the number of blocked numbers allowed, and additional cost controls for parents to “better manage download activity” and “restrict download purchases and calls”.

Parents can also establish imps of the day when phones can be used for web browsing, messing, and outbound calls, filter access to inappropriate Internet content, define the number of text and instant messages allowed, determine the amount of web browsing usage allowed per billing cycle, and limit downloadable purchases (ringtones, games, etc.).