Subscribe by EmailComcast Planning to Dump Bandwidth Hogs
August 29, 2008 by PatB |By PatB
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
After a stinging rebuke from the FCC over Comcast’s efforts in bandwidth shaping to preserve bandwidth for all their customers, Comcast is planning to retreat behind a stingy Acceptable Usage Policy. Instead of shaping bandwidth, they are just going to give the finger and pull the plug on P2P users.
From Bloomberg here:
Comcast Corp., the largest U.S. cable operator, said subscribers whose use of the Internet exceeds 250 gigabytes of data a month may get a warning call and could lose their service.
Customers who breach the threshold — enough to send 50 million e-mails or 125 standard-definition movies — may be asked to reduce their use, the Philadelphia-based company said today in a Web posting. Those whose “excessive use” continues may be cut off for a year.
The limit officially becomes part of Comcast’s acceptable use policy Oct. 1. The company reported 14.3 million high-speed Internet customers at the end of the second quarter.
Cable operators are wrestling with how to keep high-speed Internet services operating smoothly as demand soars for features such as streaming video that place heavy demands on networks.
I sympathize with Comcast users, mostly over the company’s horrible track record with customer service. Heck, any company that will cause a grandmother to take a hammer and smash up the customer service center over bad service is a bad company. But the brouhaha over the net neutrality debate has forced Comcast to exert their rights as an ISP. Comcast’s suggestion to bandwidth hogging P2P users: Let’s see how well bit torrent works over dialup.
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I’d say whenever possible change to a DSL service and go for Direct TV(for TV) I don’t use Comcast (I use Cox) for internet so I don’t have any first hand experience though what I’ve heard isn’t very good. The bandwidth limit may not be touchable but as time goes by they will need to adjust the amount to change as technology advances. Wasn’t it the old joke that Bill Gate’s once said 640k should be more than anyone needs on a PC? I rest my case.
250GB?!?! However will you cope
Try living in Australia and dealing with our draconian download limits
Cheers
Rob
Comcast’s usage policy has allowed action against overuse, relative to an arbitrary ceiling on bandwidth usage, for some time now. Didn’t you read the fine print?
Their main mistake really ,was not being honest about what customers could expect and then reasonably enforcing their policy.
They made their bed…
Too bad we’re now going to experience the backlash for their poor management.
Without some some balancing “cost” for usage, things of value will be wasted by homo-sapiens.
Check out your unlimited cell phone contract; it ain’t unlimited and there’s a cost for “overusage.”
I DO use Comcast and very often download large files from my companies FTP site as well as Netflix, iTunes and others. Placing limits on Internet Useage is absurd. I think we pay a high enough fee that Comcast should certainly be able to expand their network infrastructure to be able to provide the services necessary. Verizon FIOS is looking better and better all the time. Be careful Comcast, you end up with a self fulfilling prophecy when your customers give you back ALL your bandwidth.