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TechBear_Seattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 08:44 AM
Original message
Comcast to limit customers' broadband usage
Comcast to limit customers' broadband usage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, said on Thursday it will cap customers' Internet usage starting October 1, in a bid to ensure the best service for the vast majority of its subscribers.

Comcast said it was setting a monthly data usage threshold of 250 gigabytes per account for all residential high-speed Internet customers, or the equivalent of 50 million e-mails or 124 standard-definition movies.

"If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB and is one of the heaviest data users who consume the most data on our high-speed Internet service, he or she may receive a call from Comcast's Customer Security Assurance (CSA) group to notify them of excessive use," according to the company's updated Frequently Asked Questions on Excessive Use.

Customers who top 250 GB in a month twice in a six-month timeframe could have service terminated for a year.


The article continues at http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080829/wr_nm/comcast_internet_dc

I play World of Warcraft. If I were terminated for actually using the service that Comcast provided, I would be more than willing to file a lawsuit. (I have Qwest DST, not Comcast, but you know they are waiting to see what the customer fallout will be.)
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OwnedByFerrets Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 08:47 AM
Response to Original message
1. Wow, just wow!!
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Fumesucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 08:47 AM
Response to Original message
2. I know zip about gaming...
I assume that WOW is very bandwidth intensive?

What, are there a bunch of graphics being sent back and forth.

Oh, and I agree with you, you pay for "unlimited" usage and that's what you should get.
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TechBear_Seattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 08:51 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. It depends on the game architecture
Typically, the graphics are on the local computer and what gets transferred are packets of data about where objects are, how they are oriented, what they are doing, etc. It is nowhere near as high volume as transferring images, but it is still a lot of data getting shuffled around.
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Fumesucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:03 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. I have spates of masive downloading through bittorrent..
Movies mostly, and my wife watches her TV shows online since we dropped our satellite to save money.

So I'm keeping an eye on this bandwidth limiting issue.

Thanks for the heads up.
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gi4obama Donating Member (268 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:35 AM
Response to Reply #7
14. I wouldn't bittorrent if I were u...
Try these three streaming sites out:

http://www.watch-movies.net/movies/the_bucket_list/



http://quicksilverscreen.com/videos?c=2


http://www.surfthechannel.com/
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Fumesucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 10:34 AM
Response to Reply #14
15. Thanks, I've tried watch-movies but not the others..
I don't much care for movies and I don't watch TV at all.. Mostly I get stuff for the grandkids.

Watch-movies just stutters too damn much and it's not my connection because I test that regularly.
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liberal N proud Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 08:47 AM
Response to Original message
3. So it starts
I hope everyone of their customers drop them.

The internet is the one mass communication tool they can not control. The blogs and discussion boards have made the media propaganda machines work much harder and they want to reign it in.
Charging by the time you are on-line is one way they can do that.
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onyourleft Donating Member (327 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:24 AM
Response to Reply #3
13. I wish we could drop them.
Unfortunately, they are the only game in "town." Because of my husband's job, we absolutely have to have a fast net connection.

We also play WOW. It will be interesting to see how this impacts us.
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slampoet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 08:55 AM
Response to Original message
5. And yet our speeds are only one twenty fifth of what Europeans or South koreans enjoy @ SAME PRICE


Comcast should watch it. They may have a lawsuit about minimum instead or their max.
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Egalitariat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 08:58 AM
Response to Original message
6. What would you sue them for?
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TechBear_Seattle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:23 AM
Response to Reply #6
12. Breach of contract
When I upgraded from standard DSL to "high speed" a few years ago, it was specifically for unlimited use. If they change the terms of the contract, they have to let me out of it without penalty and with sufficient time to make other connectivity arrangements; that is standard contract law. It would be a matter for the courts to decide if a company can unilaterally change a contract and then use violations of those changes to cancel service provided by that contract.
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tsuki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:09 AM
Response to Original message
8. I was with direct satellite. They did this and it was horrible. You
cannot stream radio with this, altho, direct satellite's allowances were less, 200 MB.

I signed up for business, pd for the equipment. One and a half years later, I was lowered to "home" (equipment out of date) and told I would have to "upgrade" my equipment and sign a two year commitment to be allotted 500 MB for $189.00 a month.

A pox on the House of Murdock. Filthy, greedy bastard.
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msongs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:09 AM
Response to Original message
9. cable companies need to be STRIPPED of their monopolies to serve a community - >
in riverside charter has a monopoly granted by the city, the city gets kickbacks, and residents are denied competition to force down prices. cable companies need to lose their monopoly status because they restrict users and abuse their monopoly.

msongs
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Fumesucker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:11 AM
Response to Reply #9
11. the city gets kickbacks
There you have it..
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onenote Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 10:59 AM
Response to Reply #9
16. if they have a monopoly in your town, its your town's fault
No cable operator has a legally "exclusive" franchise -- such franchises were banned years ago. Whether or not another company wants to compete with your cable company in providing a landline service is up to that company. It would be hard for your town to deny them the franchise. ANd they'd get the same "kickbacks" from any new company that they get from the incumbent.

Of course, for video service, your cable company isn't a monopoly, since virtually everyone has the ability to get video from either DirecTV or Dish Network. And for broadband, the local phone company usually offers some sort of high speed data service.
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negativenihil Donating Member (772 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-29-08 09:11 AM
Response to Original message
10. Don't worry too much
WoW doesn't generate nearly that much traffic per month. This is targeted at p2p users and other very heavy downloaders.
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