Comcast sets bandwidth caps

Rusted

Let's Ride!
Supporting Member
Location
Sandy
I wish we had more high speed options in Utah


http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/pos...st-starts-250gb-bandwidth-caps-october-1.html



Comcast has announced that it will in fact be introducing bandwidth caps to all residential customers. The cap, which will go into effect as of October 1, will be 250GB per month. Comcast justifies the decision by saying that it's "an extremely large amount of data," and that a very large majority of customers will never cross it.

In fact, according to Comcast, this is actually the same policy that is already in place, except with more explicit numbers as to what is allowed and what isn't. "As part of our preexisting policy, we will continue to contact the top users of our high-speed Internet service and ask them to curb their usage," the company said in a statement sent to Ars. "If a customer uses more than 250GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use."

This announcement has been widely expected since at least May of this year, after the whole brouhaha went down with P2P throttling and the FCC fallout. Comcast had originally argued that that the FCC had no authority to block Comcast's process, but ultimately decided on its own to stop interfering with P2P traffic. The company also joined in with other ISPs in trying to devise a P2P user's bill of rights and contemplated the use of P4P software.

Comcast customers that make heavy use of their Internet connections—myself included—are sure to find themselves somewhat alarmed at the prospect of being capped. After all, perfectly legal things like movies from iTunes and Netflix, online music stores, massive software updates, and other media-heavy applications do suck up a lot of bandwidth. Comcast insists that the 250GB cap is enough to send some 50 million e-mails, download 62,500 songs, or download 125 standard-definition movies. Okay, so if a cap is going to be enforced, 250GB isn't that bad. It beats the 60GB caps and lower caps seen elsewhere in North America and it's a nice change from the company's previous etherial and mysterious caps. Still, investing in the infrastructure necessary to alleviate the need for caps is a better option for everyone involved.

In a statement e-mailed to Ars, Free Press called the caps "relatively high," but said they were also an indictment of current US broadband policy. "If the United States had genuine broadband competition, Internet providers would not be able to profit from artificial scarcity‚ they would invest in their networks to keep pace with consumer demand," said Free Press research director S. Derek Turner. "Unfortunately, Americans will continue to face the consequences of this lack of competition until policymakers get serious about policies that deliver the world-class networks consumers deserve."


In May when the cap was first rumored, there was also buzz that Comcast might try to charge customers $15 for every 10GB they went over the limit. As far as we can tell from Comcast's announcement and the accompanying FAQ page, that is not the case... yet, anyway. Even so, Comcast's honesty with the 250GB cap will probably only go so far, and customers with the option to do so may end up turning to an ISP such as AT&T, Verizon, or Qwest that has the infrastructure available to offer broadband without bandwidth limits.
 

78mitsu

Registered User
that's so retarded, when you sell bandwidth you sell a hose that's this wide and this long, it shouldn't matter how much water you pipe through it. Bandwith is the hose what goes through it is no business of mine.
 

krazz1e

Registered User
yeah this is nothing really new, ISPs have been doing this for years. This is another way to get around the throttling.

Usually though the ISPs offer a unlimited package, a gold and a silver. You see this alot with web hosting services.

Eitherway, comcast sucks. If you have other options, go with it.
 

78mitsu

Registered User
yeah this is nothing really new, ISPs have been doing this for years. This is another way to get around the throttling.

Usually though the ISPs offer a unlimited package, a gold and a silver. You see this alot with web hosting services.

Eitherway, comcast sucks. If you have other options, go with it.


Real ISP's don't throttle bandwidth, the reason is the cost to throttle (the cost in cpu horsepower and memory is pheonmenal to manage say 100Mb/s) is usually greater then the cost of the bandwidth.
 

Herzog

somewhat damaged
Admin
Location
Wydaho
Real ISP's don't throttle bandwidth, the reason is the cost to throttle (the cost in cpu horsepower and memory is pheonmenal to manage say 100Mb/s) is usually greater then the cost of the bandwidth.

I'm willing to bet that comcast has done the math and it's going to be "cheaper" for them to officially throttle usage than upgrade their entire network to accommodate the growing demand for bandwidth.

Everytime the add an HD channel, they'll probably throttle the internet a little more. :rolleyes:

Also - their way of throttling is probably less intensive than actual speed throttling. They just throw a flag on an account when it gets over the limit and turn it off. Pretty lame. I wish I had better options out here.
 

Meat_

Banned
Location
Lehi
Today, Comcast officially announced a 250 GB cap, while threatening to disconnect users who exceed this limit more than once.

Two strikes are you are out??? that is a bit rough.

That's the way Comcast has always been, I got warned once... called in and the local office said that sounded stupid and to keep using it, the second warning came in the form of no internet.

I've never had a problem with Qwest (knock wood), granted I only have a 1.5Mb line but it's running full out all the time.
 
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Rusted

Let's Ride!
Supporting Member
Location
Sandy
so once comcast cuts you off how do you get it back on? Give them your dogs name and sign up under a new account? Or are they wiser than that?

What is the next move when Quest cuts you off next? Does comcast offer a business line? Notice they are only applying this to the residential accounts.
 

Meat_

Banned
Location
Lehi
When they cut me off it was for a year at this address. I tried to get the business line, they looked into it for a day and told me that the business line would not suit me either, ie there is a usage cap on the business line as well.

What I did was went back to qwest, I've been continually spanking my connection ever since. I figure I pass the 250GB mark after 16 days, that's not including what I upload in that time.
 

Rusted

Let's Ride!
Supporting Member
Location
Sandy
do you have a tool that can meter all of your bandwidth? Or is that just through your application that help you download all of those linux iso files?

:)
 

Meat_

Banned
Location
Lehi
The second one. But I haven't looked at the numbers over a measured month.... I just did some math with what speed it usually runs at. Although now that I'm more awake and did some better math I think I'm more like 300~350GB a month down and maybe 200GB up.
 

Rusted

Let's Ride!
Supporting Member
Location
Sandy
I was curious what my actually usage is for my multiple computers and multiple internet uses. I found this, it seems to be configured right but I am not getting log files yet

http://sonic.net/wallwatcher/

anyone know if this program works good or something similar to help monitor traffic on a linksys router?
 

78mitsu

Registered User
When they cut me off it was for a year at this address. I tried to get the business line, they looked into it for a day and told me that the business line would not suit me either, ie there is a usage cap on the business line as well.

What I did was went back to qwest, I've been continually spanking my connection ever since. I figure I pass the 250GB mark after 16 days, that's not including what I upload in that time.



I just look in the DSLAM. It has rolling counters, 30 sec, 5 min, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, 365 days. You can log your bandwidth usage with MRTG, or cactus too if you have a router/modem that supports SNMP.
 

kbjames

Active Member
Location
Sandy, UT
You would think if they have the ability to count your bytes transfered they could just charge you on the number of bytes transfered.

Why boot people...charge people more who use more, seems pretty simple to me.
 

Rusted

Let's Ride!
Supporting Member
Location
Sandy
Email I got from Comcast Today :rolleyes:


Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer:

Comcast is committed to providing you with the best online experience possible.

One of the ways we do that is by managing the leading fiber optic network in the nation to ensure it is fast, safe and reliable. As part of our ongoing efforts to continuously improve the quality of our service, we are switching to a new network congestion management technique by the end of the year. It is focused on managing network congestion only when and where it may occur. It will also replace the current technique and will help ensure that all of our customers receive their fair share of network resources.

What does this mean for you? Probably nothing. We ran five market trials of this technique over the summer and found that less than one percent of customers were affected. So, the vast majority of customers will not notice any change to their Internet experience as a result of this new technique. During the times of busiest network use (which could occur at any hour, depending on your neighborhood), those very few extraordinarily heavy users – who are doing things like conducting multiple and continuous large file transfers – may experience slightly longer response times for some online activities until the period of network congestion ends.

As we transition to this new technique, we have amended our Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") and posted it on the Comcast.net Web site. For links to the amended AUP, as well as answers to Frequently Asked Questions and more information about this new technique or our network management efforts in general, please visit our Network Management Policy page at: <http://www.comcast.net/networkmanagement> www.comcast.net/networkmanagement.

Thank you again for choosing Comcast as your high-speed Internet provider.
 

Tacoma

Et incurventur ante non
Location
far enough away
Does Comcast block peer-to-peer ("P2P") traffic or applications like BitTorrent, Gnutella, or others?

No. Today, Comcast does not block P2P traffic or applications like BitTorrent, Gnutella, or others as part of its current network congestion management technique.

It is important to note, however, that the current network congestion technique, which will be replaced by the end of 2008, may on a limited basis temporarily delay certain P2P traffic when that traffic has, or is projected to have, an adverse effect on other customers' use of the service. We do this because, in certain situations, that type of traffic consumes a disproportionately large amount of network resources.



Interesting. I would think that if you are sold service at whatever rate, it shouldn't matter how often or for how long you use the full extent of that rate.

Sounds like fraud if you can't use all of what they're selling you. :D
 
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