More tidbits on the new Comcast cap (updated)
Thursday's news about the upcoming 250 GB monthly cap for Comcast data subscribers left some questions unanswered. I shot a few of my own, as well as some from readers over to Comcast to get them answered. These are mostly items that did not appear in both the post about the amendment, or the otherwise comprehensive FAQ page.
Update at 5:05 p.m. PDT: In a bizarre twist, the previous answers to my questions were answered by someone named Bill G., who Comcast says is not an authorized spokesperson for the company, despite answering my e-mail sent through the company's press contacts page. Charlie Douglas, who is Director of Corporate Communications for Comcast's Online & Voice Services, wrote me back to let me know the "correct" answers to these questions. I've highlighted where the previous unofficial answers differed for the sake of continuity, although the only major differentiation from the unofficial contact is the mention of Comcast developing its own bandwidth monitoring and notification service for its customers, which is apparently not happening.
Q: Will people who go over for the second time be able to challenge the account suspension, or is the two strikes and you're out policy the standard?Charlie Douglas: If a customer receives a call that he/she has exceeded 250 GB in a month, then we ask them to please moderate their usage. The vast majority of customers do so voluntarily. During that first call, however, we also explain that, per our Acceptable Use Policy, if they are among our heaviest users for a second time in the following six months, that we reserve the right to suspend their account for 12 months. Again, this is an extremely small number of customers--far less than 1 percent--and is a policy that does not affect more than 99 percent of our customers.
Will there be a usage meter available on Comcast subscriber's online account information?
Douglas: There are numerous free or fee-based meters that are widely available on the Internet to anyone who wants one.
(Editor's note: This differs from our unofficial contact who said "Comcast is developing a meter to track your bandwidth." We've got a write-up of ways to do this using various software tools.)
Will you be offering larger bandwidth packages for home businesses or "excessive users?"
Douglas: Our excessive use policy is only for residential service customers. As of today, this policy does not apply to our commercial services customers.
How does this factor in with users of your Digital Voice service? On average how much bandwidth does that service take up?
Douglas: Comcast Digital Voice is a completely separate service and is not a factor.
We've also had some questions about the bandwidth averages cited on this page. 2-3 GB median monthly bandwidth seems incredibly low, as does the figure for how large an e-mail is (0.05KB/e-mail). Most messages in my inbox hover between 10-50k. Was it a typo for 0.05MB?
Douglas: 2 to 3 GB/month is the median monthly amount used by our residential high-speed Internet customers. The examples we provided at www.comcast.net/networkmanagement are illustrative of how much activity would be required to reach 250GB in a month. More than 99 percent of our customers do not come close to using more than that amount.
Got any other questions you feel are unanswered? Leave them in the comments and we can send out a second round.
Josh Lowensohn is an associate editor for Webware.com, CNET's blog about cool and otherwise useful Web applications and services. If you've found a site you'd like profiled, shoot him an e-mail. E-mail Josh.
It's fast, cheap and no bandwidth limit!
-Ivan Romanov
Denise Donna(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:27:28 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
Hi.
Jeff_(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:27:45 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
I spend 61.16 per month purely for internet connection. I use Vonage, data back ups for two computers to internet sources, I utilize online streaming video. How can the MOST expensive internet connection place a limit?
Denise Donna(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:28:41 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
Your concern is regarding the limit for your internet?
Jeff_(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:28:57 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
yes
Jeff_(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:30:49 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
I signed up for unlimited usage because I need the unlimited usage. This is a change in product
Jeff_(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:33:40 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
how will I be assured that i will continue to have unlimited usage?
Denise Donna(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:34:34 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
I requested here to give your internet service an unlimited usage.
Jeff_(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:36:05 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
how do I get confirmation?
Denise Donna(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:37:18 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
I will give you a confirmation number now regarding the request.
Jeff_(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:37:38 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
good, now how do I receive confirmation that I do indeed have unlimited access?
Jeff_(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:39:03 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
thank you, by the way, how long do you assume the request will take to process? And, have you see such requests like mine approved?
Denise Donna(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:39:42 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
Yes, infact my request has been approved. I also request my internet to be unlimited 2 weeks ago and it was approved.
Denise Donna(Thu Aug 28 2008 22:42:27 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time))>
Thank you for holding. Your confirmation number is: CRXXXXXXXXX.
It's fast, cheap and no bandwidth limit!
-Ivan Romanov
These ads probably consume a large percentage of the download bandwidth.
Question Two.... Why don't they charge people who go over extra and invest that in their network instead of dropping their customers?
Question Three.... When will FIOS be available in my area?
You'll have to call Verizon to find out about FiOS.
Not to mention that I have a family of five, so that's 12 HD movies per month max for my family, so long as we don't read any email or play games. Oh and if MS hits me with a service pack and that pushes me over my limit, I suppose I should be pissed at MS for not knowing what my current usage was?
Please let netflix and MS and any other big dog sue the pants off of comcast for limitings *their* customers usage. Comcast doesn't own the internet, or the content on it, who the hell are they to try and regulate it's usage?
I'm not saying this is a good move on their parts - just that saying you will only get 35 hours of usage is a little disingenuous.
As far a suing Comcast? On what grounds? Hughesnet and Wildblue satellite ISPs have always had caps( caps that are 5% or less than what Comcast is going to have ) and they haven't been sued. Cell phone companies have 5 GB a month caps( that's 5 as in FIVE ) for thier internet and they haven't been sued. Hell Verizon charges $256 per GB overage. I have yet to see a lawsuit filed against them.
Though I'm think it's dubious that the median useage Comcast claims is 2-3 GB a month and also think more than 0.1% use more than 250 GB I still feel that 99% of the people worrying about this don't come anywhere near the 250 cap. people that go over because they illegally download movies and stuff from bittorrent I have no sympathy for. Get your stuff legally like everyone else. If you get your stuff legally and somehow still use more than 250 GB then you can still go over the cap twice a year. The rest of the time you'll just have to adjust your useage.
Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, Real Networks, Vonage, Skype and so many many more. This *WILL* hurt them.
The Canadians ISP's made the same arguments when they instituted their caps that American ISP's are now making, then later when investigations were done, it was shown that they had no bandwidth clogging issues at all.
I'm sure Comcast has no problem with you downloading their own video services via Comcast On Demand all day long without any limitations whatsoever.
These kinds of caps will forever change how the Internet can be used. Don't let them do it! Lodge your complaints with your local franchise board, representatives and the FCC.
Since I am currently undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia I'm working at home quite often. I can easily surpass the 250 GB limit in month.
What happens to me? It is my understanding I can't obtain a commercial account in my location.
You might consider getting Comcast to install two cable lines into your home. Why not? They can certain install two cables if your home were a duplex. Of course, organizing both lines' usage would be a PITA, but it might provide a temporary solution until Comcast gets hit with other suits (restraint of trade for charging Vonage users for the same service Comcast provides but doesn't charge for, de facto monopoly because of the limited market possibilities, etc)
Truly, I forsee a huge class action suit in the near future.
A lot of these companies are saying "We don't have the bandwidth to support these people! WAAAAAH! We're going to have to upgrade and lose money for short or long periods of time, that will cut into our profits!"
A Congressional investigation and FCC hearings needs to be done immediately, if not sooner.
Otherwise, It's simply a question of divvying up the money between fat salaries, bonuses, etc for upper company executives and fees and penalties for lawyers and politicians when it should have been put into infrastructure improvements.
It is simply time to start telling ISP's that they have to offer full-speed all the time with NO bandwidth caps. If they cannot support that, they have to upgrade their networks until they can, even putting fiber-optic in that last 100 feet to the homes if they have to.
Was that "Comcast cap" or "Comcast crap"? Inquiring minds want to know. (Good to have confirmation from them that dropping their service was the right thing to do. Hope your "congestion" clears up soon. :D)
Time for http://www.speakeasy.net/home/dsl/ ADSL solutions. Looks like I will also cancel my triple play package as well and move to tmobile @ home and get Dish Network. No need to get a bundle any more.
Time for http://www.speakeasy.net/home/dsl/ ADSL solutions. Looks like I will also cancel my triple play package as well and move to tmobile @ home and get Dish Network. No need to get a bundle any more.
I'm a happy FIOS user: $64 for 20Mb/s up and 20Mb/s down and quantities of up + down > 500GB/mth (mostly bittorrent). I just paid $12 more (from $52) to go from 5Mb/s up to 20 Mb/s up -- it really makes keeping a good bt ratio a snap.)
, so that the 20Mb/s up is important also)
I also expect to have the cap increased every time they increase the speed of the network. If they don't then the speed won't be worth it. You will just reach the cap quickly.
Plus I don't know where they get their figures, but a SD movie of DVD quality is around 4GB. That's the typical size of a DVD. True HD movies have not really hit the web yet as they are still 25GB in 1080p.
2) No arguments there...if they have a capped total bandwidth then why not uncap the speeds and just use some sort of fair weighted queuing to handle the individual streams?
3) No, an SD movie of DVD quality from the internet isn't anywhere near 4GB in size unless you're downloading a raw rip from a DVD (in MPEG2). Most downloads are encoded in some flavor of MPEG4 and are typically 1GB or less...hence the 250 movie line. There are exceptions, of course (tivo's amazon unbox downloads are MPEG2, though they aren't DVD quality but rather MPEG2 encodings of the MPEG4 version that is offered for PC downloads), but for the most part you'd be hard pressed to find someone offering MPEG2 stuff for download when there are so many other, more efficient, codecs to use. No arguments about the true-HD stuff though...however most people would probably be satisfied with a carefully authored 720p version of most movies if they were available online (eg xbox live offerings). The true videophiles are going to buy the bluray discs anyway, so the folks that really care about having full-blown 1080p will have it while the rest of the people will happily watch 720p over the internet.
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by slashMike
August 29, 2008 11:41 AM PDT
- I am so upset about this. Like probably most Comcast customers I too have no other internet choice. Starting today I am going to be mobilizing my community to get another choice. Comcast you have truthfully screwed yourself because we are stronger than you think we are!
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by moore614
September 14, 2008 9:47 AM PDT
- I would fully support any effort within my community to open the doors to full competition. Unless Comcast revisits this decision, I am going to move all my business to other providers.
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