Comcast Limits Broadband Usage

[dArKeR]

By all accounts, George Nussbaum demands a lot from his Internet connection. He streams video and transfers large files from his office. His family downloads movie trailers and his stepson listens to and buys music online.

Nussbaum subscribes to his cable TV provider's high-speed Internet service, which, he thought, was built for such high-bandwidth activities. Then, in November, he got a letter from the provider, Comcast Corp., ordering him to dial down his usage or face service termination.

Until last summer, the service was advertised as "unlimited."

But Comcast, citing a fuzzy "acceptable use" policy, is now cracking down on the heaviest users on the premise that their consumption could degrade neighbors' service.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/30/tech/main597032.shtml

Talk about America and Free Markets???? I remember about 1983 in CA when TCI got the exclusive right for cable service in many areas. Now 24 years later tell me how the free market system has progressed? In 2004 why don't we have mulitple cable service providers to choose from?

[pinniped]

1. Their commercials make me sick anyways...

If I was that customer I would tell them to stuff it.

They overload the airways with their trash commercials five times an hour on every damm channel.

Less tv and more DVD's.

And ya, I'm stuck with that Concast crap too.

Just to clarify-

I have Concast for cable tv and I have DSL with another company.

[POed_Ex_Repub]

2. Lest we forget

They also raised their cable rates yet again. :mad:

[Systematic Chaos]

3. I'm using Cox high-speed internet and I love it

All-in-all they've been a great company. I just hope they don't start crap like that.

[0007]

12. I hope you have a good spyware program!

[FlashHarry]

17. Er, what's that supposed to mean?

Is Cox known for loading up spyware on its customers?

[FlashHarry]

16. Me too. Although, I'm a pretty high-volume user.

Do you know if Cox places restrictions on usage? I had no idea. So far, they've been excellent--far, far better than the Qwest DSL service I used to have. There were all sorts of service interruptions with Qwest. Plus, whenever you'd call Customer Service, you'd wait for ages. In fact, once, I called and got the robotic message, "Thank you for calling Qwest. Your call is important to us. The current average wait time is one hour and twenty-seven minutes.

[mouse7]

4. DSL is better than Cable modems

You are pretty much guaranteed the amount of bandwidth you purchase with DSL. Cable supposedly has higher bandwidth, but many cable providers are terrible about keeping enough bandwidth in neighborhoods. I went with DSL after I noticed the bandwidth was so slow at times in my neighborhood that the channel guide on by digital cable would slow down updating. That's pretty poor.

[pinniped]

6. Pretty much the same around here...

even though cable is supposed to be faster.

My friend's Concasthole cable was about the same as my DSL.

My last test:

Your download speed : 1137342 bps, or 1137 kbps.
A 138.8 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 325971 bps, or 325 kbps.

dslreports.com/stest

[regnaD kciN]

10. If you can get it...

In my suburban neighborhood, sorry, but no DSL yet. Send Qwest your e-mail address, and they'll let you know when it's available. That's been the song and dance for the past three years...I'm still waiting for that e-mail.

So, for me, it will have to be Comcast or nothing. At the moment, all I've got is dial-up, at a whopping 44.0Kbps... :-(

[mouse7]

15. I get my DSL from Qwest.

I get a great deal on it, too. I get local phone, unlimited long distance, and DSL as a package for an excellent price. The DSL is 26 and change a month total.

The catch... you're stuck with MSN for the first year. BLEEEEUCK. But when it gets you discounted local phone and really cheap unlimited long distance, you suck it up.

[bubba_fett]

5. I'm with conquest too...

they haven't sent me a letter, though they probably will soon. A friend of mine just got one from them, and he gave me a heads up. I've started shopping around for dsl, since there is no other cable company in my neighborhood to choose form.

They've got my three strikes, non-existent customer service, high-prices, and now they conveniently change the rules on their customers.

[Sugarbleus]

7. Great info yall. Now I know what to avoid when I get my new 'puter

Comcast really DOES suck...no doubt about it.

[mulethree]

8. sucks?

Comcast cable here - Levittown, PA between Philly and trenton, I get about 2800kbps download and 250 upload. They did some upgrade recently, seems to have improved the download 50% but little if any improvement on uploads.

Service is out about 8 hours a month, they never tell you in advance or know why its out. DSL at my old house was about the same 8 hours a month, but rarely without advance notice; usually like 2 hours at a time in the wee hours of wednesday morning.

New place is far from phone office, only DSL is 144Kbps at $80 a month. Compared to 2800k for $50 a month I'll keep the Comcast. Wish they would raise the upload speed though.

[dbt]

9. Remember how Comcast dismissed the objection

raised by some folks that "the more people in a particular neighborhood using cable Internet connection, the slower it could get?"

Looks like they wanted to wait until X number of subscribers had contracted for the service before they admitted the problem, dunnit?

:freak:
dbt

[pinniped]

11. WEBHOGS!

n/t

[trogdor]

13. I thought that's why bandwidth is rationed in the first place.

You want a faster connection, you gotta pay for it. This way, if you want to run streaming video 24/7, fine, if you're cool with the occasional buffering...buffering...buffering....

If there isn't enough to go around, either make more, or split it up into smaller pieces so that is does go around. Of course, if you advertised a certain amount of bandwidth at a certain price, you are pretty much stuck with the former.

What I would say? Sorry, buddy. Your inability to properly allocate bandwidth isn't my problem. See youse in court.

[chenGOD]

14. Just so we'rer all clear on something here...

In this case "unlimited" does not mean unlimited bandwidth, it means unlimited time on-line.

If you had read the article you would see that a technician at comcast said "letter-triggering usage is typically about 100 gigabytes a month, though it varies from city to city." and "some abusers, he said, consume more than a terabyte of data each month" 1terabyte=1,000 GB.

100 Gigabytes a month? That's ridiculous. That's the equivalant of downloading 100 movies a month (more really, but for simplicity's sake I'll say 1 movie=1 GB). Ok, it says he transfers large files from his office. Maybe he moves big databases. Then he should get a freaking business line and get the company to pay for it.

This guy is a bandwidth hog pure and simple.


Now, having said all that; Comcast (and all ISPs) should provide clear information about what kind of bandwidth limits you have when you sign a contract with them.

And DSL doesn't come close to Cable in terms of speed, I use cable and I regularly get speeds of over 2MB/s, and I'm not even on a high speed LAN. The new apartment blocks here in Seoul all run on 10MB/s networks, and the government is upgrading that to 100MB/s within 2 or 3 years (already possible in some apartments here,and also in Japan, but it's a bit pricey). VDSL sure, only if you live within like 1,000 ft of the head office.

[LifeDuringWartime]

18. wow

broadband in south korea sounds nice! )

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. We do have multiple providers

where I live. It's wonderful. The company that's had the service for 30+ years is now going out of their way to keep their customers from going to the competitor. They lowered my rates 50% and are now offering free networking in homes with existing accounts. That's the opposite of what Comcast is doing to this guy.

[masshole]

21. Never had any problem with Comcast

or AT&T, or Mediaone (AT&T had lousy Customer Service though).
Five years of cable service, and besides outages from storms and downed power lines, I can't recall any significant issues.


2004-01-31 13:51:32 EST:
3124 / 174
Your download speed : 3124201 bps, or 3124 kbps.
A 381.3 KB/sec transfer rate.
Your upload speed : 174064 bps, or 174 kbps.
Seems like broadband .. above the 1mbit barrier!

[Beaker]

22. we did. we dropped comcast like a bad habit-

when they bought out AT&T broadband...we never had a problem undet AT&T, but after Comcast took over, we started having problems galore, and very slow speeds, esp. at night.
we switched to SBC DSL, and haven't had a problem, and the speed's just fine for our purposes.

[T Bone]

20. Comcast cable tv sure blows

They keep raising the rates here, and all they ever add are more shopping and wacko-religious channels.

[leQ]

23. mediacom just doubled their caps on speed

from 1.5/128 to 3/256. and without a rate increase. go figure. maybe they want us really hooked, then spring one on us in the summer.

[shanti]

24. thank you for this info

that was the last straw needed to break my comcast cable modem back! i have hated comcast and their strongarm tactics ever since they bought out at&t, and decided to take the sbc dsl yahoo plunge. my cable internet was only 39.95 until comcast bought it, then they gouged me by demanding that i also take their cable teevee (i already have dish and like it) or they would hike the price. fuck comcast!

today is the last day for the yahoo dsl promo, and i got it as soon as i saw your post. my sis has this too and really likes it. she used to have comcast too. it's 26.95 for a year after that, 49.95, which is still better than the 59.99 that i pay for comcast.

i am free!!