Comcast on Tuesday announced the launch of a pilot program for its Internet customers to keep track of how much bandwidth they're using. The company is finally introducing a Web-based metering program, which will let users check these numbers from any browser.
This comes a little more than a year after Comcast began enforcing a strict 250GB cap on download bandwidth, exiling those who went over twice for an entire year before being able to get Internet service again. In the interim the company had offered no official tool for customers to see how close they were getting to that limit, outside of a free McAfee Security software program that needed to be installed on each computer sharing that connection.
The new online meter is coming first to customers in Portland, Ore., as part of a pilot project, which could be expanded to other parts of the country beginning next year. Those in the pilot will be able to track all activity that goes through the cable modem they have rented from the company or purchased on their own. The meter shows the past three months of data use, though to begin with, users will only be able to see what they've used in December. It tracks each gigabyte used, which the company says is rounded down to the nearest gigabyte instead of rounding up. That data is refreshed every three hours.
Comcast says that this new metering system is quite accurate. To prove that, it hired consulting company NetForecast to do a comparative analysis which put Comcast's meter at within plus or minus 0.5 percent of its own internal testing (PDF).
Comcast's new bandwidth meter will only be available to those in Portland, Ore., before the company rolls it out to other markets.
(Credit: Comcast/CNET)In an e-mail, Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas wanted to reaffirm that most Comcast customers will never have a problem with going over. "The median customer consumes approximately 2 to 4GB of data in a month," he said. And even with the new bandwidth monitor, "almost 99 percent of our customers should not be concerned about their monthly data usage or even crossing our 250GB-per-month excessive-usage threshold."
Comcast says it needs to do more testing before branching off into the rest of the U.S. In the meantime, those Portland customers who have been chosen to be a part of it will find an invitation in their e-mail to test it out.
Comcast's Web-based broadband meter, which was rumored to be released back in January, is still not available to consumers. According to a Comcast representative whom I spoke with earlier Tuesday, it's still not ready for prime time, and is undergoing further employee trials before being released to the public.
Once released, the meter will let customers of Comcast's high-speed Internet service monitor how much of their 250GB monthly bandwidth quota has been used. This will help keep them from going over that limit--something that results in a termination of their service upon the second offense.
Comcast imposed the monthly usage limits back in October as a way to keep network hogs from slowing down speeds for other customers. However, the only tool that was provided to help customers keep an eye on how much they were using was McAfee's Security Suite. While free, the software tool could only track bandwidth use on the machine it was installed on, and not from networked mobile phones, game consoles, or other household computers.
Comcast's monthly bandwidth cap for consumers is 250GB.
(Credit: CNET)Back in December, DSL Reports posted leaked screenshots of what the online meter looked like at the time, along with specifics on how often the reports were being updated to reflect recent usage. Their sources noted that it not only tracked the past three months of use, but also let users break down where use was coming from, right down to the device. This could be used to help track down devices that may be using more than their fair share, be it computers or other networked home electronics.
Comcast would not provide any further details on the unreleased utility, but given the fast-approaching one-year anniversary of the cap, it's fair to expect its release sometime this fall. In the meantime, there are several ways to keep an eye on household bandwidth using a variety of software tools, which we've listed in this handy guide.
Twitter is not yet completely mainstream, but several mainstream companies are using the service to communicate with customers and potential customers. Some use it to advertise products, while others use Twitter to field customer complaints.
I looked at how several companies are using Twitter, and have a few guidelines that brand managers can apply to make the nanoblog service work for them. It appears that there are some actions that companies simply must engage in if they want to take advantage of Twitter as a marketing service.
Starbucks: It's about the people
Companies are not people. Consumers, for the most part, have a hard time relating to an amorphous, inanimate entity like a corporate brand. But Twitter can change that by giving a company a human face that can speak to customers and change perception.
@Starbucks' Twitter strategy is worth looking at. Starbucks doesn't inundate Twitter followers with advertisements. Instead, its Twitter account gives consumers the opportunity to access the company in a way they never have.
When a user corresponds with a corporate account on Twitter, they may not really expect it, but will be happy to see that there's a person on the other end. I have sent messages to the Starbucks' profile, which, as it happens, is run by an employee of the company. The responses have thoughtful, forthright, and most importantly, human -- it doesn't stink of marketing rhetoric.
From a consumer's perspective, that's ideal. How often can we really get in touch with corporate people in the position to make a difference? In my experience, telephoning customer service usually yields nothing more than banalities and scripted responses. But a Twitter profile can allow me to talk to a person at the company, creating a scenario where I develop a dialogue between myself and the organization. And it changes my perception, and makes me feel heard. Starbucks does this very well.
Comcast: We care, and we'll prove it.
Giving a company a human face through Twitter is great, but it can't stop there. The representative who's assigned to the Twitter profile can't be an intern or someone who has no power at the company. Instead, the representative must have the power to address issues and make sure that a user who believes they're being treated unfairly can have their issues handled swiftly.
@ComcastCares does an outstanding job of not only empowering the individual behind its Twitter profile, but ensures that the Twitter profile is used to fully address major issues the company has faced in the past.
According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Comcast led every company in the U.S. in customer dissatisfaction in 2004 and 2007. Comcast's Twitter experiment is a small part of the solution.
Based on the research I've performed across Twitter Search and other third-party Twitter tools, @ComcastCares is achieving its goal of improving customer relations. The instances of users complaining about Comcast is declining, and the complaints are becoming minor.
If you look at the @ComcastCares page, you'll find the main reason for that success: the Director of Digital Care, Frank Eliason, is individually fielding questions and concerns from customers and asking them to send him more information, their phone numbers, or account information so he can address them swiftly. He's using his power at the company as well as his forum on Twitter to help customers. Without that power, he would be just as useless as Comcast's customer service number.
Zappos: Be part of the community
The Twitter community has certain expectations. Although companies are using Twitter to promote their brand, they should be aware that they're not above those ad-hoc rules. If they follow them like any other user, it'll only help them achieve their goal of improving brand opinion.
@Zappos is one of the companies that actually understands what it means to be a part of the community. Its Twitter activity goes beyond discussions about shoes and answering user questions. A simple search of @Zappos on Twitter Search reveals something that shouldn't be overlooked: by engaging the community and providing entertaining and worthwhile content outside of its business, @Zappos appeals to users even when they're not thinking about Zappos. Perhaps the best proof of that can be seen in its current follower count: 206,553 as of this writing.
Providing value to the community should be part of any company's plan when they go to Twitter. If we want ads, we can go to a company's website, so don't waste our time. Instead, use the blueprint provided by @Zappos, which is dominated by use of Twitpic, insider information about what's going on in the CEO's day, and more. It goes back to putting a face on the organization and it makes people actually care about what's being said.
And that's a key factor companies can't overlook: As consumers, we usually don't care about issues others face with companies until we have them ourselves. Answers to other customer concerns are often only important to that affected individual, and are ignored by the rest. But by providing more tweets about topics outside of customer complaints and advertisements, we start to actually listen to a company. Zappos proves that almost every day: it entertains with interesting tweets. It mentions sales every now and then, too. And I don't think I've missed a Zappos sales alert yet.
If you haven't gotten over the 250GB per month cap that Comcast instated last October, you now have another reason to be unhappy about it. Other than that caveat, the following is good news.
According to BusinessInsider, Comcast announced Friday that it's going to offer a new online service, tentatively called "OnDemand Online" that will be available by the end of this year. The service is similar to Hulu, with one major difference when it comes to content: while Hulu offers mostly TV shows from broadcast networks, Comcast's OnDemand Online will offer content from cable networks, most of which haven't been offered online yet.
Most of the content on Comcast's OnDemand Online will be available for free to Comcast subscribers, but the company doesn't rule out the possibility of pay-per-view items.
However, even if all the content is available for free, chances are you might not be able to enjoy them, as Comcast doesn't exempt streaming from OnDemand Online from its 250GB per month ration.
If you are a single and light user, this is unlikely to be a problem. However, if you share your connection with a bunch of hardcore content streamers, you will very possibly run out of gigabytes before the end of a month.
On the other hand, some of us probably won't be able to take advantage of the service at all, as it will only be available to people who live in Comcast TV areas. It will not be available to people who can't subscribe to Comcast or don't live in a Comcast zone.
You are not, however, required to use an Internet connection via Comcast service to use the new OnDemand Online.
Comcast announced Thursday that it has rolled out its DOCSIS 3.0 service to four more markets: Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The company now offers wideband services in 10 cities. Comcast claims it now reaches 20 percent of its customer base with the addition of those four markets and by the end of December, 10 million homes and businesses in each of the cities will be able to sign up for the service.
MapQuest was busy Thursday announcing the launch of two new widgets for Twitter and CareerBuilder users. According to the company, its Twitter widget on MapQuest Local will allow users to see what Twitter users are talking about in their city or town. For any city a user displays on the MapQuest site, a Twitter link will be displayed showing Twitter entries made by people in that area and a link to reply to or follow that person's stream. MapQuest's new Careers widget will store up to five different sets of search keywords and pull in job matches in an area the person is mapping. Both widgets are available now on MapQuest Local.
Online casual gaming service Outspark announced Thursday that it has officially launched a portal on its page that will allow its community of users to interact with each other by creating profiles and become friends to share user-generated videos. The company also announced that it's now using the open application programming interface from YouTube to host and embed user-generated videos directly on its own site.
Domain squatters acquired the domain name GeorgeWBushLibrary.com recently and sold it back to Yuma Solutions, the Web development company that forgot to renew it, for a profit of $34,990. Yuma originally purchased the domain name in 2007 for $3,000.
Blog publishing service Tumblr announced Thursday that it raised $4.5 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. The company's executives said they will use the funding to bolster cash reserves over the next few years and deploy paid features to increase revenue.
DSL Reports has gotten word that Comcast will soon be offering its Internet subscribers a bandwidth usage meter as early as the first week of January. With the new system users would presumably be able to see how much bandwidth they've used, akin to cellular service providers offering estimates to keep customers from going over their allotted limit. Such a tool for Internet bandwidth would let customers adjust their usage habits accordingly.
Back in October the communications company imposed a limit on user downloads to 250 GB a month without providing any monitoring tools of its own short of installing special software. Additionally, customers are only given one verbal warning before a one-year service suspension if they go over that limit.
Oddly enough when the cap was first announced, we had gotten a confirmation that Comcast would indeed be offering a bandwidth tracking tool of its own. This was later recanted by a Comcast spokesperson who said "there are numerous free or fee-based meters that are widely available on the Internet to anyone who wants one." Comcast's excessive use FAQ still urges people to use McAfee's security suite, but now notes that "we are in the process of creating a usage meter that will measure consumption for the Comcast account which will be available in the coming months."
Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas tells us the meter must first undergo an employee trial: "When that testing is complete, we plan to launch the meter to all of our high-speed Internet customers. It will be available for free via a customer's Comcast.net account and it will enable them to very easily keep track of their aggregate data usage each month."
Also, if you're looking to track your usage, worth checking out is my CNET colleague Seth Rosenblatt's look at half a dozen different bandwidth monitoring tools.
Related: Comcast's 50 Mbps service comes to OR, WA next month
Starting next month, subscribers of Comcast's cable Internet service in Oregon and southwestern Washington state will be getting their connections switched over to "wideband." The upgraded service, which was announced late last month doubles the speed of residential and business connections as well as offering two faster, more expensive plans that bring the maximum download speed to 22 and 50 Mbps respectively.
Wideband is currently available in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and parts of New England, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. According my press contact, Comcast plans to get it in "close to 10 million homes and businesses in the next couple of months," which is a good percentage given the company's overall customer base of 14.7 million subscribers.
The technology behind wideband, which is formally known as DOCSIS 3.0 brings with it the capability to hit speeds in excess of 300 Mbps, is six times faster than what Comcast is currently offering (or even capable of handling with its current network infrastructure). As mentioned before, this increase in download speed has not made a difference in Comcast's bandwidth use restriction, which requires users to stay within 250 GB of downloads per month or face a one-year suspension upon the second offense.
Communications provider Comcast on Wednesday announced two new tiers of service for heavy residential downloaders, along with speed upgrades for subscribers of its existing services.
The two new plans, dubbed "Extreme" and "Ultra" clock in at 50 and 22 Mbps of downstream respectively and 10 and 5 Mbps of upstream. Comparatively, customers of Comcast's "performance" plans are getting a big jump from 8 to 16 Mbps on the downspeed, however, upload performance remains at 2 Mbps.
The speed bumps, which are being rolled out to 10 major markets between now and next year come at a cost. The somewhat confusingly named Extreme and Ultra tiers come in at $139.95 and $62.95 a month, amounting to an annual cost close to $1,700 a year for subscribers of the Extreme--nearly three times that of Comcast's standard monthly residential service.
Alongside these residential tiers, Comcast is also introducing a new business tier called "Premium," which comes in at 22/5 Mbps down/up for $99.95 a month, as well as beefing up its Deluxe tier to match the Ultra plan at 50/10 Mbps down/up for $189.95 a month. Meanwhile, the "Starter" business tier has received a similar speed bump to that of the residential plans, moving from 6 to 12 Mbps.
So quickly--to sum up the new and updated plans:
Residential services
(new) Extreme 50 (50/10 Mbps down/up) - $139.95/month
(new) Ultra (22/5 Mbps down/up) - $62.95/month
Performance Plus (16/2 Mbps down/up) $52.95/month
Performance (12/2 Mbps down/up) - $42.95/month
Business services
Deluxe 50 (50/10 Mbps down/up) - $189.95/month
(new) Premium (22/5 Mbps down/up) - $99.95/month
Starter (12/2 Mbps down/up) - Price unknown
Cost aside, what may be the most controversial aspect of this speed bump is that subscribers of the residential plans will get no higher cap over the 250GB monthly limit which was instated earlier this October. Comcast's own release prides the new Extreme plan on letting customers "download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about 16 minutes, a standard-def movie (2 GB) in about 5 minutes and a standard-def TV show (300 MB) in a matter of seconds." Do the math and you'll see that an extreme subscriber could easily blow past the 250 GB cap in a matter of hours.
Comcast's PR representative Charlie Douglas tells me the cap will remain in place for residential customers, although for right now business customers are free to go over that. Any potential residential customers who think they may go over, the slightly more expensive business tiers might offer a safe haven from having your heavy bandwidth habit limited.
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.
Starting October 1 customers of Comcast's residential data services will have an invisible barrier on their monthly data usage. Under the new guidelines of Comcast's Acceptable Use Policy announced Thursday, that cap will be set at 250 gigabytes per month, per account.
Users who go over the limit will get a courtesy call from Comcast's customer service for the first instance. However, under the new policy a second-time offense means the service is immediately suspended for an entire calendar year.
Surprisingly the company is not providing any tools to help users monitor their current usage. An FAQ on Comcast's support site simply suggests that customers do a "Web search" for bandwidth metering software that will track this amount for them. Going forward there may be plans to set up alerts over certain thresholds, or bundle some official tool as part of the company's starter software.
Comcast notes that the median usage for most residential customers falls somewhere between 2GB and 3GB, a number that is regularly broken within a matter of hours and sometimes minutes by customers taking advantage of streaming HD video and online backup services. The company breaks down basic usage numbers similar to what's seen on the marketing materials on a consumer hard drive:
* Send 50 million e-mails (at 0.05KB/e-mail)
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4MB/song)
* Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2GB/movie)
* Upload 25,000 high-resolution digital photos (at 10MB/photo)
A far greater problem may be the slighting of cloud storage services that offer file transfer and backup. Services like Carbonite and Mozy let you back up and transfer the entirety of your computer's storage several times per month, which on many standard consumer machines can be in the hundreds of gigabytes.
Apple, too, is just at the beginning stages of MobileMe, a service that offers sync and file backup to multiple devices. Additionally, the rumored all-you-can-eat iTunes could drastically change how much downloading users are doing on a monthly basis.
So what do you think about this new limit? Let us know in the comments and the poll below.
