Comments on: Comcast to cap monthly consumer broadband

Party seems to be over for unlimited bandwidth: In October, Comcast will begin capping usage at 250GB per month, with dire consequences for abusers.

[mjb5406]

Here's an issue: A person has passed Comcast's monthly cap the second time... two scenarios... they use Vonage or AT&T CallCVantage, or Lingo or Packet8 (or countless other services) for VoIP phone services and, suddenly, they have no phone service because Comcast has terminated their internet service for a year... but the same customer who uses Comcast Digital Voice will still have access to phone service. Fair? Of course not. And you can bet that Comcast will secretly allow THEIR streaming services to be used without counting it against your limit, but woe be any competitor! On top of that, ou can bet that they will, in the case of the VoIP user who doesn't have Comcast, and say "well, we can give ou OUR service even though we won't give you your internet access back." Net neutrality? Not with Comcast!

[deowll]

Be sure and check out the AT & T terms of service. You won't like them.

[bus]

I think you have found the reason Comcast is doing this. They want to force their customers to use their VOIP service. Between downloads of my anti-virus an OS updates and my families other online activities, if I added a VOIP service I'm sure my usage would be beyond their 250GB limit.

One other thing that seems out of line is Comcast's practice of putting ads on their email web page. As their customer, I'm paying for the service, so why are they allowed to put ads on the page I'm viewing my email.

If this keeps up, I will buy a TV antenna and go back to DSL.

[ddrinf]

Can we all say FIOS?

[Bill_I]

YES

[t26l]

1. Before they wouldn't tell you what the cap was.
2. Now they tell you what the cap is, but they won't tell you how much you've used.

Their AUP/T&C's are also so one-sided. They're all what the customer should or should not do. How about them? Do I get a fee reduction if the service is not working or I am not getting the speeds that I should be getting? Do they commit to answer the phone/emails/letters within an acceptable time period?

[megustansalchichas]

this is just psyops propaganda paving the way for jacking up their rates and further penetrating their customers in the rearendum -what, did you think all that porn was really free?

[Rangerdavid]

absolutely ridiculous!! It's just false advertising and they need to be sued......... heck, I don't have comcast here, and if it were available, I'd get it and stream the entire political conventions just to **** 'em off..............

[poshbo]

I'm not sure if consumers in the US realise this, but I'm from Australia and metered downloads are the norm where I live. In Oz, $50 to $60 AUD (so around $43 to $52 USD) per month typically gets you at most around 20GB of data! Most Australian ISPs will throttle your net speed to near dialup levels once you exceed your months data allowance but some ISPs, including Australia's largest ISP Telstra, will charge up to 15 cents per MB over the data allowance. That's $150 per extra GB extra! What's worse is that consumers often receive no notification that they have exceeded their data allowance so it is not uncommon for people to end up with monthy internet bills in the thousands of dollars. Compared to us down under, Americans really have little to complain about!

[Lerianis]

Big deal.... "we have this in Australia!".... big ******* deal! You are getting reamed and won't even ACKNOWLEDGE it , poshbo! You should be extremely pissed at the level of your service, considering that you are paying just as much as us per month and get worse service.

[BobBrins]

We had metered internet before. But when Comcast and high speed came along Comcast offered unlimited. We signed up. Now they want to meter us without letting us know whats on the meter.

[skillingssucks]

This is nothing more than an attempt to get around "net neutrality" using bandwidth issues as a red herring. Comcast doesn't want Directv, Vudu, iTunes, NetFlix and the YouTubes of the world competing with their own offerings. That's what this is all about. How long will it take for a Directv customer using Directv's "On Demand" service (which uses the Internet) to reach the cap? How about a Vudu or Roku customer? What about when YouTube has high definition videos, and so on and so on?

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.

[Motospark]

Time to Switch to DSL or Fios, I have been contemplating this for months since Comcast has limited my Bandwidth to 800k, The time is now. Goodby COMCAST! SEE YA, your not the only deal in town anymore.

Moto.

[sys6656]

The problem with this, is that it's not just a bandwidth issue. ISP's want to sell you, the consumer / user services like "P2P / Bit Torrent" with only certain applications of their choosing. This should be :"your choice" in regards to applications that "you" want to use and how much bandwidth that you have the right to use. Comcast and other ISP has the "unlimited" word in the advertisement.

Basically they are now giving you.. the user / consumer less, and charging you more money.. no matter how they look at it, or make up acceptable usage charts.

More facts on "Net Neutrality" is right here:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/=faq

[m.meister]

I love how they set a cap at 250GB but will provide you with absolutely no tools to actually monitor your traffic. They basically say "good luck with that". I sure hope that whatever bandwidth tools you use can accurately calculate the usage, because the consequences of a mistake are devastating.

Based on the FAQ, it also appears that 250.1GB/mo is as severe a violation as 900GB/mo.

And of course, like the phone telecom phone minutes, your saving in one month won't help you if you go over. Basically, Comcast is picking up the very worst aspects of cell phone providers.

I suggestion everyone contact their Congressman and Senators and complain to them. In today's information age where the majority of the business requires some internet, cutting you off for a year is like denying you electricity.

This is more proof that Comcast despises their customers... hey, I bet they're good friends with RIAA, who also despise their customers.

[tech_junky48]

They're all becoming communists, aren't they?

[sillywillydilly]

This is not going to last for long. Customers will leave. Ultimately, they are saying, "You just can't use all the net services that you want to...You can only use X amount...What? you have networked PCs, XB360, PS3, WII, and you think you should be allowed to download all the content, game demos, movies, and play online games?...You better watch yourself...."

Ha...Who are they to throttle my internet experience? I'm looking for another provider when I get home tonight....

[ScaryMonkey69]

250GB is quite alot if you aren't watching HD movies & such. I've monitored my own bandwidth and it doesnt come near that....yet. Should the day come when I find Comcast on my answering machine saying I've been 'suspended' is the day I look elsewhere. Considering I use them for TV, internet, and soon phone service, I think they'd better realize that customers wont put up with them if they wont put up with newer technology. SO- Verizon!! Make me a FIOS offer I can't refuse!!! ;)

[ivandrago]

If you think that's bad, just imagine the 5GB cap on cellphone data plans. 250GB is a breath of fresh air by comparision. These caps are going to get bad. The size of media is getting larger, and the internet providers are starting to put the breaks on things.

[freemarket--2008]

Cellphone data and cable are apples and oranges. Data plans have always been capped and expensive.

Comcast got burned for throttling P2P, so they are just trying another tactic. I hope they get burned again.

[Willie Winkie]

This is Comcast's way of assuring that HD distribution of content will NEVER threaten their cable franchise. Their managment team is clearly cluless. And a one year suspension? If that doesn't speak to a monopolistic arrogance, I don't know what does. Comcast, you bite the big chubby!!!

[Stowman2]

I think that Microsoft and others need to pressure Comcast not to do this. It will affect XBOX live and Blockbuster and other too....

[u92]

This is what Microsoft wanted to do in 94. It was called MSN or Microsoft network service. They wanted the internet to be like toll roads not free use. If it was not for Netscape that is what we would have now. PS over 90% of the worlds servers are UNIX/Linux based system. Keep your data free. USE BSD

[JS82712]

just like what ptrhansen said Rogers Canada charges $55/month and allow only 60GB which is pretty rediculous thats about $0.98 per GB compared to 250GB(which is enough for most people, in my opinion). Rogers..SHAME ON YOU!

[cbinboston]

Hey Comcast! Say goodbye to your market share! I cancelled my service two months ago and I'm rather happy I have another provider right now.

[timalan42]

WHAT IS THIS! This is absolutely ridiculous. I can understand them trying to free up traffic, but I'm a gamer who spends 15+ hrs a week gaming, and countless hours surfing the web and I recently got into watching Hulu video's on my PS3. I've never checked, but I'm pretty sure that, plus the rest of my family and my PSP uses way more than 250 gigs/month. This is extremely disappointing move by Comcast, though I'm sure it can't last to long when they realize they are going to lost about 1/2 of their customers to the equally fast and noncapped FIOS. They might lose my family, along with my triple play package and hella money i pay them a year. Hello Verizon, adios Lamocast

[klh360]

This is probably the single dumbest move I have ever seen a business make. Their cable TV service is crap. While satellite is all digital, most of the channels that Comcast says are "Digital HD" are just converted analog signals with no improvement in quality, so the only industry advantage that they had was their fast internet service which appealed mostly to those who stream video, download files and play games online. With this "policy" they've destroyed that relationship.

I have no doubt that if they keep making stupid decisions like this, within10 years Comcast will go under as a laughing-stock of bad business practice.

Goodbye Comcast and hello Fios! This is what you get when you isolate your customers.

[JCPayne]

The only way this will be reversed is if most of their customers cancel all in one swift move to protest. But that will never happen so everyone might as well sit back and accept. Or else write to your city/town to tear up Comcast's municipal contract....