Comcast takes broadband cap plunge; Other carriers likely to follow
Summary: Comcast will implement a 250 GB data monthly cap on customers starting Oct. 1.
Comcast will implement a 250 GB data monthly cap on customers starting Oct. 1.
The move, reported first by DSL Reports, was confirmed by Comcast today (Techmeme). On its site, Comcast posted its amended user policy:
We've listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive. Today, we're announcing that beginning on October 1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) available at http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/ and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers.
250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of data, much more than a typical residential customer uses on a monthly basis. Currently, the median monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 - 3 GB. To put 250 GB of monthly usage in perspective, a customer would have to do any one of the following:
* Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email) * Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song) * Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie) * Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)
This is the same system we have in place today. The only difference is that we will now provide a limit by which a customer may be contacted. As part of our pre-existing policy, we will continue to contact the top users of our high-speed Internet service and ask them to curb their usage. If a customer uses more than 250 GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use.
And industry move to broadband caps was mentioned by Qwest CTO Pieter Poll last week. Poll maintained that caps are likely to become an industry norm. While Comcast's move is going to raise hackles in some quarters, 250 GB is pretty generous for an average retail customer. Meanwhile, I'd rather have a cap that's high than be nickel and dimed with metered access.With Comcast implementing a broadband cap you can rest assured that other carriers will quickly follow.
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Talkback
Hmm, I wonder how long it will take the torrent abusers...
Time to start buying stock in beer and popcorn - come Halloween, there should be some interesting stats to relish.
The thing is, this treats all abusers the same. Nobody is targeted for the
All illegal?
Agreed. Too bad they won't provide tiered pricing.
I use DSL service because it's a much better value than Comcast. For $25/month (half of Comcast's price), I get all the internet I've ever needed or wanted. I won't even consider Comcast because of their high prices. Then again, I don't spend all day downloading video, etc.
If Comcast would provide 100GB for $25, I would give it a serious look. Those using more could pay more, which seems fair. If someone in my neighborhood is clogging up the pipes with non-stop web traffic, they SHOULD pay more. After all, they get more value out of the service than I would. Everyday internet users should not have to subsidize bandwidth hogs, which is precisely what they are doing.
RE: Comcast takes broadband cap plunge; Other carriers likely to follow
They should do it in steps. After 100 GB, throttle the bandwidth to half,
Stupid.
No this is perfectly legal. As a paying customer, I want cheap internet
You consider....
Well, maybe the cap should be even lower. At 60 bucks, you are subsidizing
You want cheap internet?
Unless
60 bucks may be cheap, but I still do not want to pay an extra 20 bucks per
Holy reaction formation Batman
Let me buy you a clue kiddo:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5430343841227974645
WTF is wrong with you? Porn has nothing to do with this. You have some personal issues to resolve.
Between the legal movies and shows I watch online: Comedy central and hulu.com, Audiogalaxy Rhapsody and Shoutcast I burn up way over 250 gig a month.
Excessive my ass.
So Donnie boy...
Help desk freetard
What's with the name calling and focus on porn?
downloading? It isn't necessary to call people who
do things you do not do insulting names, make
moral judgments, and obsess about how much
other people download porn! Or if you do want to
obsess about it, do it in your own head.
The issue is you would like to pay for only what you
need and use. That is understandable and a good
foundation for discussion.
not at all!
If you meant free as in beer than that is a loooong wait to get it.
If you meant free of constraints, than same argument can be made for other utilities and you know that it is technically unfeasable.
FCC for more than the corporations
makes sense for me, I'm with you
It's pretty much like your neighbor using an excessive amount of water that causes the water pressure to drop to a level when you can't shower or flush the toilet.
You can shut him down or just reduce his water flow to a level that won't plunge the water pressure for you.
This also could be an opportunity for ISVs to come up with better compression algorithms and to be more selective in the stuff they send over the wire.