Comcast to launch meter to track Web usage
It only seemed fair that Comcast would give its customers a way to track their Web usage, seeing how the company imposed a a 250 GB limit on the Web data that its customers use in a month. But when the company announced that limit earlier this year, there was no system in place to help customers monitor their usage.
An entry on the DSL Reports blog today said the company plans to launch a tracking service via a customer's comcast.net account as early as January 5. The blog reports that the meter will have a three-hour delay and will also retain three months worth of bandwidth usage records. Comcast told CNET that the meter will first go through some employee testing before its made available to high-speed Internet customers.
As much as I still think a cap on usage is a form of stifling innovation, I applaud Comcast for being responsive to concerns that most users have no idea what their true usage is and probably have no concept of the difference between a gigabyte and a gigabit. While most customers come no where near the 250 GB limit - Comcast says about 1 percent do - it's good to know there will be a tool in place to help users to track their usage.
If you're interested in what your usage is like, check out a comparison of bandwidth meters by CNET's Seth Rosenblatt.