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Comments on: More tidbits on the new Comcast cap (updated)

The controversial Comcast monthly bandwidth cap has caused a stir, but what about some of the things not mentioned in the FAQ section?

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by linuxisamazing August 29, 2008 2:07 PM PDT: I am so sick of Comcast.
The only reason I have them is because they are the absolute only choice for high-speed internet in my neighborhood. Believe me I will try to find a way to mobilize my community to influence Verizon to come visit our neighborhood. This is blasphemy. Don't even get me started about Comcast's extremely helpful Customer Service, and yes that was a sarcastic statement.; Like this Reply to this comment

by Someone-else August 29, 2008 2:11 PM PDT

250Gb is enough for most users, but not people who actually make use of the internet, like watching videos, downloading movies...

but you should be happy with what you have, the only ISP in my area(in Brazil) charges the equivalent to $60/mo for a 0.3 MB/s, and the 1Mb(their fastest) is about $150

Like this Reply to this comment


by Lerianis August 29, 2008 11:29 PM PDT: Yep, you hit the nail on the head. The fact is that those people who are using extremely low amounts of bandwidth (less than 5GB's a month) are either EXTREMELY old people who only know how to use the internet to websurf and download/upload e-mails, or people who are ignorant of the possibilities of the internet.

I recently downloaded (today) a internet commercial for Sonic Underground (it had a good song on it that I wanted to record and couldn't find anywhere else), it was about 60MB's. Another one I downloaded (which was HD quality and only 3 minutes long).... 100MB's. These limits are too low for even the casual user.

Heck..... I stayed away from Bittorrent one month, and I used just for http and ftp...... 100GB's.; Like this


by big.mouth August 29, 2008 2:20 PM PDT: How does streaming audio factor into usage?; Like this Reply to this comment


by cardfan1212 August 29, 2008 2:30 PM PDT: Let's see, i use the iphone on wifi, wife has a laptop and cellphone on wifi, ps3 on it, dishnetwork is hooked up, etc, etc. 250gbs? How do i allocate who gets what? How does a shareware app keep track?

Why wouldn't comcast WANT to charge more and make some money if this is a problem for them?; Like this Reply to this comment


by gwzap August 29, 2008 2:34 PM PDT: I don't believe in CAPS for broadband service. Comcast claims they do not have a degradation in service. So why the cap? The other question should be why can't they handle their customer's download capabilities? It may possibly time to move to another provider if possible.; Like this Reply to this comment


by marc_90292 August 29, 2008 2:37 PM PDT: I believe AT&T provides Internet Service even in areas where Comcast seems to have a monopoly, but then that does not include cable. We got in touch with AT&T and found that at regular speed, nothing to get excited about, but sufficient for regular web traffic, the cost is less than Comcast. Even at the increased speed, AT&T is cheaper.
On a side note, I don't even want to make a comment about the competence of management that rather than adapting to and investing into new technologies, they seem to adher to the cave age; Like this Reply to this comment


by ClarkWells August 29, 2008 2:46 PM PDT: This is absolutely ridiculous. This is why people are begging for another option!!!!!!!!!! Comcast is one of the biggest money pinching companies that i have ever been associated with. Most of Comcast's subscribers have them because it is their only option... Something has to be done. My 2 sons use xbox live everyday, I am an architect and web designer so i am constantly uploading/downloading large files from servers... I will probably exceed that cap in half a month.... Just wait till M$, Netflix, Vonage and others find out that people are having to drop their service because they don't have the "Bandwidth" to keep it.; Like this Reply to this comment


by fredhag August 29, 2008 2:57 PM PDT: Can you tell me how many hours of remote desktop is that (I occasionally work from home)? I control a machine with XGA (1024x768) resolution and usually 16 bit color depth.; Like this Reply to this comment


by fredhag August 29, 2008 2:57 PM PDT: Can you tell me how many hours of remote desktop is that (I occasionally work from home)? I control a machine with XGA (1024x768) resolution and usually 16 bit color depth.; Like this Reply to this comment


by bsbeals August 29, 2008 3:16 PM PDT: Am I the only one that feels Bill G. wasn't providing many direct answers? Wasn't the second question really about cumulative downloads versus throughput (i.e. bandwidth)? Running bandwidth/speed tests at points in time won't tell you how much you've cumulatively downloaded during the month....will Comcast provide the tools to its customers to help them adhere to this new policy? And the last question....did Bill G. even hear the question? I see nothing about the validity of Comcast's estimated email size in his response....comes off as very dismissive and condescending to me.; Like this Reply to this comment


by cws357 August 29, 2008 3:17 PM PDT: Ask Comcast if their heads will fit up their 4th point of contact, I'm dropping them like a hot rock. They first started with the "always on" slogan, they stopped that one after their service failed time and time again due to too many users on a limited infrastructure, they never brought up there ability to handle what they preach. I have noticed over the years service from they has gotten worse and worse. WOW is looking VERY good right now.; Like this Reply to this comment


by luisnj August 29, 2008 3:32 PM PDT: I am also extremely upset. I can't wait until Fios is available in my area.
How are they going to differentiate or classify the downloads? Right now I have phone service, 2 video game systems (PS3 and Xbox) connected online, and 3 PC's. Also, other comments are correct. A SD 2hr movie takes about 4Gb. WIth services like Fancast, Netflix, Bestbuy, iTunes, that more and more people are using to download and watch movies or listen to music, this cap will cause a big impact.
This is totally absurd.; Like this Reply to this comment


by trancekid404 August 29, 2008 3:35 PM PDT: So whats happening with Vonage bandwidth? Will it be counted?; Like this Reply to this comment


by gchhour August 29, 2008 3:44 PM PDT: They really should not advertise Unlimited if they are going to gap our internet ussage, that is false advertising like many people they use the internet most of the time, and if they arent getting what they paid for their simply going to cancel with comcast and go with some other company; Like this Reply to this comment


by stanbarb August 29, 2008 3:45 PM PDT: So you think that Comcast's cap is too low, do you? Aww gee!

Well, you Frontier customers take note (as must do I).

They've added a little blurb to their terms of use website about the cap they already have in place.

The verbiage is as follows:
"Frontier may suspend, terminate or apply additional charges to the Service if such usage exceeds a reasonable amount of usage. A reasonable amount of usage is defined as 5GB combined upload and download consumption during the course of a 30-day billing period. The Company has made no decision about potential charges for monthly usage in excess of 5GB."

This from their acceptable use page: http://www.frontieronline.com/policies/residential_aup/

5gigs people!!! If yuh got a few unused gigs just layin' around, send them my way... OK?

Stan... a DSL Lite customer.

BTW, Check out www.stopthecap.com for more info. Might be useful to you Comcast customers too.; Like this Reply to this comment


by Robert Rooney August 29, 2008 3:49 PM PDT: "Bill G.: To give an example 250 gigabytes per month is enough to handle 50 high-definition movies, 250 standard-definition movies or more then 6,000 songs every month."

Let's see - a HD movie is 5 gigs and a SD movie is 1 gig. Where does this moron get his information? Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. He can only read from the script that Comcrap gives him.

Goodbye to Comcrap. I've had enough of your BS.; Like this Reply to this comment


by tkejlboom August 29, 2008 4:00 PM PDT: Their underlying objection makes no sense. If the number of people using more than 250GBs is so vanishingly small is so small, than why do they need to form a policy to fix it? Policies are mechanisms for directing the behavior of the masses, not the minorities. Essentially, the only thing they're bringing to the fore is their inability to support peak usage, because they promised more bandwidth than they can reasonably expect to be available.; Like this Reply to this comment


by Liliipad August 29, 2008 4:15 PM PDT: One word: Verizon.

This is silly. Though, it does illustrate how bad their network is if they're desperate enough to resort to this.; Like this Reply to this comment


by elguerojose August 29, 2008 4:22 PM PDT: So, Apparently Bill G. doesn't even know what his own company's policy is, as their FAQ page clearly indicates that this cap is for UPLOAD AND DOWNLOAD usage, not just downloads.

I want the FCC, the FTC, or whoever else has authority, to immediately bar Comcast from advertising their download speeds as 6 Gbps, 8 Gbps, or whatever. Spread over a month, a 250 GB cap means and actual limitation of 770 Kbps, that's it. And if this is indeed a combination of upload and download, then they should be forced to quote this as the actual bandwidth they're providing to customers. No more of this "blazing fast" and "unlimited internet" hype. If I can get 800 terabytes per second of bandwidth, but only for a fraction of a nanosecond, then what good is it?

Others have pointed out the obvious facts that Comcast still doesn't seem able to grasp: people aren't just surfing a few static web pages, or downloading a few MP3s per month. Those who work from home, or use voice or video services, or game online, can easily surpass this limit, no matter how much Comcast wants to cast this as something only the most greedy BitTorrent users will run into.

And yes, this is simply an end-around net neutrality. Until such time as there's real competition allowing people to select an alternate provider, the government should step in and regulate these mo-fos.; Like this Reply to this comment


by jockamofino August 29, 2008 4:34 PM PDT: This will not go away, in fact it will get much worse. This is the end of "net neutrality." The goal of all these companies is to charge for bandwidth in the same way they charge for cable. In other words, the cable companies (all of them) want to charge you for a webpage the way they charge for "on demand" movies. They also want to create packages like cable. Just like you can get basic cable or premium cable with all the chanels, they will do that with the web. You'll get X amount of bandwidth and can pay extra for more "premium" uses. What's worse is that they will then make web pages pay to be able to be used on Comcast/ Verizon etc. So that means no more independant web sites. The only people who will be able to afford having a web page are big corporations. Say goodbye to open and free communication.

Google "net neutrality" for more information.; Like this Reply to this comment