28 replies to this topic

[iGuest]

We MUST stop ComcastComcast Sets Monthly Bandwidth Limit For Customers

Hi,

Thank you for taking the time to read my comment. I hope my comment proves well thought out and helps people understand the hidden reasons behind these moves. This issue means a lot to me and I only hope you take the time to consider why. It is very important to understand the far reaching issue of censorship that transfer limits bring to the table. It is so well hidden that most people can't see the cencorship even when it is placed before their eyes.

The setting: I personally have Comcast and have recieved one such rude call stating that I am over the limit of 250GB. I live in a household of 4, and we are very computer centric. We live on and through the internet both at home and remotely via PDAs. We communicate, we play, we socialize and we use it every day to enrich our lives on many facets.

We rent pretty movies online (up to 2GB each) watch hours of streaming video including high def video from legitimate TV websites, play video games on x-box live, play computer video games, host LAN parties with friends, etc... Our usage is LEGITAMATE and mirrors what I expect to see average households using in the future.

Many people don't realize that a legitimate high def movie can be 25GB. You can already watch high-def TV shows on some websites. Yes, watch one movie of this type and you would be at 10% of your cap. Watch 10 or 15 and they would cut your internet because there is NO competition is the USA and they KNOW that. You have no alternatives, play their game or not at all; who can honestly say they would go without high speed internet in todays age?

This is the digital lifestyle; this is the future. You have to consider WHY they choose to limit us today. Could it be because they are scared that people will stop watching TV (yes they own the TV cable lines too) and stop blindly putting their minds into commercialized zombie mode? Comcast has to act NOW to censor internet based multimedia content because the window is so very short until people realize how much this stifles innovation and forces out the immensely valuable multimedia and 3D based content that is begining to form in the wired. For the many that don't know, 3D internet is HERE already and will continue to grow to the mainstream as it is further developed.

I am horrified at their action to cap these limits. I choose the word horrified very specifically. I am saddened that so many people cannot allow their minds to streatch beyond today and look at how much this WILL hurt you, hurt innovation, hurt jobs, hurt free speech, everything the internet stands for!

It is forcing my family to re-evaluate our legitimate internet usealready because we are a household that is ahead of the curve.

I have been censored;

my rights have been violated;

my freedom of speech has been restricted;

MAKE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT;

yours will be too!

The Devil never shows his true colors until it is too late. 

I wish I could do more to make people angry; to wake people up to this atrocity. 

Does anyone know how we can take action? Are there any free speech groups or other active groups fighting this wolf-in-sheeps-clothing? Any leads you email me would be great, I will follow them because I am a fighter and together we MUST stop Comcast!

[Echo_of_thunder]

Yes I do agree but to a point. Some of these file sizes of movies,music and 3D do use a heck of a lot of bandwidth. As much as I hate Comcast I do understand there point. because if they did allow all there they would have to have a big price increse to there custormers. So you tell me would you rather have a limmit on your monthly bandwidth? or be paying double if not triple of what your paying now? Supply and demand is they key here.

Notice from jlhaslip:

No need to quote the previous posting, especially when you are the first responder.

[Saint_Michael]

The 250GB BW limit was anything new, most everyone knew about it since October I believe, besides this was the only legal way for Comcast to stop the the illegal downloaders from download massive amounts of gigs. As for usage I would suggest renting movies at Blockbuster, hold LAN parties at different locations, limit the number of devices connected to the main line. Odds are you have to set up another ISP in your house or see if Comcast can put in a second line that will give you another 250GB of BW because unless you can give Comcast proof that illegal downloaders are not the cause of this, you have no chance in removing the cap.

So you need to find alternatives to lower your cap because if they call you again and tell you that you over your BW they will terminate your connection for a year. I would suggest finding another ISP company and then get a WIFI router that your PDA's and your xbox can leech off of, but other then that you either find a way to trim down your BW usage or look for another ISP that is unlimited. As for groups there is none since bandwidth capping is legal and companies like Comcast have the right to limit their users to how much bandwidth they use, since Comcast pays more for it then you are.

I would suggest downloading bit meter and let it track your bandwidth usage, it monitors daily, monthly, and yearly usage and with that you might be able to see how much your using. The problem is though it only monitors the computer your using it on and so my other suggestion would be once that computer hits 100GB cut the usage down until the end of the month. Being a tech family you have to give priorities, and like I mention find alternate ways to watch movies and limit the gaming because online gaming sucks up a lot of bandwidth every hour.

Edited by Saint_Michael, 05 February 2009 - 07:36 PM.

[miladinoski]

What a bunch of stupid people!!!!

I don't live in the US and I'm already disgusted by that stupidity of limiting! I suppose they throttle traffic too, eh?

In my country we have an offer for 1024 gigs a month and it's worth a bit less than $50 monthly. If you pass your limit your internet won't be cut, ofcourse, the speed will be lowered. That's just another stupidity. I read /. and find stories about dumb ISP's moves in the US a lot, but I can't remember seeing something like this...

Is there any other ISP overthere that doesn't do this and has no BW limit? If not, don't be sheeples, go and fight for your rights of unmetered internet access so you won't have problems like these anymore.

[Baniboy]

I really don't undrestand such ISPs.

Here in Finland I have never seen any limited internet ISPs, in our house we have 1mb/s connection and it is unlimited, even when we had a 10mb/s it wasn't limited, I've never even seen limiting your internet BW. That's why it's so strange. I've also heard that many ISPs in US limit P2P speeds. I guess the whole country is just against the illegal downloading idea, so they just try to make it as difficult as possible. I guess hollywood and music industries have a lot of power in there.

Anyway, limiting BW is the stupidest thing I've ever heard just after the swedes winning the world cup. Ridiculous

[Saint_Michael]

Well, strangely enough Comcast was busted for throttling connections of bandwidth hoggers and everyone ripped into them about that. Besides if we were to have unmetered bandwidth our Internet bills will be a lot higher and on top of the the US is having a hard time convincing people to switch over on top of the fact it is expensive to get broadband and fiberoptics to everyone and besides when your living in the middle of no where it is just waste of money for them.

[rayzoredge]

Saint_Michael, on Feb 5 2009, 04:31 PM, said:

Besides if we were to have unmetered bandwidth our Internet bills will be a lot higher and on top of the the US is having a hard time convincing people to switch over on top of the fact it is expensive to get broadband and fiberoptics to everyone and besides when your living in the middle of no where it is just waste of money for them.

Bandwidth shouldn't be metered to the degree that it is for the OP, because the fact of the matter is that we're growing to be a tech-savvy society... which would consequently mean more data transferred over our mediums. It's kind of stupid to introduce a cap to limit the amount of data transfered, especially when consumers flock to the company in the first place for increased transfer speeds (to accumulate more data transferred in less amount of time). With companies like Netflix streaming high-definition movies and thus a ton of data through the telecommunications infrastructure, I don't see how it would benefit Comcast to limit the amount of data transferred to any household or company entity.

If Comcast was really against illegal downloading of programs, media, and whatnot, it doesn't make sense to punish the legitimate users by introducing a cap. You just create a bad rap for yourself and less people will recommend your services. And why doesn't anyone point out the fact that you can encrypt your data anyway? How would ISPs know whether traffic is from torrenting, streaming, the Internet, or whatever else if routers or even software are able to encrypt the data you send outbound? Are companies like Comcast so virtuous as to cap the transfer limit to disencourage peer-to-peer traffic? Why not put a cap on just outbound traffic? Even then, why even make a cap at all if legitimate users are being affected? It just doesn't make any sense in a business model to lose customers in this manner.

Some people are stuck with Comcast, and I can see how the company is not going to care in that regard. Not every community has the privilege in choosing between Comcast and a rival company. But if that customer were to move to another provider as a result of an opportunity springing up (from a move, or an emergence of competition), that customer is lost forever, along with all of the potential customers that the customer talks to.

[networker]

If you're willing to pay for it,I don't see why Comcast
should place a limit on bandwidth.Maybe they are afraid of people
not watching t.v anymore.
As somebody suggested,you could try using a bandwidth moniter to
check your usage, and also to make sure nobody else
is using your signal,if it's wireless.

[TheDisturbedOne]

I really don't think 250GB is too much to be asking, as long as you aren't paying a lot for the service. Unless you are downloading tons of videos (or your neighbors are), I highly doubt you will go over it.

[princeofvegas]

Bandwidth is a commodity and as a commodity the cost of bandwidth is increasing. - Comcast is putting this in place because of online streaming/download of movies cutting into Comcasts cable media revenue.

Other companies, not just comcast are doing the same. See here Time Warner says that it expanded its bandwidth caps because of online video streamers
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/04/...in4775980.shtml

Can you blame the cable/telcom companies for this? they build out massive pipelines with huge investments to give us great speeds and now companies like Apple and Netflix are riding that pipeline to take away business. Not to mention that cable companies are also suffering from the loss in landlines to cellphones. You could still get the online content but you have to pay more for it now or trim down how much you use. This is fair. Verizon FIOS is likely to follow suit here as they have made a huge investment in the Fiber to home pipeline and media content - they dontt want to lose business here.

Netflix will be priced out in streaming. Increased broadband fees for heavy users plus the tiered premium packages for streamers - it is difficult to see how Netflix can compete on price in the future of streaming. T wouldnt bet against the cable/telcom companies. They are one of the most powerful industries in the country.

Although Netflix will most likely fail at trying to become a media content distributor over the internet- streamers are still going to get a huge choice of online subscription plans to sign up to, plus with discounts through cable companies and an exemption from bandwidth caps for streaming. (see Starz Play is available to FIOS cusomters for $5.99 see here - http://www.starz.com...nels/starzplay; Lions Gate with others is coming out with a monstor online subscripton streaming plan (the Epix channel)- see here http://news.cnet.com...0151506-93.html ; also HBO is coming out with its own streaming subscription plan - see here http://www.hbo.com/e...band/index.html

I may even partake in some of these plans if cable does not get up to speed with their VOD subscription offerings. Many of the new TVs are also allowing connection to the internet so you could stream the plans. Also sure that all the game consoles, and other boxes will allow for these plans in near future.

Sorry if I focused on digital media here but I feel it is a valid argument and is one of the areas where I have a lot of expertise in as this very bandwidth cap is going to eventually affect my income stream.