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Friday, August 29, 2008

Comcast's Bandwidth Cap Is Likely Only the Beginning

As Internet usage grows, companies will continue to struggle over questions of how to fairly apportion bandwidth.
By Erica Naone

Comcast announced a 250-gigabyte cap on individual consumer broadband usage this week. The company takes care to demonstrate that this is a generous limit--the equivalent of roughly 125 standard-definition movie downloads. The move, however, is probably only the beginning of what promises to be a long struggle to balance growing Internet usage against limited infrastructure--a problem that TR editor Larry Hardesty described in depth earlier this year. As Hardesty's story makes clear, there's no easy answer to the problem. I expect to see a lot of change to Internet service as providers, companies, and consumers wrestle with one another.

Comments

  • Comcast's stated restrictions on Bandwidth Usage
    The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only. Therefore, Comcast reserves the right to suspend or terminate Service accounts where bandwidth consumption is not characteristic of a typical residential user of the Service as determined by the company in its sole discretion. Common activities that may cause excessive bandwidth consumption in violation of this Policy include, but are not limited to, numerous or continuous bulk transfers of files and other high capacity traffic using (i) file transfer protocol ("FTP"), (ii) peer-to-peer applications, and (iii) newsgroups, whether provided by Comcast or a third party. You must also ensure that your use of the Service does not restrict, inhibit, interfere with, or degrade any other person's use of the Service, nor represent (as determined by Comcast in its sole discretion) an overly large burden on the network. In addition, you must ensure that your use of the Service does not limit or interfere with Comcast's ability to deliver and monitor the Service or any part of its network.


    To read their full terms and conditions go to http://www.comcast.net/terms/index.jsp
    Rate this comment: 12345

    carbonmind
    08/31/2008
    Posts:7
    Avg Rating:
    4/5
    • Re: Comcast's stated restrictions on Bandwidth Usage
      If this is the case, should they put this bandwidth restriction in thier ads ? Let's says $40 per month / 15 mb/s - 250 GB per month.
      Rate this comment: 12345

      JoeTan1980
      09/02/2008
      Posts:1
      • Re: Comcast's stated restrictions on Bandwidth Usage
        Remeber this phrase: "nor represent (as determined by Comcast in its sole discretion) an overly large burden on the network." That's one person today generating 1gb, and a thousand tomorrow, generating 1kb each. If Comcast never invests another penny in infrastructure, it can, at its sole discretion, determine that more and more of its captive users are creating a load, and therefore should be charged extra. Pure profit! This is where I think that a national policy is sorely lacking. 
        Rate this comment: 12345

        z0rr0
        09/02/2008
        Posts:53
        Avg Rating:
        4/5
  • Backdoor to anti net nuetrality
    This is their way around net neutrality. They are determined to put toll booths on the info super highway. I for one plan on dumping them and switch to WOW.




    Rate this comment: 12345

    jmaximus9
    09/04/2008
    Posts:83
    Avg Rating:
    3/5
  • Market Forces will Prevail
    The cap only means that Comcast can put a customer in a headlock (or wallet lock) until someone new enters the market space they're occupying. AT&T will put in something, or a Cellular offering will become available or Meraki will make their widgets less costly and a free net will appear.

    Once this happens, Comcast (or Cox, AT&T etc) will have to be more accomodating or lose customers.

    Maybe even the users will get sick of the Internet and stop using it all together and keep their money in their wallets for a change.

    Saving Money by not spending it on frivolous things like email, spam, viruses, internet games - even Cable TV  ... GEEZ WHAT A SICK THOUGHT!

    Go ahead and let them cap - it's a matter of time till they come around and see the light!
    Rate this comment: 12345

    mkogrady
    09/05/2008
    Posts:198
    Avg Rating:
    3/5
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