p2pnet - rss feed: Comcast 250GB throttling: live on October 1
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Yesterday, “we were the very first to report that Comcast will be implementing a 250GB monthly cap starting October 1,” writes Karl Bode in dslreports.
Online discussion of the caps has since absolutely exploded, he says, going on with opinions range from, “the belief the caps are perfectly reasonable, to the belief that the move signifies the end of the Internet as we know it.”
In Industry Reacts To Comcast Cap Plans, “As we noted yesterday, this is really just a move to clear up an already existing cap, previously invisible, that our users have been complaining about for more than half a decade,” Bode says, continuing »»»
In that sense, it’s good.
Still, along with the rise of far less generous 5-40GB caps by Time Warner Cable and Frontier, it does signify a significant shift in the U.S. broadband market that won’t be reversible, and could end with metered overage billing. In phone conversations with Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas, I was told that metered billing wasn’t part of the announcement, but Douglas did not specifically rule out that it could arrive sometime down the line. Technology journalist Om Malik, for one, wants Comcast to actually show him the meter:
Metered billing needs a meter we can see, use and monitor any time we desire to do so. Water and electric utilities provide that meter (regardless of whether we use it or not), so why not Comcast?
While we’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt if somebody bothered to ask Comcast to actually prove (with hard data, not talking points) that congestion makes the move necessary. Consumer Group Free Press, meanwhile, argues that ISPs couldn’t get away with caps if they faced real competition:
“If the United States had genuine broadband competition, Internet providers would not be able to profit from artificial scarcity — they would invest in their networks to keep pace with consumer demand,” said Free Press’ research director S. Derek Turner. “Unfortunately, Americans will continue to face the consequences of this lack of competition until policymakers get serious about policies that deliver the world-class networks consumers deserve.”
There’s a few interesting things to watch moving forward. Will Verizon use the caps to market their currently truly unlimited FiOS service, or will they hold their punches in case they plan on someday imposing their own caps? Will Comcast be forced to release a public meter? Is this simply a baby step toward overage fees and metered billing?
Definitely stay tuned.
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August 30th, 2008 at 9:32 am
250 GB cap at Comcast > 200 GB cap at Teksavvy. And 200 GB cap at Teksavvy is virtually unlimited, you rarely can use it all.
Now compare this to ridiculous caps of 60 GB to be imposed by Bell to every DSL wholesaler next year.
August 30th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Jon, it seems that I found a bug in the site:
Your “Previous Entries” link is pointing to http://www.p2pnet.net/page/2 , but rather should point to /page/1
And there are the stories that “disappear” before appearing on “Previous Entries”.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:24 am
ComCast and all these other ISPs make so much money! Why dont they just upgrade hardware? for the end user?
August 30th, 2008 at 10:30 am
“I found a bug in the site”
I know about both of these, but I’d forgotten. Thanks for the reminder. I’ll pass it along.
Cheers!
August 30th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Looks like Qwest has started as well. Time to switch providers.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
250GB limit is ok as long as it is staggered for future speed increases e.g 8Mbs = 250GB, 16Mbs = 500GB and so on.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
So that’s 250gb up AND down, right? That really doesn’t sound like that much a month. Download a couple 4.7gb files and let your uploads go continuously at 100kB/sec, wonder how much that puts you at?
August 31st, 2008 at 12:01 am
This sort of sounds like the RIAA with their reasoning to the colleges. You didn’t mind it at first, what’s the problem now?
This year, 250 gb a month doesn’t sound bad. So the year after when more usage of mulitmedia files or some other replace, such as high definition, might change the whole balance out of whack then. So a few years down the road, “We gotta go to 30 gigs a month. You didn’t mind it at first with the initial limit, what’s the problem now?”
August 31st, 2008 at 1:15 am
The time to act and rebel against this is now! Many of the opinions around the web seem to be that 250GB is plenty, so why complain? These people are overlooking a rather important point though. Yes, 250GB is quite a bit, particularly when compared to other countries such as the UK and (especially) Australia. But what about the future? When all the controversy has died down and consumers have come to accept paying the same price they were before for bandwidth that is no longer unlimited, that 250GB limit will in all likelihood shrink. Choosing such a large amount was no accident. It is a way for Comcast to get their foot in the metered bandwidth door and without a doubt other ISP’s will follow their example if they see this stunt (read: greedy money grab) as successful. Once that happens, unlimited bandwidth will be dead forever in the USA and the odds are favorable that the idea will eventually spread to other countries as well.
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:57 am
Now compare to the 20g limit for Videotron cable users
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:08 pm
FAIR USE POLICY …. and thats even not enough when you pay every month like a GOOD customer
Netherlands rules + some USENET free GB’s
+ weed lol