Comcast Sets Monthly Bandwidth Limit for Customers

[Computer Hope Admin]

Comcast, the largest provider of cable-based broadband service in the U.S., will limit residential customers to 250 gigabytes of bandwidth a month beginning Oct. 1, the company announced late Thursday.

Link

[ChrisXPPro]

At approx 8 Gb a day I could live with that - altho any limitation can seem unwelcome.

My satellite (Hughes net with Earthlink) - can go silly beyond about 300Mb - or at least used to!!!

[patio]

Rumor has it the FCC is about to pounce on both cable and ISP providers...mainly for unfair business practises.
Can't happen soon enough.

[Broni]

I hope, they're gonna get busted...

[Soviet_Genius]

Well this is better than my ISP, who claim that my bandwidth is unlimited until I go over 60 GB and a 60 GB limit magically appears...

[evilfantasy]

Comcast will contact customers who go above the 250G byte limit and ask them to curtail their use, Comcast said. If a customer goes over the monthly limit again during the following six months, Comcast will suspend service for a year.

WOW. Pretty harsh penalty!

And if you are wondering (I was)

An average Comcast customer uses two to three gigabytes of bandwidth a month, Comcast said. To reach the 250G-byte limit, a customer would have to do one of the following: send 50 million e-mails, download 62,500 songs or download 125 standard-definition movies, the company said in its announcement.

The new bandwidth cap will affect less than 1 percent of Comcast customers,

That is an enormous amount of usage for a home computer. 

[Broni]

The limit (if they're really gonna do it) is pretty high, I must say, but it's more about a principle.
When I signed up for Comcast, they didn't tell me about any limits, it was supposed to be UNLIMITED.

[evilfantasy]

When I signed up for Comcast, they didn't tell me about any limits, it was supposed to be UNLIMITED.

Looking at it like that, they should just be able to add this new restriction to new accounts.

I see petitions and class action law suits in the future....

[Broni]

Maybe, it was some clause about changing rules, but reading 150 pages of a fine print was probably too much for me...LOL

[CBMatt]

I admit that limitations suck, but it's a pretty fair amount, I think.  And I'm sure there's probably something in their fine print that allows them to do this.  The penalty is quite ridiculous, though.

[Computer Hope Admin]

I'll throw my vote in as well as the penalty being ridiculous. I'm still opposed to the 250 limit even if it seems fair mainly because I can see them just continuously chopping away at it until we're all stuck with a 50 gb limit unless we pay more.

[Broni]

because I can see them just continuously chopping away at it until we're all stuck with a 50 gb limit unless we pay more.

An excellent point!

[Dead_reckon]

Broni, check your contract on your ISP service if you have it. Most state that there will NEVER be a limit, and the company cannot render that contract void. Verizon, my fathers ISP, has tried to impose false charges and increase the amount he is paying. He settled that with a few legal threats due too the fact that he has a hardcopy of his ISP contract. They CANNOT change the amount charged and they CANNOT impose fee's unless it is a service he legally subscribed too, even then, that service would be SEPARATE from the contract.

I'd advise some studying for Comcast customers. Get your contract out and figure out if you, or they are going to be the ones screwed by the limit. The contract is there for a reason you know.. 

[Broni]

Thanks, Dead_Reckon
It looks like some digging through old papers is due...

[mcxeb52!]

Comcast should just limit data in/out by speed. Peak times, speed slower a bit, non peak times, speed faster. Not excessively limited but people will conserve bandwidth knowing that if they download something big, it may take longer at a certain time?

[Broni]

As Nathan said in post #10, setting precedents is not a good idea...

[Computer Hope Admin]

Assuming this goes through (hopefully it doesn't), I wonder how Comcast is going to allow us customers to view and track our monthly data transfer. IMO could be a potential lawsuit if someone was banned and had no way of curtailing their bandwidth because they were not aware of how much data for the month they've done. Seems only fair since many of us have multiple computers, tivo's, and other appliances sucking up bandwidth.

[Dead_reckon]

I see any bandwidth limitation as just another attempt to control the endless highway of information that is the internet. Where there is something that CAN be marketed and oversold, it WILL be marketed and oversold. Just more people trying to get rich.. I wish Cox cable had bought out Adephia here, instead of CommuCast, 

I sometimes wonder if Castro or some other dictator created Comcast. Regardless, if you are a customer of any contracted service that may be subject to change, get out your contract and see if your contract legally states it is subject to change. Best way to fight big companies is with the contracts they try to control you with.

[Broni]

CommuCast....I like the name....LOL

[CBMatt]

Assuming this goes through (hopefully it doesn't), I wonder how Comcast is going to allow us customers to view and track our monthly data transfer. IMO could be a potential lawsuit if someone was banned and had no way of curtailing their bandwidth because they were not aware of how much data for the month they've done. Seems only fair since many of us have multiple computers, tivo's, and other appliances sucking up bandwidth.

Very good point.  If they're going to put a limit into effect, then they should have a stopper/blocker that terminates your usage once you've reached a certain point.  It's unfair that you should be punished when you don't even have a way of knowing how much bandwidth you're using.

[mcxeb52!]

Well, I guess it should just be the standard pay by plans. Heavier users wanting more speed pays more and all that stuff 

[Soviet_Genius]

CommuCast....I like the name....LOL

[cj85]

I'm a comcast customer. I'm not too happy to hear of this, and this is the first I heard of it. I can understand the limitations and what not. But it's going to suck a lot for those of us who are taking online classes for college, like myself. Now some programs that are required for classes you can download from the internet for classes and what not. Now that will get a lot of people stirred up, and for those are do get cut off from comcast because the went beyond 250GB and they are a student of online classes for college... Boy will things get stirred up because usually you need a good decent internet to be able to get online anytime you need to for class.

I guess I'm just shocked that comcast would do such a thing... Loyal comcast my *censored*!

[mcxeb52!]

well, just quit comcast and go to some other ISP like AT&T or Charter depending on whether or not they provide service at your location at the price and speed you like.

ditch comcast. They shouldn't limit bandwidth! Throttle the speeds a bit and that's all!