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Why you should cancel your ComCast Subscribtion!!!
Goldknyght
Member UncommonPosts: 1,519
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080829/wr_nm/comcast_internet_dc
This is a monitoring move and they are out to catch the people who download movies and other crap off the internet. It may sound conspiracy'ish but even without that you pay for a service you should get unlimited they shouldn't dictate how much you download for the prices you have to pay for internet access anyways. They just arnt making money on cable anymore =P
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, said on Thursday it will cap customers' Internet usage starting October 1, in a bid to ensure the best service for the vast majority of its subscribers.
Comcast said it was setting a monthly data usage threshold of 250 gigabytes per account for all residential high-speed Internet customers, or the equivalent of 50 million e-mails or 124 standard-definition movies.
"If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB and is one of the heaviest data users who consume the most data on our high-speed Internet service, he or she may receive a call from Comcast's Customer Security Assurance (CSA) group to notify them of excessive use," according to the company's updated Frequently Asked Questions on Excessive Use.
Customers who top 250 GB in a month twice in a six-month timeframe could have service terminated for a year.
Comcast said up to 99 percent of its 14 million Internet subscribers would not be affected by the new threshold, which it said would help ensure the quality of Internet delivery is not degraded by a minority of heavy users.
U.S. Internet subscribers are typically not aware of any limit on their Internet usage once they sign up to pay a flat monthly fee to their service provider.
As Web usage has rocketed, driven by the popularity of watching online video, photo-sharing and music downloading services, cable and phone companies have been considering various techniques to limit or manage heavy usage.
But Comcast has come under fire from a variety of sources for its network management techniques.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission investigated complaints by consumer groups that it was blocking peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent, and earlier this month ordered Comcast to modify its network management.
Comcast has said that by the end of the year it will change its network management practices to ensure all Web traffic is treated essentially the same, but has also been exploring other ways to prevent degradation of its Internet service delivery.
One consumer group said while Comcast's new 250 GB limit was "relatively high," it could eventually ensnare customers as technology progresses.
"If Comcast has oversold their network to the point of creating congestion problems, then well-disclosed caps for Internet use are a better short-term solution than Comcast's current practice of illegally blocking Internet traffic," said S Derek Turner of Free Press, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group that filed a complaint about Comcast's network management practices earlier this year.
The Philadelphia-based company is not alone in trying to come up with ways to limit heavy Internet usage.
Time Warner Cable Inc, the second-largest U.S. cable operator, said in January it would run a trial of billing Internet subscribers based on usage rather than a flat fee.
Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas said Comcast was also considering so-called consumption-based billing, but no decisions had been made.
(Editing by Braden Reddall)
Comments
How much is 250GB?
Is it a lot of internet time, or a little? Can someone please explain me this?
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08 - Rest In Peace; you will not be forgotten
How much is 250GB?
Is it a lot of internet time, or a little? Can someone please explain me this?
Its alot but if they do this they will lower it. They are testing what they can get away with.
How much is 250GB?
Is it a lot of internet time, or a little? Can someone please explain me this?
Its alot but if they do this they will lower it. They are testing what they can get away with.
Phew, as long as I can get in meh MMOs
I thought this was going to wait until 2012....
__________________________________________________
In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08 - Rest In Peace; you will not be forgotten
How much is 250GB?
Is it a lot of internet time, or a little? Can someone please explain me this?
Its alot but if they do this they will lower it. They are testing what they can get away with.
Phew, as long as I can get in meh MMOs
I thought this was going to wait until 2012....
250gbs for a month is ALOT of internet surfing, and you would have to be downloading alot of HD movies or porn(LOTS), to reach that. I dont see a problem with this since i dont ever use anywhere near 100gbs of internet usage. And as far as i know, most of europe already has these kinds of systems in place. If you are downloading 250gbs plus from the internet, i think you should have a very good reason.
Playing: EVE Online
Favorite MMOs: WoW, SWG Pre-cu, Lineage 2, UO, EQ, EVE online
Looking forward to: Archeage, Kingdom Under Fire 2
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I would agree with the OP. Drop Comcast. Time Warner already tested this and came to the conclusion it wasnt worth limited your bandwidth, so if people drop Comcast in mass numbers then it will be evident which idea is truly the best idea.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
I dont always have a 250GB month... But I definitely can pull down 500GB in the six month period Comcast mentioned.
It said if you go over 250GB twice in six months they terminate your access...
But what about 100GB every month for six months... that's 600GB... You gonna get terminated for that too?
Because 100GB aint quite as tough to hit every month.
I'm pretty sure thats not how it works. What they are meaning to say is if you go over 250GB in one month and you do that twice (over 250 GB in one month) per 6 month period they will terminate your service for a year.
What a load though.
I've got comcast, and I'm really not tied to them, their service isn't that great, and I really don't see much more of a performance jump since when I had DSL.
Another option though is purchasing a business upgrade as this is only for residential... but why pay more?
250GBs is a lot of space, but I'm not sure how much down/up traffic is created by MMOS, remote connections, file transferring and the like. I often stay connected to my office via VPN and such.. thats a constant down/up stream ..... on top of other things, and the second PC my fiance uses.. it could be problematic at some point..
Well rules are rules... but they are going to get ppl who measure their data up/down to work out to 240ish gigabytes every month like clockwork... and then rules change... unless comcast caves first.
i have never even thought about, let alone measured my usage.
i recently moved and had to lose fios
and pick up comcast because its the only thing here..
we got 5 people living in my house and 20 of the 24 hours a day someones online, and usualy playing a mmo. (nephew plays wow, i play daoc/soon to be war, kid plays disney playhouse online, the wii goes online too)
am i in any danger of reaching that cap?
Out of time to read the whole post, but a viewpoint from the UK...
We've never had this 'all you can eat' fest you americans are blessed with. In fact, the very sound of '250gig limit' makes my mouth water.
What we have here is 'unlimited broadband' packages. This combined with the most irritating advertising law EVER (not sure if you have the same thing) means you can suddenly find your broadband cut off after downloading a single DVD on some providers. The clause is called a 'fair usage policy.' We have them on EVERYTHING here. So much so that I don't even pay attention when something says 'unlimited.'
The 'unlimited texts' on my old contract actually amounted to 1500 - plenty for me, but it meant my friend on the same contract, sending about 4000 a month, had a MASSIVE 3 figure bill. My 'unlimited calls' amounted to 600 minutes. -NOT- many at all. My new contract has 'unlimited internet access.' I laughed when told that (all the providers here have 250 mb or MAYBE 500 mb data access limits), however on reading the contract terms and conditions, I was pleasantly surprised. Though there is a fair usage policy, it just prevents you from file sharing (on a mobile hahaha) and constantly streaming films.
As to internet, I'm on BT's 'broadband unlimited' package - probably the best available in it's price range in the UK. Fair usage policy: 30 gig. I'm pretty fortunate in that I sorted mine out myself over the phone, which meant that I was faced with a customer services moron with an IQ of 6. I asked specifically 'Is there a fair usage policy?' to which she replied 'Nope, not at all. It's totally unlimited.' I told her to email me that in writing, which she did.
On getting that call from BT saying 'Hey, you're over your 30gig limit (lots of betas to play that month haha!), we're going to put you on a reduced rate', I just said 'Have you got an email address? I need to remind you of a written agreement I have with your sales team.' So since then I actually have unlimited broadband, unlike pretty much anyone paying less than $150 per month in the UK... That said, I don't get anywhere near the 100 gig mark - complaining about 250 is ridiculous. Do you guys back up your entire hard disks onto the net or something?!
I'd love true unlimited broadband to be 'standard' (tbh, I think it should be state run, totally free, and the cable upkeep taken out of council tax, but that's just me), but it's not here, and I find it hard to see 250 gig caps being such a major problem...
There's plenty of goodies on the net to be had. Right now I have 5 drives in my rig with around 2 TBs of storage. I only have 300 gigs free. About 1.5 TB is stuff I got off the net over the past 18 months or so. I have another 1 TB backed up on DVDs.
lol same with me. I have 4 1 TB external drives and 2 internal 500 GB.
I have about 450 GB left.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Darc, how often do you use that 2TB of data?
And what is it all? Film, games, porn?
To download 250gb a month, you'd have to be downloading at pretty much full bandwidth constantly through the month... Why on earth do you need to do that?
And anyway, your point is moot because 1.5TB of data in 18 months is shooting WAY low of that 250gb limit. In fact, though I delete my unused data, I probably hit that kinda limits.
Why do people always start measuring downloading... streaming & upload take a big (bigger) chunk too.
Sucks to be someone living in the middle of nowhere with limited provider options if they decide on similar practices tbh. Makes me glad to live where I do and to have the provider I do. 250GB combined traffic...an above average week.
Subscribtions: EVE, SWTOR WOW, WAR, DDO, VG, AOC, COV, FFXI, GW, RFO, Aion
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Due to the recent economic crisis and spending cuts the light at the end of the tunnel was turned off. Sincerely, God.