Comcast capping data usage

[Ikarus]

TERMS OF SERVICE: Subscriber Agreement| Acceptable Use Policy| Network Management| Report Abuse to Comcast

Announcement Regarding An Amendment to Our Acceptable Use Policy

It's no secret we've been evaluating a specific monthly data usage or bandwidth threshold for our Comcast High-Speed Internet residential customers for some time. Rumors circulated online last year and they popped up again in May.

In January, we added new frequently asked questions about what we consider acceptable use of our service to our online Help site www.comcast.net/help and Security Channel page www.comcast.net/security.

We've listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive. Today, we're announcing that beginning on October 1, 2008, we will amend our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) available at http://www.comcast.net/terms/use/ and establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month per account for all residential customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of data, much more than a typical residential customer uses on a monthly basis. Currently, the median monthly data usage by our residential customers is approximately 2 - 3 GB. To put 250 GB of monthly usage in perspective, a customer would have to do any one of the following:

    * Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email)
    * Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
    * Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
    * Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)

This is the same system we have in place today. The only difference is that we will now provide a limit by which a customer may be contacted. As part of our pre-existing policy, we will continue to contact the top users of our high-speed Internet service and ask them to curb their usage. If a customer uses more than 250 GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use. At that time, we'll tell them exactly how much data per month they had used. We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily.

As stated above the new monthly data usage threshold will officially take effect starting October 1st. We are notifying customers in a number of ways. For example, we have posted a preview of the amended AUP as a PDF on this page. We are also running banner notices on our Comcast.net home page and on our Security Channel Web page to alert customers about this upcoming change. In addition, we have provided a number of FAQs that are available at http://help.comcast.net/content/faq/Frequently-Asked-Questions-about-Excessive-Use. Finally, we will also notify our customers directly by including an insert (also called a bill stuffer) in an upcoming monthly billing statement.

[blueyes]

250 gigs is a lot, but I`lll bet that in time they will cut the amount down substantially.

[Ikarus]

That's the fear, that over time they will cut it down.

Who they are targeting are the bit torrenters, who are downloading a lot of stuff. And it's not because they're jamming up the network.  Rather, the studios are pressuring the Internet Service Providers to stop the downloads of copyrighted materials. 

The average comcast user uses about 3gb a month;  so it's not as if the network is really suffering. 

Plus, this policy is what they've been following for a while now anyway.  They have been calling people who went over 260GB a month about "excessive use".  The only different is (a) they are now publically stating they're going to do this and (b) previously they wouldn't tell the people they were calling what the "excessive" amount was.

For people only using a few GB a month Verizon DSL would probably be better, in that it doesn't cost as much as Comcast.

I know someone from Moist Board who said months ago he got a call from Comcast about his going over 250GB.  He did admit that at the time he was using just about every firesharing program he knew about and had them running almost continuously. 

[blueyes]

They are looking for a way to shut down sites like pirate bay... They have tried other avenues to no avail...It`s as you said, Loki.

[Tuberavens]

I have optimum online I can download as much as I want but at 45.00 a mounth ticked ticked ticked

[blueyes]

Does that include your phone or cable/satalite?

[Tuberavens]

no

[blueyes]

Well...Right now, I use Belle south, and as far as I know, it has no cap.
If Comcast pulls this off without a lot of complaints from users, I believe other companies will follow Comcasts example.

[Tuberavens]

If they start to limit my downloads.
I will tell them where they can go.

[blueyes]

I don`t blame you, I will probably do the same.

[Ikarus]

There is actually no such thing as "unlimited bandwidth".

They may say this but when push comes to shove there is a limit.

Darth Marley of Moist Board said when they called him about "excessive use" he asked them how much was excessive..they wouldn't give him an answer.

That was before the cap they've just set.

So Comcast was calling people, but now they're just admitting that they are calling people.

The goal is to shut down Pirate Bay and various other sites.  Keep in mind that Comcast has "Fancast" which carries old episodes of tv shows.  To keep in the good graces of the studios which provide these episodes, Comcast has to do something to prevent the free downloads.

Previously Comcast got caught by the FCC slowing down bit torrent downloads.  This was again to try to stamp out the downloads.  Since slowing down the speeds wasn't allowed by the FCC Comcast is now capping data use.

[Tuberavens]

The goal is to shut down Pirate Bay and various other sites

If that is there goal they will fail

[Ikarus]

If that is there goal they will fail

People will just monitor their data usage.  Comcast provides free McAfee.  There is a too in which people can see how much data they have used during the month.

ISPs which provide more data will be the ones which end up being the ones who are the most successful.

[blueyes]

Probably will cost more for ISP`s like that.

[Ikarus]

Darth Marley at Tombs of Kobol put things really well when he stated that the entire purpose of the caps is to make sure that customers need the other Comcast services.

Watching videos on the web will count against the cap, so customers need Comcast cable. 

Video conferencing over the web will count against the count so you need Comcast digital voice.

HD programs will eat up the cap fast, so you need Comcast Digital Cable with their desktop set.