Comcast mulls 250GB monthly bandwidth cap: report
Fri May 9, 2008 11:41AM EDT
See Comments (39)
First came the news that Time Warner is testing bandwidth caps in Texas, and now here's Comcast, apparently considering a cap of its own—a 250GB cap, mind you, compared to Time Warner's stingy 5-to-40GB plans.
Anyway, the plan calls for a 250GB monthly cap for all Comcast subscribers, with a once-a-year "get out of jail free" card for users who exceed the limit, according to DSLreports. After that, subscribers would pay $10 for every 10GB they use over the limit.
There's nothing fun about bandwidth caps and overage charges, of course, but at least Comcast's proposal is one I could live with. 250GB a month comes out to about 8.3GB a day, equivalent to an HD movie download with a gig or two to spare.
That sounds a lot better than Time Warner Cable's upcoming trial in Beaumont, Texas, that would charge subscribers $1-a-gig extra for exceeding monthly bandwidth caps ranging from 5GB to 40GB, with the 40GB plan potentially costing $50-$60 a month. As I pointed out at the time, renting just eight HD movie downloads (at about 5GB each) would exceed a 40GB monthly cap.
On the other hand, a 250GB bandwidth cap sounds reasonable—and I'd rather have the limit spelled out in black and white, rather than wonder whether my provider is throttling my usage even through I'm on a supposed "all you can eat" plan. It's well worth noting that Comcast has been under fire from the FCC for allegedly interfering with and even disconnecting heavy bandwidth users on its network, even though Comcast currently has no official usage limits.
What do you think—could you live with a 250GB bandwidth cap?
Related:
Comcast Considering 250GB Cap, Overage Fees [DSLreports]
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27 Posted by climber0705 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:27PM EDT Report Abuse
Digital convergence! You've heard it said. Now that it is more prevalent than ever, and the network speeds are faster than ever, they want to charge you by the amount of content you download vice the time you spend downloading the content. 10 years ago, if you said the word 250 gigabytes, someone would have laughed at you. in 10 years, they will do the same thing. We have gone from 640 MB of memory to anywhere from 4 to 8 GB in less than 20 years. These caps are crazy. $1 per gig... Right!
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28 Posted by thekrow01 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:04PM EDT Report Abuse
What is the typical bandwidth usage for the average user? Now take that number and compound it over the next 5 years. ComCast execs are smart, getting the deal worked in now saves gives them a leg up when new services are offered that put the average user over 300-500GB per month or more.
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29 Posted by barryo1994 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:02PM EDT Report Abuse
Yes, but too bad I have TimeWarner Cable. I hope they don't put in a 5-40GB limit. So much for our freedoms.
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30 Posted by underserf on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:28PM EDT Report Abuse
I ran myself broke back in the days of dialup-WWW-access-via-BBS Anyone recall using CompuServe? AOL charged monthly instead of hourly like CIS did, now CIS is just a bunch of modems @ AOLs server farms. I for one am concerned, but am also aware of the history of this media... I spent thousands on GEnie, Delphi etc, anybody out there still pay over 500 bucks a month in ISP charges? Let startups have the same access to telephone poles maybe... Big Business only cares about BIG business. The 'Net was pioneered by small, creative organizations & like the Big BBS crowd, has grown fat & happy & rich... and shortsighted. Time to roll the dice again, folks ;) =US=
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31 Posted by power_excell on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:18PM EDT Report Abuse
I don't agree with the cap. It would be like cable and sat providers capping the amount of TV you watch. Now-a-days everything is through in the internet. On demand, gaming, videos, movie downloads, music, etc..etc. Since broadband is an always on connection, you really don't know how much your using. DVRs, gaming consoles, etc..can connect to the Internet to keep its devices up to date, download on demand content, and game with other Internet users. So in my case. I have 2 DVRs, 1 gaming console, 3 computers, PDA which all connect to my network. sometimes I have no idea how much bandwidth is being used. I think its just a way to get more money that we don't have because we need it for gas. Companies are just money hungry. I understand there is more demand for Internet bandwidth usage, but thats what you get when the real world operates in a virtual world.
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32 Posted by playmakersgoesdeep on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:14PM EDT Report Abuse
The Internet is really in its Infancy as far as the consumers are conerned,the Big ISP providers are problably thinking about a whole lot of other ways to charge the little man for it in the future.
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33 Posted by disnyrtl on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:44PM EDT Report Abuse
This is a slap in the face to all of us. It's like saying..."Please come use us but don't really" much like the insurance companies, cell phones, etc. Especially given the fact that they charge so much as it is $45-$50/month. Now if they offered a different plan (like cell phones) where they put limits on the usage then that may be a better alternative. Say a basic plan for $20 month and then charge for anything over 100GB/month and an "unlimited" plan for the current $45-$50/month then that might be better.
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34 Posted by teedo757 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:59PM EDT Report Abuse
You have been paying for mobile phone usage by how much you use your phone....why is it any different for bandwidth. Its does cost the company more so whats the big deal? There are an extream few that would suffer from this however these same people are making the internet slower for you! Wake up people just because you pay for something doesn't mean you have the right to use it however you want especially when other suffer from your abuse.
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35 Posted by lilsarge03 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 6:51PM EDT Report Abuse
I don't have or even know much about Vonage but i know family members who have it, my question is, how will this effect vonage and voip and such? Does it have any effect on them? And $70 a month is already a lot for Internet service, not to mention we have 6 people always on PC's and Gaming consols :(. 3 of the people are always on myspace and youtube and I also get on youtube. I think we can hit 250GB cap lol..but does that mean we should be penalized just because there are more of us in one house?
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36 Posted by comazon2000 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:28PM EDT Report Abuse
All of you are mistaken. There has ALWAYS been a monthly bandwidth cap, but they never stated what it is. I know this first-hand as I went over that limit and was labeled an "excessive user." I got off with a warning and if I do it again, I'm banned for a year. They did not tell me what the limit was, how much bandwidth I used, nor how much I need to cut back by. You can read the "Excessive User" FAQ on Comcast's site for proof, but you will find it vague and unhelpful. I for one would welcome an actual ANNOUNCEMENT of what the limit is, instead of some hidden number I'm unable to see. You should welcome it as well. My whole incident with Comcast convinced me to swith over to U-Verse, which fortunately just became available in my area.
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37 Posted by ta79atw02 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:54PM EDT Report Abuse
Call me dumb as I don't know exactly what a bandwidth is. But it seems to me they want to limit the amount of time you spend on the internet and get back to watching your TV. There are so many places to aquire "free" tv shows, that one day you may not have a need for a TV. Is there a way to find out first of all, what your bandwidth is, and how much you actually use in a day?
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38 Posted by thefalcon83 on Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:50AM EDT Report Abuse
at 250gb in 30 days you will have 8.333gb per day. with downloading and watching 2 high-def movies you're screwed netflix user watch movies online
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39 Posted by zahmbee on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:58PM EDT Report Abuse
Comcast is the worst ISP in history. In Michigan they have no competitors so the service is slow and support is a joke. They really must have given some pretty good donations to the politicians in order to have such a monopoly. A 250gb/month limit is laughable since they're so slow to begin with. It would never make a difference. With Comcast speed it takes hours just to load a short film. They are barely faster than dialup.
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26 Posted by scryer_360 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:10PM EDT Report Abuse
I can't believe what I am reading here! There should not be caps in the first place! I paid for the service now I should get it. Whats more, as pointed out in post number 2, 250 gigs is nothing in terms of what people will want to do in the future. This will help bring America down. Some laugh, sure, but face it. The world moves online now. Other countries and people who are not limited in bandwidth will have a clear advantage over Americans. One more reason for me to move to an area with a FIOS connection...