Download much? We are pulling your plug...

[Eduardo]

I don't download music or movies anymore, since the feds warned me to stop 6 years ago. But some of you might find this interesting:

Heavy Internet users unplugged by US cable company - Yahoo! News

Heavy Internet users unplugged by US cable company

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Several Internet users in the United States have been unplugged by their service provider because they download too much, a press report said here Friday.

Cable Internet and entertainment provider Comcast "has punished some transgressors by cutting off their Internet service, arguing that excessive downloaders hog Internet capacity and slow down the network for other customers," the Washington Post reported.

Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told AFP the company was addressing "the problem of abusive activity that adversely impacts on everybody else's experience."

"I can't give you a number" for clients who have been disconnected, said Douglas, while assuring that customers whose plugs were pulled are "very rare."

According to the Washington Post, a customer would have to download the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four feature films a day to trigger a disconnection warning.

Comcast gives customers a month to fix problems or upgrade their service before they are disconnected, the Washington Post said.

An unplugged client in Rockville, a suburb of Washington, has filed a complaint with the county he lives in, saying his contract with his service provider states that he is entitled to unlimited Internet access, officials in Montgomery County said.

A recent report by the ABI market research company warned that the growth in demand for "bandwidth-hungry services such as HDTV and online gaming is leading to a critical lack of capacity" in US cable operators' networks.

"Cable TV operators trying to satisfy the increasing bandwidth demands of HDTV customers feel very much like the thrifty grocer who tried to cram ten pounds of potatoes into a five-pound bag," ABI research director Stan Schatt said last month.

"The increasing bandwidth demands on cable operators will soon reach crisis stage, yet this is a ‘dirty little industry secret’ that no one talks about."

[Ham n Cheese]

That's bullshit, and kind of worries me since I have comcast and download a shitload (just yesterday I downloaded about 10GB of shit). What about all this netflix stream from home shit? It seems like your normal user could even hit the bandwidth requirements with the more shit that's being offered legally by companies to watch movie sand tv shows online.

[Kais[]]

best advice is to call up your tier 3 representatives (tier 1/2 don't know shit) and find out what limits if any are being placed. what the triggers are (like so much usenet access or how many gigs of upload). alot of companies use sandvine now for profiling and limiting customers. repeat offender? your gone. and they get around the "unlimited service" part of the TOS by enacting the bit about "your usage is harmless to others" when your downloads slow down your neighbors because they were too cheap to put decent bandwidth on the node. The want fast web browsers, not internet savvy customers.

[The Ancient]

Doesn't bother me one bit. It's a business, if you are downloading so much that Comcast can't afford to allow you to continue then they say, "quit downloading so much or pay more money to be able to." Sounds reasonable to me.

[Brikker]

I don't care about this as long as it doesn't effect my downloading of legally-purchased online material (games, etc).

[Sean]

Originally Posted by The Ancient

Doesn't bother me one bit. It's a business, if you are downloading so much that Comcast can't afford to allow you to continue then they say, "quit downloading so much or pay more money to be able to." Sounds reasonable to me.

Except that's bullshit and completely false. It's costing them dick. American broadband companies absolutely rape customers. We've been over this.

[brekk]

its not cost related. its there assumption that anyone using that much bandwidth couldn't be using it for legitimate reasons.

frankly if the RIAA, MIAA isnt sending C&D's they shouldnt give a shit.

[Malakriss]

Comcast will not give an official statement on what their limits are. It is not specifically stated anywhere, and is completely subjective. Some people that had been warned and cut off are trying to estimate the actual amount, but the company will not disclose the amount to their own customers.

Verizon is starting up FIOS in my neighborhood, 15/2 bandwidth for 39.99 isn't a bad deal.

[Ronne]

Fuck Comcast in both their ears. Worst cable company I've ever had to deal with. They actually fucking cram their own local commercials into shows when ever the fuck they want. There's nothing I love more than Bender getting cut off in the middle of 'bite my shiny metal ass' to watch some fucking farm and fleet commercial from po-dunk nowhere made on a 300$ camera from walmart.

Fuck Comcast, seriously. I wish DirectTV and Dish would rape them faster.

[Soygen]

I really, really hope FIOS comes to SoFla in the near future.

[tjac]

Originally Posted by Ronne

Fuck Comcast, seriously.

Every time Comcast's service performance drops or is interrupted, I put a call in. I've already eliminated all the possible problems on my end, yet they say the line is ok. They then blackmail me with the usual "We can send a technician out, but if the problem is found to be on your end, we're gonna charge you out the ass." I reply with my usual, "Well, I guess I'll just have to wait it out then."

I take no further steps, and eventually the service restores. Maybe a day or two of service is lost, it's completely their fault, and there's nothing I can do.

Fios is available and tempting, but also fuck 1 and 2 year contracts for shitty service. Verizon isn't any better than comcast. What choice is there really between two regional monopolies?

[Quineloe]

I love how they threw in online gaming as a reason there. We all know how little traffic this actually generates...

[Sean]

Yeah, about 4-8 kB/s at absolute max for a WoW raid. Throw in vent for another 10-20 kB/s.

Oh noes, you're chugging down bandwidth.

[Hateyou]

Originally Posted by The Ancient

Doesn't bother me one bit. It's a business, if you are downloading so much that Comcast can't afford to allow you to continue then they say, "quit downloading so much or pay more money to be able to." Sounds reasonable to me.

If that was actually the case, which it isn't, then they should adjust the prices of the different packages. If Comcast says you get unlimited bandwidth for $50 a month, it's their own fucking fault.

[Wrathcaster]

Fuck comcast. Internet service at my apartment at times is intermittent at best. Got a problem and you know it's not your hardware/software? You're fucked. Got a technical problem of any sort? Get ready to talk to some motherfucker in India for two hours.

This policy of disconnects further reinforces my belief that they actually disdain their own customers. How the fuck can you promise unlimited bandwidth and then cut people off for putting it to use? That sort of activity by a company should be illegal. And the punishment should be hanging, saddam cellphone vid style. Yeah.