It's official: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1

[Soygen]

I have no other choice really, if I want a fast connection. I have heard rumors of U-Verse coming down here, but who knows when that will be. My younger brother lives with me and uses the connection as well, making a cap even more of a pain in the ass.

[kegkilla]

i'd go back in time to when socks were still called foot sweaters!!

[Chanur]

I loved my Comcast speed, but if I was still on Comcast I would immediately switch to another carrier or DSL even if it was slower. Fuck them right out the door, they will never get my money again. I even dumped them for satellite tv and its 10 times better I'm never going back.

[Arbitrary]

Next step is lowering it from 250 to 200 and then adding a new service where you can pay more to have your 250 back, and then lowering it again and adding another service where you can again pay more to still have a cap you didn't have previously.

[Phelps McManus]

Originally Posted by Sheaf

They are essentially trying to do three things at once:

1 - Limit or get rid of the very, very heavy users
2 - Discourage other potential heavy users from signing up
3 - Putting in a cap that most people will find acceptable so they can lower it later

It's a terrible business practice and it often doesn't fly for other products.

This is a the obvious response to the whole net neutrality issue and it makes me wish I *did* have comcast. We'll see how the quickly the other ISPs follow suit as torrenters flock to them and gobble up their bandwidth.

First, because the gym is playing the law of averages. They know there will be heavy users and they may even lose money on those heavy users. But they can make it up on the people who come in twice a month.

High bandwidth users don't follow the law of averages. They use all their bandwidth all the time. Regular users get angry when they don't get the 15MBps they paid for, and they would be even angrier if they had to pay a share of what it would cost the ISP to guarantee it to everyone all the time (rather than play the law of averages as you put it).

To follow your bad analogy, it would be as if 3 of the weight machines on the circuit were ALWAYS in use 24/7. No matter when you came, you would never get to use all of the machines. I think the normal user would be happy if the gym limited everyone to 15 minutes per machine (way more than 98% of the users need).

Second, those heavy users tend to be their most loyal customers and most fanatical evangelists.

These aren't airline and hotel clubs. The loyal customers aren't generating a significant amount of extra revenue for you. They are voracious consumers of your resources who pay the same amount as everyone else.

[Twobit Whore]

This isn't a new limit.. it's just a number placed on the old one. They've been notifying people who go over the limit consistently for a while now. And it's not like you will get shut off or fined or charged if you happen to go a little over every now and then.

In fact, according to Comcast, this is actually the same policy that is already in place, except with more explicit numbers as to what is allowed and what isn't. "As part of our preexisting policy, we will continue to contact the top users of our high-speed Internet service and ask them to curb their usage," the company said in a statement sent to Ars. "If a customer uses more than 250GB and is one of the top users of our service, he or she may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use."

[Aegdaien]

I honestly can't imagine you people who are pissed off about this.

If you download > 250gb a month, you have a problem. Get a fucking life, really. Instead of arbitrarily deciding who is a 'heavy' user, Comcast has set a finite cap on what that is. At least now there's a threshold you have to obtain. An obscenely high one at that. I live with 3 guys in college and we don't top 100gb at most per month if we're lucky. Some of you people need to get a fucking grip on reality.

[Smocca]

Originally Posted by Aegdaien

I honestly can't imagine you people who are pissed off about this.

If you download > 250gb a month, you have a problem. Get a fucking life, really. Instead of arbitrarily deciding who is a 'heavy' user, Comcast has set a finite cap on what that is. At least now there's a threshold you have to obtain. An obscenely high one at that. I live with 3 guys in college and we don't top 100gb at most per month if we're lucky. Some of you people need to get a fucking grip on reality.

If you can't see that this is a preemptive move by Comcast then you deserve to be manipulated by them. 250GB caps is nothing now, most everyone will agree. But do you really think in 5 or 10 years when those caps are starting to be hit more and more by people that Comcast will "adjust for inflation". Fuck no, they will provide a "premium" service for a "premium" cost that will let you increase your cap. End result is paying more money for the same thing.

Comcast will not invest in better infrastructure for as long as possible. It is much cheaper to pull shit like this because they can get away with raising prices (in the long-term) with no/little extra investment. No real competition = no real investment in long-term quality of service.

[Araxen]

If they are going to put cap limits on my connection then traffic shaping needs to go right out the window. It's friggin bullshit they can have their cake and eat it too.

[Ninajrr]

The problem is for households with more than one internet user.

[chaos]

Yeah, no way people could want streaming video/HD or anything, in no way is that something that is big now or will be in the near future. Basically, consumers are a bunch of whiny pussies who should suck it up and be happy they even get service at all.

[chu]

Originally Posted by Aegdaien

I honestly can't imagine you people who are pissed off about this.

If you download > 250gb a month, you have a problem. Get a fucking life, really. Instead of arbitrarily deciding who is a 'heavy' user, Comcast has set a finite cap on what that is. At least now there's a threshold you have to obtain. An obscenely high one at that. I live with 3 guys in college and we don't top 100gb at most per month if we're lucky. Some of you people need to get a fucking grip on reality.

I have to agree with this. 60gb has been a soft 'cap' in Canada forever and it's really not a problem at all and I download a shitload of porn.

This is only affecting basement-dwelling social freaks who could actually use the sun.

[Chanur]

We have 3 internet users in my house. I occasionally dual box, so thats two computers playing mmo's...2 patches...I also use you tube, and download things at night when I sleep and am not home. 250 GB is nothing. Specially in the future when more and more services will be online and or streaming/HD.

If you have no problems with company's offering you less for the same or more money, you are a fucking useless bitch that gets what you deserve.

[Cinge]

Originally Posted by chu

I have to agree with this. 60gb has been a soft 'cap' in Canada forever and it's really not a problem at all and I download a shitload of porn.

This is only affecting basement-dwelling social freaks who could actually use the sun.

Until Streaming HD and regular movies straight to your computer and/or game console become more main stream, along with youtube type sites that will gain in quality and probably length.

Wonder what xbox along with 2-3 computers going at the same time consume. All of them except the xbox for the most part download songs/movies of each persons own taste.

Thank god for CoX and no limit yet!Just higher prices because they're the only provider in town for cable.

Mark my words though they will keep lowering the "cap" until it would affect too many users, and when bandwith usage is skyrocketting at the same time.

[Kaio]

250 gigs doesn't sound that bad to me at all. It's a lot better then the 40 gig limit those fagelas at time warner are testing in limited areas. If they bring that here I'm gonna have to use dreaded at&t dsl.