Thu 28 Aug 2008
Comcast Caps to Begin in October, Set at 250GB per Month
Posted by Jesse under News
BroadbandReports broke it and Comcast confirmed it: starting on October 1, Comcast will institute caps of 250GB per month. It’s beleived that overage fees are off the table for now, a welcome change from the initial plan to charge $1.50 per GB, a markup of around 100 times cost. There’s also a concrete DMCA policy. Anyone getting 4 or more DMCA warning notices in a 12-month period could have their connection terminated (but you were smart enough to use PeerGuardian, right?), but there’s nothing to hint at any kind of stepped-up enforcement.
The upside is that Comcast’s “you’re using too much Internet” policy is now clearly spelled out, though there’s no mention as to what counts or how to see your current usage. A cap of 250GB, while still a cap, isn’t all that bad considering that amounts to downloading about 125 standard-def movies.
The real lesson is that with all of the caps and “network management”, the age of all-you-can-eat Internet is over. It’s not fair to low-use customers to raise prices across the board to subsidize the top end of users and customers aren’t willing to accept vague limits on their previously unlimited Internet access. As long as the policies are clear and there’s a way to verify your own usage, I’m perfectly happy with the Age of Caps.
August 28th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Now if they could be a little nicer about their port 25 block policy. Instead of treating their customers like criminals when their system gets a false positive.
I called in once to get the port 25 block removed and the guy said they don’t remove it. He couldn’t figure out why I wouldn’t use smtp.comcast.net to send my work email through. Which used TLS on port 25. Then when I gave a good reason (keeping my cool) SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and privacy. He talked to someone and then got back on and said ok “But just this once. If it happens again it won’t be removed.”
August 29th, 2008 at 11:42 am
IF Concast provides a means to validate the usage and IF there is a clear policy in place of what you can do if make a mistake (escalation) then I’d be less worried going with Concast.
Of course my family was burned by this @#$%^ company that we’ll never go back. FSCK Concast and bring us Utopia!!
August 29th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Some Comcast customers are not calling for a “meter” so they know their usage.
While we have meters on our gas, water and electricty who actually checks them?
Since there is no cost if you go over I’m not sure Comcast has an obligation to provide a meter.
Comcast took a rather measure reaction with a generous bandwidth allowance and no cost if you go over.
They could have been much tougher on customers. But they elected to use a light touch. I’m impressed.
August 30th, 2008 at 9:18 am
I’m glad they decided to be more lax, but what good is a cap if there’s no concrete action they plan to take? Why set a cap if you’re still going to take arbitrary action when you exceed it? At the least, they should provide a meter just for peace of mind and good PR. They sure could use it.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
I don’t think comcasts network can take to many customers going over that cap all the time, otherwise they would probably eather not have the cap for have an option to pay for bandwidth above that cap, of course I can just image the advertising from Qwest making outrageous claims about complex fee schedule’s.
Does this mean comcast is going to stop advertising their service as unlimited? Or will they continue to advertise their limited “Unlimited” service?
August 30th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Does this mean comcast is going to stop advertising their service as unlimited? Or will they continue to advertise their limited “Unlimited” service?
Concast hasn’t advertised ‘unlimited use’ for several years now. I think my neighborhood signed up only a few months before they changed from unlimited to …. whatever it’s been since
So IF Concast terminates or penalizes customers below the 250 Gig limit does that mean they can now sue?