Comcast Caps Residential Internet Use At 250GB Per Month
Comcast has set 250 gigbytes (GB) per month as the limit for residential Internet subscribers' data usage
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/28/2008 4:36:00 PM
Comcast has set 250 gigabytes (GB) per month as the limit for residential Internetsubscribers' data usage, effectively quantfying the threshhold for "excessive use."
Comcast has for several years contacted the heaviest users and warned them they needed to upgrade to a commercial service or cut back usage below that threshold, the company says, but it had not informed them of what the threshhold was.
Comcast says that to exceed that 250 GB threshold, a customer would have to 1) send 50 million e-mails; or 2) download 62,500 songs; or dowload 125 standard-definition movies (it did not say how many hi-def downloads that 250 GB would represent); or upload 25,000 hi-res photos at 10 megs per picture.
The announcement comes three weeks before Comcast must report to the commission on how it has managed Internet traffic and how it will better inform customers of that network management, the result of an FCC finding Comcast had violated the FCC's open access principles, including by not sufficiently informing customers about its network management practices.
Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas would not comment on whether Comcast would offer up this new policy as an example of better communications with subscribers, only saying Comcast is evaluating the FCC's order and "exploring out options."
Douglas says Comcast has been thinking "for a couple of years" about defining the threshold.Comcast says the policy change, in the form of an amendment to its Acceptable Use Policy, takes effect Oct. 1.
Comcast made a point of emphasizing that this was the same system of warning its heaviest users it has had inplace and that the only change was establishing the limit that would trigger the warning and informing customers of what that limit was.
Could Comcast move to a consumption-based model for Internet pricing? "That is not what we are talking about today," said Douglas, "but yes, that is something we have looked at."
6 comments:
I do not understand why the FCC is making this a rule? Are they trying to watch for people who are illegally downloading things? Since when should it be the governments right to tell me how much I can do something on the computer I paid for with the Internet that I pay for every month. I can honestly say I'm slightly outraged with this blog. I know I will never reach that cap, but I don't being told that I can only download so much. If there is a reason behind it, such as the cable company can't have that many users clogging up some sort of internet line, then I'd like that to be stated by the company. Does this cap go per household, or per computer? If you have a large family with alot of computers, you're obviously going to be downloading more, is any of this taken into account? I certainly hope this isn't a sign of things to come.
I think the real question here is how the hell can anyone be downloading 250 GBs a month!? That's impressive...and more then my computer can even hold! These people must be bootlegging multiple copies of Gone with the Wind or something.
Although I think it may be ridiculous for the FCC to try and put a cap on the amount a person can download, you have to admit, if there is going to be a limit, this is a very reasonable one.
I don't think anyone could download that many files in a month (whether it's pictures, movies, or songs), but I do think that one key demographic is being left out of the situation. What about the people who play online games, such as World of Warcraft? I know these games transfer quite a bit of data, and there are some people who are practically addicted to them. While I'm not really an online gamer myself, I could definitely see problems for these people as technology and games start to require more and more data to transfer.
Yeah this cap thing sucks, The reason I hate it is because of the fact that I do download tons and tons of stuff from the internet. Like music, movies, etc. I think it sucks because my roommate and I did do a calculation of this and basically we have come to the conclusion that we are basically going to be screwed once they decide to start this. I am guessing this is another way to get some more cash and make money from the consumers.
QUOTE: I don't think anyone could download that many files in a month (whether it's pictures, movies, or songs), but I do think that one key demographic is being left out of the situation. What about the people who play online games, such as World of Warcraft? I know these games transfer quite a bit of data, and there are some people who are practically addicted to them. While I'm not really an online gamer myself, I could definitely see problems for these people as technology and games start to require more and more data to transfer."
Honestly, if you think about it and read on they have since restated this information, they basically said that they were limiting all information and data that is being used so if you use emails, instant messager, streaming video it all counts to the 250gb, right now I do about an average of 75gb of downloading and thats between two computers, and we also have a few servers at the house and they refresh and install podcast and such pretty much weekly and I am pretty much sure that we get pretty close and thats not counting two to three more computers
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