Comcast E-mailing Customers About Caps - Ahead of October 1 transition date....

Comcast E-mailing Customers About Caps - Ahead of October 1 transition date....
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Comcast E-mailing Customers About Caps
Ahead of October 1 transition date....
08:29AM Monday Sep 15 2008 by Karl Bode
tags: business · bandwidth · cable · Comcast

For those Comcast customers who don't watch the news and didn't know that the company will be imposing a 250GB cap starting October 1, the nation's largest cable operator has started sending them an e-mail alerting them to the changes. So far there's still no mention of a Comcast-provided web-based meter, though Comcast has stated they are working on one. I've confirmed that Comcast Internet video services do count against the cap, though Comcast VoIP traffic does not. Several users have sent in the e-mail. A portion of it:

On October 1, 2008, we will post an updated AUP that will go into effect at that time.

In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may degrade the online experience of other customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it’s very likely that your monthly data usage doesn’t even come close to that amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following:

* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or
* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).

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page: 1 · 2
jbgroup1 @ 15th Sep 08:37AM:
Typical for me...

...is about 10 GiB per month but this month has been high at 30 GiB. I also have VOIP and don't know how much that uses.
--
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reply

TIGERON @ 15th Sep 08:41AM:
They can't be trusted

I don't care what Comcast says, they can't be trusted.

comcastissue.blogspot.com
reply

GhostDoggy @ 15th Sep 08:43AM:
Conveniently ignore HD

I like how they exampled 125 standard definition movies, but imagine you are streaming MPEG-2 in HD. Now, I am all about moderation (too much of anything is 'suppose' to be bad for you), but they give no means for a heavy user to know how much they have used.

As a result, Comcast's efforts are as reckless as their heavy users.
reply

GhostDoggy @ 15th Sep 08:45AM:
Re: They can't be trusted

This is true. Without a means to measure nor an FCC mandated for proof of abuse (ahem, excessive usage) they could easily lie about the matter and target customers exceeding 100GB, or 50GB.
reply

Rob @ 15th Sep 08:47AM:
Re: They can't be trusted

said by TIGERON :

I don't care what Comcast says, they can't be trusted.

comcastissue.blogspot.com

I don't think anyone is asking you to trust Comcast. I think many of us learned not to trust corporations after Enron.
reply

ryang @ 15th Sep 08:48AM:
Bandwidth monitoring

Some good BW monitoring apps:
»www.metal-machine.de/readerror/ (free)
»www.dumeter.com/ (not free)

Or just upgrade your Linksys WRT54G (or most Broadcom based routers) to DD-WRT
»www.dd-wrt.com/

An alternative to this is Tomato:
»www.polarcloud.com/tomato
reply

LeftOfSanity @ 15th Sep 08:50AM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by GhostDoggy :

I like how they exampled 125 standard definition movies, but imagine you are streaming MPEG-2 in HD. Now, I am all about moderation (too much of anything is 'suppose' to be bad for you), but they give no means for a heavy user to know how much they have used.

As a result, Comcast's efforts are as reckless as their heavy users.

If people are savvy enough to do all that, they should be savvy enough to look into meters. If not, time to learn. Be responsible for yourself.
reply

TK Junk Mail @ 15th Sep 08:56AM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by GhostDoggy :

they give no means for a heavy user to know how much they have used.

The word is that a tool to measure usage from Comcast will debut around the time that the caps come in to play - Oct 1.
reply

Lineage @ 15th Sep 09:01AM:
Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or
* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).

* Play 2,880 hours of games online! (at 15kb/s)
* Pirate 41 DVDs! (at 6GB/DVD)
* Pirate 10 BluRay Movies! (at 25gb/BluRay Movie)
* Download 71 Linux distos! (at 3.5gb/Distro)
* Download 1,000 WoW Patches! (at 250mb/Patch)
reply

MasterThomas @ 15th Sep 09:04AM:
"month" ?

I am curious of the "monthly" cap is based on the month (i.e. October) or your billing cycle ?
--
Smoker
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chas3 @ 15th Sep 09:07AM:
768K

I dropped to the economy teir -- 768K bps to save $$$. The way I calculate, if I maxed out the pipe 24/7 for 30 days I would just barely reach 250GB. Now, I haven't received an email yet, so who knows, maybe economy has a lower cap???
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Rob @ 15th Sep 09:15AM:
Re: 768K

said by chas3 :

I dropped to the economy teir -- 768K bps to save $$$. The way I calculate, if I maxed out the pipe 24/7 for 30 days I would just barely reach 250GB. Now, I haven't received an email yet, so who knows, maybe economy has a lower cap???

All tiers have the same cap, for net neutrality purposes.
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d0nni3q @ 15th Sep 09:41AM:
Direction

The 250GB is combined upload and download, correct?

Oh wait, I'm on FiOS :D
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 09:43AM:
Re: 768K

said by Rob :

All tiers have the same cap, for net neutrality purposes.

What he's saying he could be downloading 24/7 on his 768 Kbps tier and he wouldn't hit the cap. As in it's physically impossible. I personally wouldn't drop down to that slow of speed just to avoid acap sicne one would asume you wouldn't be downloading anywhere near 24/7. Not legally anyways.
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thebulldan @ 15th Sep 09:46AM:
Waiting for my email...

and of course waiting for my Friday 8AM Fios Installation! Goodbye and good riddance to Comcast!
reply

BF69 @ 15th Sep 09:48AM:
Re: Typical for me...

said by jbgroup1 :

...is about 10 GiB per month but this month has been high at 30 GiB. I also have VOIP and don't know how much that uses.

VoIP doesn't use that much. Even if you used it 24/7 it would use less than 30 GB a month.

Where Comcast is going to get into trouble is that THEIR VoIP doesn't count against the cap but Vonage, Packet 8, Skype etc VoIP service does. I have no doubt that Comcast will have to eventually make ALL VoIP traffic not count against their cap to avoid legal trouble.
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Rob @ 15th Sep 09:52AM:
Re: 768K

said by BF69 :

said by Rob :

All tiers have the same cap, for net neutrality purposes.

Yea, but the cap is still not any lower.
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 09:52AM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

LEGALLY acquired HD movies online are in the 6 GB range. So you'd have to download about 42 a month to go over the cap. Considering they cost about $6 to rent, that's $250 a month. If one can afford that I think one could afford getting a second account.
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stevephl @ 15th Sep 09:56AM:
Re: Typical for me...

I have my own issues with the impending 250GB but on the subject of VOIP, I use T-Mobile's VOIP, but I understand why Comcast excludes their own VOIP from the cap, simply it's because the users pay a VOIP fee on top of their Comcast connection where as other VOIP users do not pay Comcast any additional fee's.
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 09:56AM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

said by Lineage :

Play 2,880 hours of games online! (at 15kb/s)

Ok I know you are being sarcastic but you do realize that there are only a maximum of 720 hours in a 30 day month.
reply

BF69 @ 15th Sep 09:59AM:
Re: 768K

said by Rob :

Yea, but the cap is still not any lower.

Well no but I think his main concern is not going over the cap and also not having to monitor his usage. Like I said I personally would do what he's doing to avoid going over the cap. It takes alot to use 250 GB. I get a meter and see how much I actualy use before lowering my speeds.
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 10:02AM:
Re: Typical for me...

said by stevephl :

I have my own issues with the impending 250GB but on the subject of VOIP, I use T-Mobile's VOIP, but I understand why Comcast excludes their own VOIP from the cap, simply it's because the users pay a VOIP fee on top of their Comcast connection where as other VOIP users do not pay Comcast any additional fee's.

I'm pretty sure Vonage customers are paying Vonage for their service. Let's face facts, this is a ploy to enourage VoIP customers to use Comcast's overpriced VoIP service over others.
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Frank @ 15th Sep 10:02AM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by LeftOfSanity :

If people are savvy enough to do all that, they should be savvy enough to look into meters. If not, time to learn. Be responsible for yourself.

saavy? what are you talking about ... all you need to do is go to like abc.com or something and right there in big bold letters it says something like 'CLICK HERE TO WATCH YOUR FAVORITE SHOWS IN HD QUALITY' anybody can do that.
--
At first I thought everyone on the highway was drunk but then I realized I was driving in Florida ;)
reply

Lineage @ 15th Sep 10:03AM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

said by BF69 :

said by Lineage :

Play 2,880 hours of games online! (at 15kb/s)

Ok I know you are being sarcastic but you do realize that there are only a maximum of 720 hours in a 30 day month.

Yes. But it takes 2,880 playing hours @ 15kb/s to eat up 250GB.
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Frank @ 15th Sep 10:06AM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by BF69 :

i dont know about movies, all i know is i was streaming several gigabytes a day watching episodes of lost for free on abc.com in hd. As more and more people watch tv in hd, the streams will be available online too for free :p
--
At first I thought everyone on the highway was drunk but then I realized I was driving in Florida ;)
reply

TheMG @ 15th Sep 10:10AM:
250GB? I wish!

Now if only Shaw could give us some 250GB caps!
reply

BF69 @ 15th Sep 10:17AM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by Frank :

said by BF69 :

As far as I know ABC's "HD" offerings stream at a max rate of 2 Mbps and as low as 850 Kbps. Even if you get 2 Mbps stream all the time ofr 6 hours a day that = 150 GB a month. Leaving 100 GB left over for other things.
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 10:22AM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

said by Lineage :

said by BF69 :

said by Lineage :

Play 2,880 hours of games online! (at 15kb/s)

Ok I know you are being sarcastic but you do realize that there are only a maximum of 720 hours in a 30 day month.

Yes. But it takes 2,880 playing hours @ 15kb/s to eat up 250GB.

OK which online gaming service only uses 15 Kbps? You can even use a dail-up conection on xbox live or playstation network and dial-up is 53.3 Kbps
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 10:24AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by thebulldan :

and of course waiting for my Friday 8AM Fios Installation! Goodbye and good riddance to Comcast!

I'm pretty sure the caps won't apply to customers in areas with actual competition. So if you do live in a FioS area you won't be getting a letter.
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wenter99 @ 15th Sep 10:44AM:
Where's My E-mail?

Has anyone here actually received this e-mail advisory? I have not as of yet.
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Rob @ 15th Sep 10:49AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by BF69 :

said by thebulldan :

and of course waiting for my Friday 8AM Fios Installation! Goodbye and good riddance to Comcast!

I'm pretty sure the caps won't apply to customers in areas with actual competition. So if you do live in a FioS area you won't be getting a letter.

They apply to everyone - regardless of market, tier, or monthly rate.
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LeftOfSanity @ 15th Sep 10:50AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by thebulldan :

and of course waiting for my Friday 8AM Fios Installation! Goodbye and good riddance to Comcast!

Good Luck with that.
--
Fighting on the Internet is like winning the Special Olympics. Win or lose, your still Retarted!
reply

anon @ 15th Sep 10:58AM:
Re: Where's My E-mail?

Comcast has been doing this for over a year now. I was an At&T rep in a store and my friend used newsgroups and comcast called him and told him to cut his bandwitch or they would cancel his service. THIS WAS A YEAR AND A HALF AGO. They did not say how much to cut it, but my friend was using about 500g a month. HE cut it down to like 250g and they told him it was too much and cut his service for a year. This happened in California. They should be suied because this is the same thing that happened in Flordia where they would not specify how much you could use. So dont by that comcast crap, they are a shady company.
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thebulldan @ 15th Sep 10:54AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

Even if it is 8PM til the install - I'll be happy - 20/20 here we come!
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thebulldan @ 15th Sep 10:57AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

Comcast is really gonna screw themselves in areas with Fios with this policy. Let's see 16/2 which is throttled, shaped, and capped FTTN BS vs. 20/20 unrestricted and FTTP.

Tough choice
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jester121 @ 15th Sep 10:57AM:
Re: Typical for me...

Two posts above yours it's pointed out that VOIP doesn't use very much bandwidth at all. And that is correct.
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Rob @ 15th Sep 10:58AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by thebulldan :

Comcast is really gonna screw themselves in areas with Fios with this policy. Let's see 16/2 which is throttled, shaped, and capped FTTN BS vs. 20/20 unrestricted and FTTP.

Tough choice

FiOS isn't winning the hearts as much as everyone thinks. There are many customers who are very happy with Comcast and can get FiOS, and stay with Comcast.

The 250GB cap will only affect very few customers. It's not like you'll see everyone kicked off overnight.
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46778131 @ 15th Sep 10:59AM:
?

Should be interesting in seeing what kind of monitoring tool Comcast allows it's subs to view their monthly usage.
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cdru @ 15th Sep 11:03AM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

Sigh. I wish people would learn to use the appropriate capitalization when state speeds...

kb = kilobit
kB = kilobyte
Kb = Kelvin bit (doesn't make sense so shouldn't be used)
KB = Kelvin byte (doesn't make sense so shouldn't be used)

If you want to remove all ambiguity for those that slept through middle school science, just say kilobyte or kilobit.
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DaMaGeINC @ 15th Sep 11:11AM:
Re: Typical for me...

I would not do so good on comcast cable.

I would be @#%@#

anon @ 15th Sep 11:28AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by Rob :

I certainly enjoyed FiOS much more than Comcrap. Just called to cancel, thanks!
reply

Frank @ 15th Sep 11:40AM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by BF69 :

As far as I know ABC's "HD" offerings stream at a max rate of 2 Mbps and as low as 850 Kbps. Even if you get 2 Mbps stream all the time ofr 6 hours a day that = 150 GB a month. Leaving 100 GB left over for other things.

1) you're assuming only one person lives there :p

2) it only streams 850kbps if your connection is crappy or if your bandwidth is being taken up by other things.

3) when it does stream under 2mbps the picture quality drops and is no longer hd.
--
At first I thought everyone on the highway was drunk but then I realized I was driving in Florida ;)
reply

romulusnr @ 15th Sep 11:41AM:
usage

Of course they won't start telling us how much we're using so we can, you know, KNOW if we are going to be affected by the cap. Because that's our own job, right?

Even Ma Bell gives you a damned usage report.

That's so Comcastic!

Good thing we have choice in the BB market. Or not, depending on whether or not your area is deemed worth providing DSL or WiMax to.
reply

thebulldan @ 15th Sep 11:49AM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

I've just done side jobs for a number of people in my neighborhood who have switched to Fios in the past month. Maybe just your area where they aren't switching.
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 12:07PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by Frank :

1) you're assuming only one person lives there :p

2) it only streams 850kbps if your connection is crappy or if your bandwidth is being taken up by other things.

If there is more than 1 person in the house using the connection then #2 would apply would it not?

Also say there was 4 computers in the house. Are you suggesting that all 4 would stream HD content at the same time? So each person in the family is in his/her own little room by themsleves watching TV on their computer screens? Kind of sad isn't it?

Ayways I doubt even if you had 16 mbps connection that 4 or even 3 people could watch HD content at the same time and stream it as the max 2 mbps rate. I don't care if the math says that's only 8 Mbps. In the REAL world there would be issues with the stream.

I'm not sure why people bring up the most extreme examples. yeah sure if you have 8 people inthe house each with their own computer and each using their connections at least 16 hours a day, yes a 250 cap will be a problem. You know what I'm not worried about those people. Well I am worried, but not for the reasons we ae talking about here.
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 12:15PM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

said by cdru :

Sigh. I wish people would learn to use the appropriate capitalization when state speeds...

kb = kilobit
kB = kilobyte
Kb = Kelvin bit (doesn't make sense so shouldn't be used)
KB = Kelvin byte (doesn't make sense so shouldn't be used)

If you want to remove all ambiguity for those that slept through middle school science, just say kilobyte or kilobit.

Listen Eisntien it's pretty simple. When someone states Kbps or kbps even a retarded monkey can get the gist that one is referring to kilobits per second. Now I assume when one states KBps they are referring to kilobytes, that's the only issue. Sorry if it's too complicated for you. Try being less anal. The K is not important in whether or not it is capitalized, it's the B that is important. No one here sees a capital K and thinks "Oh why is he talking about Kelvin?". Well only guys here who can translate these posts into Klingon.

Do you feel superior now correcting me over a fricken K vs k? Do you think you scored points with people? Do you think people are impressed? Is your self worth that low that yur post was even necessary to inflate your ego? because that would be the oNLY reason for you psot. Your post added NOTHING to the discussion. It's only purpose was to state "Gosh you peole are so stupid with your upper case Ks. Didn't you pass middle school science?"

So get teh f out of her with your "I'm smarter than the rest of you attidue" because I can assure you if you want to get into some dick measuring contest except measuing IQs I'm pretty confident you would fair worse than you think.
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floydb_1982 @ 15th Sep 12:18PM:
This is why I got rid of Comcast

This is precisely why I got rid of overprice Comcast. Let's see if Comcast can try to build a foothill attracting new customers with there already high prices and monthly bandwidth caps. This is why I went with Clearwire.
reply

tekmunki @ 15th Sep 12:26PM:
Bad at math?

"a fraction of one percent of our customers"

A fraction, say 9999/10000 or .9999% That's basically 1%.

Note they didn't word this as "high speed" customers, merely customers.

From Wikipedia: (Yes i know, bad source- but these seem fairly accurate)

"Comcast serves a total of 24.2 million cable customers, 14.7 million digital cable customers, 12.9 million high-speed internet customers, and 4.1 million voice customers."

So, you could play with numbers and say Comcast has 55.9 million customers, even though these services likely overlap the larger number. We'll be fair and just use the 12.9 million, as we're talking about highspeed.

Now we don't know WHAT fraction they were saying--- it could be 1/100000... I guess that's why they hired lawyers to cover press releases.

By my math - "UP TO" ~128,999 customers are affected by this change.
--
TekMunki
"There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't."

www.tekmunki.com
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trent25 @ 15th Sep 12:48PM:
250GB for UL + DL combined?

I haven't been following this much.
The 250GB limit is the combined limit for UL + DL, right?

I am not too concerned about this. The worst month I've had was 90GB, I usually do about 40GB a month.
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snipper_cr @ 15th Sep 12:50PM:
Bugs me...

It just bugs me that many ISPs (read:comcast) are trying to offer more services instead of becoming a "dumb pipe" (which may be what the customers WANT). So they offer all these music and video services to their customers... but they are charging us against the cap for their services. You'd think things that remain in network would not count against the cap...
--
The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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anon @ 15th Sep 01:03PM:
Got one

I received one of these notices today and noticed that their FAQs stated that the in order to monitor your own usage, you would need to do a google search on "bandwidth meter" and install 3rd party software on each desktop and add those numbers together. There was no mention of an online tool. It doesn't really matter to me as I use Tomato on my router, but If I were a normal user, I would be pissed.
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sousademiami @ 15th Sep 01:12PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by TK Junk Mail :

said by GhostDoggy :

they give no means for a heavy user to know how much they have used.

The word is that a tool to measure usage from Comcast will debut around the time that the caps come in to play - Oct 1.

I have yet to see the"word." Could you please show us?
--
OASAASLLS
reply

jmn1207 @ 15th Sep 01:23PM:
Re: Typical for me...

It does not look too bad. You only breach the limit on 2 occasions in almost 2 years, and one of these was just barely exceeding the 250GB max. Considering your normal usage, you might not have been bothered in that one off month unless the system was degraded.

Don't you have two separate modems going into one router in your setup? If so, wouldn't you have two Comcast accounts with a total of 500GB (250GB each) available if you did the same thing with Comcast?
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anon @ 15th Sep 02:43PM:
Re: Typical for me...

You are right, Vonage users using Comcast pay Vonage for their VOIP. But they do not pay Comcast for their VOIP. Vonage gets away with using other people's (in this case Comcast) infrastructure for free. Which is why Vonage is cheaper than Comcast. The cost of Vonage using Comcast infrastructure is spread out to all the comcast users.

If your to-the-house telephone wires are owned by say Quest, then you use Sprint for local telephone service, Quest recoups the cost of the to-the-home infrastructure from Sprint. Not so with Comcast and Vonage.
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anon @ 15th Sep 03:46PM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

most games i play eat up atleast 500 kb/s.... atleast that's what my meter says.
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dadkins @ 15th Sep 01:31PM:
Re: They can't be trusted

said by TIGERON :

I don't care what Comcast says, they can't be trusted.

comcastissue.blogspot.com

I don't trust anything or anyone - what's your point?
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera
reply

Rob @ 15th Sep 01:34PM:
Re: Bugs me...

said by snipper_cr :

It just bugs me that many ISPs (read:comcast) are trying to offer more services instead of becoming a "dumb pipe" (which may be what the customers WANT). So they offer all these music and video services to their customers... but they are charging us against the cap for their services. You'd think things that remain in network would not count against the cap...

The reason why they aren't becoming a dumb pipe is because there are too many dumb customers. As long as there are dumb customers, there are markets for them, and Comcast (as well as every ISP) will take advantage (read: $$$) of these customers.

The fault isn't the companies - it's the customers.
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openbox9 @ 15th Sep 01:39PM:
Re: Typical for me...

Why? It looks like you would be fine with exception of March ;)
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ryang @ 15th Sep 01:41PM:
Re: Got one

said by m3rl1n :

I received one of these notices today and noticed that their FAQs stated that the in order to monitor your own usage, you would need to do a google search on "bandwidth meter" and install 3rd party software on each desktop and add those numbers together. There was no mention of an online tool. It doesn't really matter to me as I use Tomato on my router, but If I were a normal user, I would be pissed.

That's pathetic. It's also Comcastic!
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DaMaGeINC @ 15th Sep 01:44PM:
Re: Typical for me...

LOL, this is just my laptop ALONE!!! And yes. 2 connections. Soon to be a 3rd!
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jmn1207 @ 15th Sep 01:52PM:
Re: Typical for me...

said by DaMaGeINC :

LOL, this is just my laptop ALONE!!! And yes. 2 connections. Soon to be a 3rd!

Hog!! :D
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Frank @ 15th Sep 01:54PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by BF69 :

said by Frank :

1) you're assuming only one person lives there :p

2) it only streams 850kbps if your connection is crappy or if your bandwidth is being taken up by other things.

1) no, #2 wont apply if there's more than 1 person in the house. most cable connections are at LEAST 6mbps. If you were talking about a 3mbps dsl connection then i'd agree with you.

2) nowadays most people have a computer and a small TV in their room and a big TV in the living room since it's rare that anybody ever agrees on watching the same program so I don't see why you think it's far fetched for different people wanting to watch different things in their rooms?

3) you're failing to account for all the other crap that goes on and gets downloaded. IE: software updates, video game console downloads, online gaming, vpn traffic, etc. etc. etc.

4) you're also failing to account for other hd services such as hulu. also, how long do you think it will be before netflix, youtube, and other networks start streaming in hd eh?

5) I believe that the original argument you were trying to make was something along the lines of 'the only people who would use that much bandwidth was for illegal means' or at least it was so implied when you wrote 'LEGALLY' in all caps. All of the examples I listed are legal, and it is possible to easily reach said limits with a household of two or three people, thus defeating your argument, so now you're saying that it's EXTREME which is your opinion and not a fact. :D
--
At first I thought everyone on the highway was drunk but then I realized I was driving in Florida ;)
reply

dadkins @ 15th Sep 01:57PM:
Re: Bad at math?

14.4 million HSI customers(households/connections).

14,400,000

High-Speed Internet
-- Added 278,000 high-speed Internet subscribers during the second
quarter -- penetration reached 29% of homes passed or 14.4 million
customers.

»biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080730/new005.html

All things I have read state that for the past few years, the top 0.1% are getting "The Call" or "The Letter"

14.4 million would make that 14,400 "bad" customers.
Seeing as they added 278,000 *NEW* customers in the last quarter - I doubt they are worried about 14,400 leaving/getting booted.
Good riddance!
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera
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LeftOfSanity @ 15th Sep 01:59PM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

:uhh: Why do people feel the need to type in their physical expression? :Sigh: :Groan: :Moan:
Silly.
--
Fighting on the Internet is like winning the Special Olympics. Win or lose, your still Retarted!
reply

cdru @ 15th Sep 02:09PM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

said by LeftOfSanity :

:uhh: Why do people feel the need to type in their physical expression? :Sigh: :Groan: :Moan:
Silly.

Because you can't hear be do those things when I type? :Shrug:

Why do people feel the need to use smileys? :)
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cdru @ 15th Sep 02:24PM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

said by BF69 :

Listen Eisntien it's pretty simple. When someone states Kbps or kbps even a retarded monkey can get the gist that one is referring to kilobits per second...blah blah blah

Someone obviously got up on the wrong side of the bed. Take it easy. "You" wasn't originally directed directly at you, but people in general. The meaning usually can be inferred from the usage.

However in this direct thread it could actually go either way. A game could be using 15 kilobits per second, or it could be using 15 kilobytes per second. The former, easily serviceable by a dialup connection but the latter not so much so.

In fact, specifically to this thread it's "obvious" Lineage was NOT meaning kilobits. Do a little math...

15 kilobits per second * 60 seconds in a minute * 60 minutes in a hour * 2880 hours = 18.5 gigabytes
15 kilobytes per second * 60 seconds in a minute * 60 minutes in a hour * 2880 hours = 148.3 gigabytes

Neither value really uses up the entire 250 gigabyte cap. To do that it would either take a little over 25 kilobytes per second for 2880 hours or 4854+ hours at 15 kilobytes per second. So instead of trying to flame me, yelling at me for something that was never intended to be critical (in a negative way) of you or anyone else (but if you took it that way I apologize), you directly proved my point why it's good to use the proper abbreviations to remove any confusion.
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anon @ 15th Sep 02:34PM:
Another CONJOB from CONcast

CONcast shows themselves as greedy anti-customer bastards. Each Comcast Executive is nothing more than filth, literal sh*t.

We need to do everything we can to destroy Comcast as a company. Put it into bankruptcy.. End it's commission.

Otherwise they will do all they can to destory the internet as a free medium of information.

The real agenda behind this is to halt the flow of information.
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cdru @ 15th Sep 02:45PM:
Re: Bad at math?

said by tekmunki :

"a fraction of one percent of our customers"

A fraction, say 9999/10000 or .9999% That's basically 1%.

9999/10000 is .01%. 1% of 10000 is 100.

According to the previous article:

quote:
According to this source, the new system should only impact some 14,000 customers out of Comcast's 14.1 million users (i.e. the top 0.1%).

cdru @ 15th Sep 02:48PM:
Re: Bad at math?

said by dadkins :

Seeing as they added 278,000 *NEW* customers in the last quarter - I doubt they are worried about 14,400 leaving/getting booted.
Good riddance!

Remember though, that there is always going to be a "Top .1%". You may not be in it today or tomorrow....but eventually.

First they came for the...
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swhitney2003 @ 15th Sep 02:54PM:
curious...

I am curious as to when/if Comcast will ever release their official bandwidth meter. I'm sure there will be an uproar of users here posting that their measurements aren't matching Comcast's (those upset that Comcast's numbers are showing more throughput then their own, and then those who are happy that Comcast's #'s are lower then their own).

Personally I don't think Comcast should implement one... they shouldn't have to. If users are heavy users, then they should know to cut back (and should have the insight to track their own usage). Like Comcast says... the majority of users have absolutely nothing to worry about, since this change is of no effect.
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dadkins @ 15th Sep 02:56PM:
Re: Bad at math?

200-300 Inviso of yesteryear...
250 as of Oct 1st...
I am going out on a limb here, but by the time *I* am a "bad" customer, I will have been dead for a decade or two.

No worries! ;)
--
Think outside the Fox... Opera
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cdru @ 15th Sep 03:03PM:
Re: Bad at math?

It depends on if they are chopping off the Top .1% of customers, or the top .1% of bandwidth users. There could theoretically be a difference in those numbers.
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Scree @ 15th Sep 03:16PM:
so

so when's the hack coming out for internet over voip? :D
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bbrlogue @ 15th Sep 03:18PM:
Re: Typical for me...

said by WinterHawk :

Vonage gets away with using other people's (in this case Comcast) infrastructure for free.

LOL, then so does your porn service, Google, Yahoo, Barack Obama, John McCain, and just about everybody else then!
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espaeth @ 15th Sep 03:28PM:
Re: Bad at math?

said by cdru :

Remember though, that there is always going to be a "Top .1%". You may not be in it today or tomorrow....but eventually.

How will you be in it eventually if there is a stated value of 250GB?

It's possible for 100% of the subscriber base to comply with that restriction and not get cut.
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jmn1207 @ 15th Sep 03:30PM:
Re: Typical for me...

If it were measurable, could I set a cap or charge advertisers that utilize my senses? I'd give large corporations huge discounts on my sound and vision package. They can pipe all their advertisements through my eyes and ears for only a few dollars each month. If they exceed their allotted bandwidth limit, I'll send them a bill for few thousand dollars and we can work out a settlement. :D
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cdru @ 15th Sep 03:37PM:
Re: Bad at math?

said by espaeth :

said by cdru :

Remember though, that there is always going to be a "Top .1%". You may not be in it today or tomorrow....but eventually.

How will you be in it eventually if there is a stated value of 250GB?

It's possible for 100% of the subscriber base to comply with that restriction and not get cut.

250GB is just an arbitrary value that Comcast decided to pick. Supposedly .1% of their customers exceed 250GB per month. Eliminate those customers and everything is fine and dandy.

But now there are a new group of "Top .1% Users". Say they download 225GB+ /month. What's to stop Comcast from cutting of the new block of users...it's only the top .1%. They deserve to be cut off, right? Rinse, repeat.

Yes it's a worst-case type of scenario, but do you really think it's going to stop just at 250GB?
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espaeth @ 15th Sep 03:40PM:
Re: Bad at math?

said by cdru :

Yes it's a worst-case type of scenario, but do you really think it's going to stop just at 250GB?

Yes. I really think it's going to stop at 250GB, unless technology and market forces are going to change significantly in the near term.
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cdru @ 15th Sep 03:47PM:
Re: Bad at math?

said by espaeth :

said by cdru :

Yes it's a worst-case type of scenario, but do you really think it's going to stop just at 250GB?

Yes. I really think it's going to stop at 250GB, unless technology and market forces are going to change significantly in the near term.

Bandwidth usage is only going to increase. So while grandma isn't downloading full length blu-ray HD DVDs today, it's not too far off. If Comcast can't or won't scale up their network, I place my money on another round of caps to help ease the "growing pains".
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espaeth @ 15th Sep 04:05PM:
Re: Bad at math?

said by cdru :

Bandwidth usage is only going to increase. So while grandma isn't downloading full length blu-ray HD DVDs today, it's not too far off. If Comcast can't or won't scale up their network, I place my money on another round of caps to help ease the "growing pains"

That's not the same as saying bandwidth caps will decrease.

As long as the increase in usage roughly correlates to advancement of broadband delivery technology deployment then there's not an issue. The problem is explosive growth against an infrastructure that has limited scaling opportunity.

In terms of short term impact, it's unrealistic to expect that your usage of broadband can change drastically (in the way you are suggesting) and not have that affect the pricing / feasibility of the service.
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sousademiami @ 15th Sep 04:30PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

Here it is:
"How does Comcast help its customers track their usage so they can avoide exceeding the limit?

There are many online tools customers can download and use to measure their consumption. Customers can find such tools by simply doing a Web search - for example, a search for "bandwidth meter" will provide some options. Customers using multiple PCs should just be aware that they will need to measure and combine their total monthly usage in order to identify the data usage for their entire account."

»ccbeta.comcast.com/(X(1)S(qftkav···eter#why
--
OASAASLLS
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RARPSL @ 15th Sep 04:30PM:
Re: Just to add to the measurement-by-activity fun

said by cdru :

Sigh. I wish people would learn to use the appropriate capitalization when state speeds...

kb = kilobit
kB = kilobyte

If you want to remove all ambiguity for those that slept through middle school science, just say kilobyte or kilobit.

There is also:

kib = kilibit
kiB = kilibyte

The difference between k and ki is that k=1000 while ki=1024 thus kib is 1024 bits not the 1000 bits of kb. This can be a major difference since by using 1000 not 1024 you make the numbers look larger (all the speeds are actually 1024 based not 1000 based but using 1000 makes them look larger/better).
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 04:38PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by Frank :

1) no, #2 wont apply if there's more than 1 person in the house. most cable connections are at LEAST 6mbps. If you were talking about a 3mbps dsl connection then i'd agree with you.

2) nowadays most people have a computer and a small TV in their room and a big TV in the living room since it's rare that anybody ever agrees on watching the same program so I don't see why you think it's far fetched for different people wanting to watch different things in their rooms?

3) you're failing to account for all the other crap that goes on and gets downloaded. IE: software updates, video game console downloads, online gaming, vpn traffic, etc. etc. etc.

4) you're also failing to account for other hd services such as hulu. also, how long do you think it will be before netflix, youtube, and other networks start streaming in hd eh?

5) I believe that the original argument you were trying to make was something along the lines of 'the only people who would use that much bandwidth was for illegal means' or at least it was so implied when you wrote 'LEGALLY' in all caps. All of the examples I listed are legal, and it is possible to easily reach said limits with a household of two or three people, thus defeating your argument, so now you're saying that it's EXTREME which is your opinion and not a fact. :D

No I didn't imply that. All I ask is for clarification. if you "downloaded" a movie well there very few LEGITIMATE places to get those vs many where it's illegal. All I'm asking is where. Also if someone says this puts a crimp in thier 8 GB movie downloads well I know that's illegal because even HD downloads are at most 6 GB and most SD movies are 2 GB. And frankly if someone is in fact downloading illegally I don't care if a cap impacts that. GOOD.

right now there's very little HD streaming going on. I went to ABC.com they have very little HD content. Certainly not enough that you could watch 12 hours a day every day. As far as Hulu, most of their stuff isn't even in 480p yet. Most of it is 360p. They have very little in HD. And I suspect "HD" will mean 540p. Even it's it's 720p once again were talking a couple of years before the majority of their content is in 720p. By then Comcast should have docsis 3.0 in all their areas and either raising the cap or getting rid of it all together.

Now if everyone in the house is getting most of their TV through sites like Hulu then why not just cancel cable and use the savings to have another internet account?
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Soldae @ 15th Sep 04:57PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

This is just a way for Comcast to hamper innovation. It's simple to use examples of current technology and say "oh 250gb cap is plenty!" Yet, earlier someone posted a log of basically his UL & DL for a year. You can see that in just one year, he's been increasing his usage on ONE computer. The point is more to look toward the (hopefully) near future. They want a foothold to say "well we've had a cap now for awhile, we're not changing it." This will keep HD streaming from becoming more of a reality. Watching TV on your computers will have its growth slowed to a crawl. What happens if you can't watch TV on your computer? You watch Comcasts cable. If you can't use Netflix to stream your movies? You use Comcasts on-demand.

I have two computers (soon to be a third) on my network, a PSP, a DS, a Wii, an Xbox360 and a PS3. I really don't want to have to monitor how much bandwidth I'm using each month just because Comcast doesn't want to spend money to accommodate the people it has sold service to. I also don't want to see new, innovative products, get hampered because people are afraid of going over some limit.
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TK Junk Mail @ 15th Sep 05:41PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by sousademiami :

Here it is:
"How does Comcast help its customers track their usage so they can avoide exceeding the limit?

There are many online tools customers can download and use to measure their consumption. Customers can find such tools by simply doing a Web search - for example, a search for "bandwidth meter" will provide some options. Customers using multiple PCs should just be aware that they will need to measure and combine their total monthly usage in order to identify the data usage for their entire account."

»ccbeta.comcast.com/(X(1)S(qftkav···eter#why

Very good. You quoted the official release. But there will be a Comcast supplied monitoring tool according to insiders - which you apparently aren't privy to like I am.
--
My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page
Ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya punk?
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anon @ 15th Sep 05:49PM:
Re: Typical for me...

Didn't I read someplace that Comcast actually splits their VOIP offering out from their internet service?

Basically, while it is technically VoIP services, It doesn't actually use the same IP network as their consumer internet does. If that's the case, then I can easily see them not running into any legal trouble since it's technically not using the same connection/network as other VoIP providers.

And before people complain about Comcast not giving Vonage/etc access to the same network/connection Connection, I'd like to see how that would work in the first place. If Comcast is basically just using VoIP for the last mile, but is switching everything like a "traditional" phone service the rest of the way, then I don't see how vonage or other VoIP providers can complain since their connection to the "traditional" phone network is located much further from the end user.

(NOTE: "Traditional phone service" in this day an age is still switched digitally, but the network routes and operates very differently from the internet... And the phone network is also seperate from the internet network.)
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 05:52PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

said by Soldae :

It's simple to use examples of current technology and say "oh 250gb cap is plenty!" Yet, earlier someone posted a log of basically his UL & DL for a year. You can see that in just one year, he's been increasing his usage on ONE computer. The point is more to look toward the (hopefully) near future. They want a foothold to say "well we've had a cap now for awhile, we're not changing it." This will keep HD streaming from becoming more of a reality. Watching TV on your computers will have its growth slowed to a crawl. What happens if you can't watch TV on your computer? You watch Comcasts cable.

No you go with Dish network or DirecTv to keep your money out of Comcast's pocket.

If you can't use Netflix to stream your movies? You use Comcasts on-demand.

Just do it the old fashioned way and rent them. Yeah a pain but it keeps the money out of Comcast's pocket.

I have two computers (soon to be a third) on my network, a PSP, a DS, a Wii, an Xbox360 and a PS3. I really don't want to have to monitor how much bandwidth I'm using each month just because Comcast doesn't want to spend money to accommodate the people it has sold service to. I also don't want to see new, innovative products, get hampered because people are afraid of going over some limit.

Comcast is rolling out docsis 3.0 starting at the end of this year. So to say they aren't spending money on improvements is false.

If you don't want to monitor your bandwidth then you are just going to have to use another ISP then. That's the reality of the situation.

As far a your gaming. Playing online would use maybe 15 GB a month and that's playing 10 hours a day.
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BF69 @ 15th Sep 05:55PM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by Rob :

said by BF69 :

said by thebulldan :

and of course waiting for my Friday 8AM Fios Installation! Goodbye and good riddance to Comcast!

I'm pretty sure the caps won't apply to customers in areas with actual competition. So if you do live in a FioS area you won't be getting a letter.

They apply to everyone - regardless of market, tier, or monthly rate.

I highly doubt that. I guess if they want to commit business suicide. You have to be semi-retarded now to use Comcast if you have FiOS in your area now. You'd have to be super retarded to use them after this cap goes in and you have cap free and cheaper and faster FiOS available.
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DNCS Guy @ 15th Sep 05:57PM:
Re: so

I think it's already out, although I understand speed is kinda limited. Search for something called "dial-up".

:D
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Rob @ 15th Sep 06:02PM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by BF69 :

I highly doubt that. I guess if they want to commit business suicide. You have to be semi-retarded now to use Comcast if you have FiOS in your area now. You'd have to be super retarded to use them after this cap goes in and you have cap free and cheaper and faster FiOS available.

Doubt it all you want. It applies to everyone. Comcast competes on prices, not caps. A customer who uses the Internet to check their email, chat online, check the news/sports, etc won't care that they have a 250GB cap - instead they'll care that they are saving $10-$15/mo. by using Comcast and not FiOS.
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anon @ 15th Sep 08:39PM:
Cancel your service

I work in the industry and I'm going to tell you that they are BETA testing this pricing model and keeping a close eye on who is going to cancel service and how many. If you let them do this you will be stuck with this pricing model FOREVER and I'm not kidding.

Cancel your service with Comcast as soon as October 1st hits and anyone else who gives you a cap. Trust me if all of you guys do this it will not last until Spring. I'm telling everyone that all you guys have is this one shot to make them listen.
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joker5656 @ 15th Sep 09:25PM:
Band Width Meter Program

How do you watch your bandwidth when you connect a Xbox or PS3 or Wii? the meter will only watch the computer. I demand a automatic stop of service if they implement this. Glad I'm a charter customer.
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anon @ 15th Sep 10:29PM:
250 G cap seems like a lot now, it wont be for long!

It's true that most of us never come close to exceeding 250G/mo. However as more services become available people will use there internet connection more and more. It will be interesting to see how this plays out a year or two from now. I’m willing to bet that the majority of users will become "excessive users". What does Comcast do if the majority of there users are continually hitting their caps? Will Comcast raise there cap to accommodate the new usage trend? I don’t think so! Instead they will come out with tiered pricing and charge for overages! More Gravy for Comcast!
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Matthewb @ 16th Sep 12:20AM:
Do Blast! users get a higher cap?

Any word if Blast! users get a higher cap?
--
Matt
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wispalord @ 16th Sep 01:12AM:
CAPS

i hace charter 16/2 4 pc's and VoIP my router is DD-WRT so it logs my bandwidth, and i download alot and stream from hulu and netflix, online games, ect, and i never use more than 100gb a month, so 250 i guess is ok as long as they let you like pay for more if you go over instead of cut you off.
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RR Conductor @ 16th Sep 06:13AM:
I already reported this in the Comcast forum :)

»Did anybody else get the new AUP in their email?
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schlice114 @ 16th Sep 01:00PM:
I don't get it

They could simply force you to either move to a higher pricing tier, or stop your service. So why are they cutting users off for a year? Punishment? When you come back after a year, you have to choose a higher plan anyway, so why not let them choose a higher plan right away rather than cutting them off for a year?
--
Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
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anon @ 16th Sep 01:27PM:
Re: Another CONJOB from CONcast

I agree. Comcast has to be one of the greediest pieces of shit companies out there. I remember when I first started using them for internet and tv, my bill was $80 per month. 5 years later it as more than doubled, and the only thing I've gotten is a bit higher download rate (which are really don't notice). The tv service is the same (unless you count all the useless channels they throw in as filler).

One thing that really burned me was during the writer's strike. We all know that there was nothing really good to watch for quite a long time. So what did Comcast do about to help out their customers? They raised the price of their movies!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been recently pushing my town to allow fiber optics cable installs. I've sent 100 emails. Hopefully this happens so that I can switch to Verizon (I've had much better past experiences with them).
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HFB1217 @ 16th Sep 01:35PM:
Got the message

Received the e-mail last night and at first had a fright I was getting a warning letter.

No big deal for my usage but i will be keeping an eye on my usage.

I guess as soon as Verizon covers my area it is good by Comcast.
--
****aka The WIZARD **** A Founding member Seti BBR Team Starfire****
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anon @ 16th Sep 02:00PM:
My planned October Usage: 249Mb

I'm going to be running bitorrent and seeding everything i can find all month until I hit about 240Mb+.

If Comcast wants to set a cap, I will do my best to hit it.
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FunnyBones @ 16th Sep 05:31PM:
hmmmmm

* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or
* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).

Why do they try to make this look so large when the pages you visit take up space too and standard definition is old age many things coming out is high def and songs many of them can be well over 4 MB and email 5 kb ummm what if you write a letter to you family it can be well over 4 kb and lets not forget if you send a photo or use news groups.
--
Are you part of the cattle?
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anon @ 17th Sep 03:48PM:
Re: Waiting for my email...

said by thebulldan :

and of course waiting for my Friday 8AM Fios Installation! Goodbye and good riddance to Comcast!

I've been on it for about a year with the 20/5 package.. It is glorious. The way I see it, comcast is doing a hack n' slash on the small minority because their archaic system (that they do not want to pay to overhaul like verizon is doing) cannot keep up with current and future demands.

This situation they are creating will only get worse as HD content becomes the norm. I have 4 different pc's in my house with people on them at the same time more often than not and i'm sure my usage is way past the comcast cap. Verizon is not worried since they could easily do 100-200mbs per person (with GPon) without any slowdown for anyone else. Now thats forward thinking.
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anon @ 17th Sep 05:04PM:
Comcast vs. Xbox Live

Does anyone have any experience with broadband usage of Xbox Live? My kid has an Xbox 360, and desperately wants a subscription to XBox Live. I'm worried how this service impacts the broadband usage, now that Comcast is imposing caps.
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anon @ 18th Sep 06:01PM:
Re: Typical for me...

said by BF69 :

said by jbgroup1 :

...is about 10 GiB per month but this month has been high at 30 GiB. I also have VOIP and don't know how much that uses.

BF69, why do you say VOIP doesn't use that much? By my calculation I can talk on the phone for a little over 11 hours per month. Over that I will get into trouble with Comcast.

I have Vonage, and its bandwidth saver has three settings: 30kbps (normal sound quality), 50kbps (higher sound quality) and 90kbps (highest sound quality). I'm using the mid-range 50kbps.

By my calculation, 50kbps=6.24kBps, so I would use my entire 250GB allotment if I talk on the phone for 250,000,000/6240 seconds.
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anon @ 20th Sep 12:24PM:
Only the begining

Some things in life need to be fought because of the principle of the thing.

The current cap was obviously chosen to get maximum acceptance so is probably much higher than comcast would have liked. But they know that once its implemented they can ratchet it down or even hold it stable when new more bandwidth hungry services come in like streaming HD video (which erodes their own video services as well as increasing their costs).

The meter is coming and cannot be avoided now I'm afraid but I think its a problem when most people can only chose between one or two service providers who will obviously help each other keep the rates high.

Society has benefited greatly from the internet and innovation has benefited mankind. Now we're all hooked, the 'drug dealers' are going to put the prices up to make more money.

So stop worrying about what your using now and start looking forward to what you'll have to pay for tomorrow's services.
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u3912974 @ 21st Sep 03:49PM:
I got a letter from Comcast re caps

Does this mean that I am a heavy user? Or is this letter to all users?
...."excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may degrade the online experience of other customers...."
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anon @ 22nd Sep 01:32PM:
Re: Typical for me...

In case anyone cares, I made a calculation error in the above. I used three too few zeros for 250GB. So at Vonage's 50kbps setting, I should have more like 11,000 hours of talk time per month. I should be able to say everything I need to say in this amount of time. Plus 11,000 hours vastly exceeds the amount of time anyone can talk in a month.
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jmn1207 @ 22nd Sep 01:45PM:
Re: Typical for me...

said by Eric 74 :

Plus 11,000 hours vastly exceeds the amount of time anyone can talk in a month.

It may not be mathematically possible, but a teenage girl can probably find a way to make it happen. :)
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anon @ 27th Sep 07:57PM:
Re: Conveniently ignore HD

Funny that you're "privy" to insider info as I just got my Comcast service turned back on after 2 weeks of fighting with idiots in their "acceptable usage department" (at least that's what they called it. I was informed that not only does that department have no escalation abilities (I got hung up on my a couple of techs when I asked for proof of overage or a meter supplied by Comcast showing their official usage tracking) but that Comcast DOES NOT /NOR DO THEY PLAN TO OFFER however if I were "smart enough" to do a simple google search for "bandwidth usage meters" the techs were sure I could find something to track my usage. They agreed to turn my service back on but warned me if I went over 1 more time they'd disconnect my service for 12 months (Keep in mind the supposed effective date of this cap is supposed to be Oct 1, 2008, yet I was shut off in Mid Sept!) I'm paying almost $60.00 per month and I'm lucky to get 750kbps download speed!

Comcast is getting worse by the minute. Qwest's fiber optic service is looking more appealing by the minute. Even if they have terrible caps on their service at least I'd be able to reach those caps at the advertised speeds I'm paying for instead of some crappy speed limit imposed upon me by a company who won't do anything other than offer, at my cost, to replace my modem or rewire my house as it "could" be part of my speed problem according to them/their "how to deal with a customer reporting they've noticed our speed caps" script!
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