Comcast Cuts Internet Service to Bandwidth Hogs

[lucky13]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090602545.html?hpid=topnews

From the Washington Post:

"To trigger a disconnection warning, customers would be downloading the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four full-length movies every day." Not clear where the reporter got this estimate from.

[Brandon428]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090602545.html?hpid=topnews

From the Washington Post:

"To trigger a disconnection warning, customers would be downloading the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four full-length movies every day." Not clear where the reporter got this estimate from.

VDSL and FIOS will eventually take over cable.

[txtommy]

"To trigger a disconnection warning, customers would be downloading the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four full-length movies every day." Not clear where the reporter got this estimate from.

Wow! 1000 songs!!! Try downloading even a few songs with Hughesnet and you'll be subject to their FAP, fair access policy. Movies?? VOD?? Not a chance.

[Stuart Sweet]

So far I haven't read any cases from DBSTalkers where they have been cut off. Post them if you've got them, folks.

[Earl Bonovich]

We have discussed this a few times already..

IMHO... unless COMCAST provides a way for users to monitor their usage, and clearly state the limit.....

They are asking for trouble.

If they start to disconnect users on a regular basis... you will start to see lawsuits and other things start to appear... and they will eventually start to lose in the court of public opinion, if not in the court of law.

They want to sell it as unlimited, but while in fact it is limited.

Broadband access, is starting to cross into the releam of a UTILITY.... and if they are not carefull it is going to start to be regulated as a UTILITY.

Broadband is not just for the "web" anymore.... Phone Service, Security Services, WORK, ect....

I guarantee... If COMCAST shuts off my service, without giving me the ability to monitor the usage and a stated level.... or if I determin they have "altered" my service...

I will use the "voice" I have here in the Forum world, and internet world... and make damn sure that people know what is going on.

[DrZaiusATL]

I have not been cutoff but this story worries me. I have charter and I torrent from time to time. I hope Charter does not get the same idea.

[syphix]

I will use the "voice" I have here in the Forum world, and internet world... and make damn sure that people know what is going on.B-b-but...how will you do that if they cut off your internet? ;)


(yes, I know you have a Verizon card, too!:))

[Earl Bonovich]

Just thought of my headline:

COMCAST cuts off 911 service..... Endangers families

;)

[Doug Brott]

My DSL service provider has told me that I get what I pay for .. I can push as much bandwidth as possible through the lines. While it was never a problem for me when I had cable, this was just one of those little digs that I always hated with Comcast.

[Stuart Sweet]

Yep, that's how you do it. The big hook back a couple of years ago was "Don't switch to cable-provided phone or Vonage, their 911 service could leave you stranded". It was quite successful.

[Nick]

Internet a utility? Be careful what you ask for...

What is needed is a metered pay-as-you-go system where high bandwidth users
(and abusers) pay higher rates. This is very appropriate since some of you are
already calling Internet access a "utility", comparing it to water, natural gas and
electricity usage, and like utilities, the more bandwidth you use, the more you pay.
And if your bandwidth usage is so huge (not hugh) that it places unreasonable
demands on the ISP's systems, or if it interferes with other users then you get
throttled down or, worse case, cut off entirely.

IMO, that's the only equitable way to fairly allocate bandwidth

[BubblePuppy]

Internet a utility? Be careful what you ask for...

What is needed is a metered pay-as-you-go system where high bandwidth users
(and abusers) pay higher rates. This is very appropriate since some of you are
already calling Internet access a "utility", comparing it to water, natural gas and
electricity usage, and like utilities, the more bandwidth you use, the more you pay.
And if your bandwidth usage is so huge (not hugh) that it places unreasonable
demands on the ISP's systems, or if it interferes with other users then you get
throttled down or, worse case, cut off entirely.

IMO, that's the only equitable way to fairly allocate bandwidth

How would this affect D* VOD requirements.?

[BubblePuppy]

We have discussed this a few times already..

IMHO... unless COMCAST provides a way for users to monitor their usage, and clearly state the limit.....

They are asking for trouble.

If they start to disconnect users on a regular basis... you will start to see lawsuits and other things start to appear... and they will eventually start to lose in the court of public opinion, if not in the court of law.

They want to sell it as unlimited, but while in fact it is limited.

Broadband access, is starting to cross into the releam of a UTILITY.... and if they are not carefull it is going to start to be regulated as a UTILITY.

Broadband is not just for the "web" anymore.... Phone Service, Security Services, WORK, ect....

I guarantee... If COMCAST shuts off my service, without giving me the ability to monitor the usage and a stated level.... or if I determin they have "altered" my service...

I will use the "voice" I have here in the Forum world, and internet world... and make damn sure that people know what is going on.

Here! Here! Excellent!!!!

[flexoffset]

It was postulated at Slashdot why Comcast operates in this manner and it seems to make sense to me.

The theory is that if Comcast said their dowload limit is 300GB / month then more people would become bandwidth hogs since they know what the limit is. This would put further strain on Comcast Cable.

I completely agree that Comcast should have a maintenance page showing the monthly usage so we can monitor it. ALSO, perhaps show the monthly usage of the entire node so we could police ourselves. Perhaps have a little tab on the node quota to show what percentile I'm in. Seems easy enough.

Our company has BellSouth internet. It shows our quota and usage on the maintenance page. They provide a progress bar showing the current usage of a particular month vs. the allocated quota. It is only fair to do it that way.

[Earl Bonovich]

The theory is that if Comcast said their dowload limit is 300GB / month then more people would become bandwidth hogs since they know what the limit is. This would put further strain on Comcast Cable.


It's a catch 21.5 (not a real catch 22)... I think that is a crock of an answer by Comcast...

So... we are not going to tell you the limit, because if we do.... everyone is going to all of a sudden start to use the system more... just to the point of the limit....

Come on now....

That is similar to my city putting the watering restrictions in place...
Do people actually "increase" their usage of watering, because the restriction is KNOWN?

Or are they simply going to follow and understand the restriction, and change their watering pattern to comply with the restriction, but not necessarily do it more often...

[n-spring]

Funny ... I have no such restrictions or bandwidth throttles on my DSL line. Cable has always treated broadband as an entertainment medium. Try getting any kind of refund or restitution if you lose Internet access in the middle of a business day.

I think this is all a side effect of the nature of the beast. DSL is technically a switched, point-to-point solution, whereas cable is a hub, shared bandwidth solution. They don't want you as a cable broadband bandwidth hog to cause your neighbors to start complaining that their Internet access is slow.

[DCSholtis]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20633771/

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 company declines to reveal its download limits.

"You have no way of knowing how much is too much," said Sandra Spalletta of Rockville, whose Internet service was suspended in March after Comcast sent her a letter warning that she and her teenage son were using too much bandwidth. They cut back on downloads but were still disconnected. She said the company would not tell her how to monitor their bandwidth use in order to comply with the limits.

[HIPAR]

Funny ... I have no such restrictions or bandwidth throttles on my DSL line. Cable has always treated broadband as an entertainment medium. Try getting any kind of refund or restitution if you lose Internet access in the middle of a business day.

I think this is all a side effect of the nature of the beast. DSL is technically a switched, point-to-point solution, whereas cable is a hub, shared bandwidth solution. They don't want you as a cable broadband bandwidth hog to cause your neighbors to start complaining that their Internet access is slow.

You haven't been sanctioned yet. It's true that each of us DSL users has a private line to the central office. But the conglomerate bit rate goes up when your packets are concentrated with those from other users while being routed to the destination. If there is a bottleneck at a concentration point, everyones service will suffer.

My Verizon DSL started at 740 kilobits and has be slowly deteriorating to where it is now at 680 kilobits. Unless they upgrade their infrastructure, this trend will continue as the service becomes more oversold and the hogs proliferate.

My brother's Comcast cable service became so abysmal that FireFox would often time out waiting for a connection. He dumped them.

--- CHAS

[skakusha]

Ouch. This would hit me hard. I have a work from home office and I am on VOIP. I usually have my work laptop running right next to my personal MacBook. I could see being an offender since I have dual usage and my home is my office. Especially with VOd, I can imagine my usage will shoot up.

I think this is ridiculous. As many have said it is sold as unlimited, and now they want to place a limit.

[skakusha]

I wonder how this will effect Slingbox users. Will they start monitoring uploads to?

[Steve Mehs]

Try getting any kind of refund or restitution if you lose Internet access in the middle of a business day.

I'm not with Comcast, but Time Warner, I have a normal residential account, and yes I have received a full invoice credit and same day services for issues that were on my end not theirs. I wouldn't trade my cable connection for Verizon's lame 3Mb (which does not qualify as 'high speed' in 2007 IMO) DSL if my life depended on it.

[DrZaiusATL]

I have to agree with Steve. Telephone companies are dated entities that charge way to much for their limited infrastructure. Verizon is obvioulsy trying to do something about it with FIOS but that only does you good if you live in one of their small distribution area's. Their rollout is progressing at a snails pace.

I have Charter and I have no problem admitting that I do Torrent information from time to time. I have received no letters or threats of any kind. I WOULD NOT GO BACK TO DSL TO SAVE MY LIFE.

The Bells are a big bottle neck to technology. There infrastructure has not changed in 20 years but their billing sure has.

[satwood]

I'm pleased for those of you that have Charter and are pleased with their service. Their treatment of me has been abysmal and I am telling anyone that will listen because I am very concerned about some of the implications. We have Charter broadband for our internet service and it is frequently down and we see interruptions in connections numerous times. This past summer I was away in CA and the service went down again. We have VoIP so that means no home phone, 911, internet messaging, work server, etc. I called them to come out to fix it (as I have done many times) and they said it would take at least a week. I explained that we have VoIP so having it down for a week is a real hardship. That's when they told me that in that case they would take action to cancel my service. They explained that they do not support or permit VoIP over their "entertaiment only" service. Plus since they have their own phone product, at $10 more per month, using my own VoIP is a competitive threat for them and violation of the Terms of Service. I looked up the TOS and of course found nothing about VoIP. We did without phone service all week until I got home.

The next week, they did not show up for a scheduled appointment. The reason was that they called on our home phone line and got no answer. I explained that was why I left my cell phone number on the account, that our home phone is out, and they told me they would NOT ever come to my house for service unless the wired home phone number was working and someone answered to be there. This was after 6 or 7 previous calls to them and I went insane! Further calls led to no solution and they never were willing to repair my service.

As it turns out, they had a broken wire coming to our house through a bad splice that I fixed by climbing the side of the house myself and repairing it -- a violation of the TOS no doubt. I then sent them a letter which was ignored asking for service credit. They have ignored me every since.

The implications here are ominous. Video on demand downloads provided by D* but blocked or reason for disconnect by Charter. VoIP Phone service interrupted unless I buy their phone service package instead. No other rural option for internet access without uplink delays. Ugh, I can hear the lawyers at the gates now.

OK, that was my vent...:grin:

[HIPAR]

I explained that we have VoIP so having it down for a week is a real hardship. That's when they told me that in that case they would take action to cancel my service. They explained that they do not support or permit VoIP over their "entertaiment only" service. Plus since they have their own phone product, at $10 more per month, using my own VoIP is a competitive threat for them and violation of the Terms of Service. I looked up the TOS and of course found nothing about VoIP. We did without phone service all week until I got home.



That's a major disadvantage of using a service that is not regulated as a utility as a utility.

--- CHAS

[code4code5]

Here's the problem with considering bandwidth a utility. Utilities are, by nature, necessities and are limited natural resources. I live in Colorado, and we've been a drought for about ten years. I understand that if I use a lot of water, I'm going to pay a lot for that water because there just isn't that much to go around. No amount of infrastructure is going to fix that unless we can somehow force it to snow this winter.

By the same philosophy, do we charge the 14-year-old kid more for using local telephone service than someone (like myself) who only makes a couple of landline calls per week? Even cellular phone companies, with their limited resources, have gotten away from the traditional model of per minute fees.

The long of the short; who cares how much bandwidth you're using? I pay every month for a connection based on speed, not based upon the amount of usage I'm allowed. The terms of service were as such when I signed up, and any change to that term of service would need my authorization or I walk. If you ask my opinion, it's Comcast's way of needling at DirecTV and trying to lure customers to their brand of service. Makes me glad that I have Qwest DSL, which partners with D*. I will be extremely surprised if any concerns like this pop up with them.

[Renard]

So I wonder about VOD with Directv :nono2:
Sorry sir you are using too much bandwidth, we have to cut your internet or do some traffic shaping. Otherwise you can use Comcast VOD instead of Directv VOD, no traffic shaping, and we won't cut your internet because you use our service :nono2: :confused: :rolleyes: :nono: :mad:
I suppose we are going to see more and more of these practices. Today P2P, tomorrow what else. Sorry sir this program, or this service is using too much bandwidth, we have to put some restrictions on it :mad: :(


http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Responds-To-Traffic-Shaping-Accusations-86816

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r18323368-Re-Comcast-is-using-Sandvine-to-manage-P2P-Connections~fmode=full~days=10

[stogie5150]

I'm pleased for those of you that have Charter and are pleased with their service. Their treatment of me has been abysmal and I am telling anyone that will listen because I am very concerned about some of the implications. We have Charter broadband for our internet service and it is frequently down and we see interruptions in connections numerous times. This past summer I was away in CA and the service went down again. We have VoIP so that means no home phone, 911, internet messaging, work server, etc. I called them to come out to fix it (as I have done many times) and they said it would take at least a week. I explained that we have VoIP so having it down for a week is a real hardship. That's when they told me that in that case they would take action to cancel my service. They explained that they do not support or permit VoIP over their "entertaiment only" service. Plus since they have their own phone product, at $10 more per month, using my own VoIP is a competitive threat for them and violation of the Terms of Service. I looked up the TOS and of course found nothing about VoIP. We did without phone service all week until I got home.

The next week, they did not show up for a scheduled appointment. The reason was that they called on our home phone line and got no answer. I explained that was why I left my cell phone number on the account, that our home phone is out, and they told me they would NOT ever come to my house for service unless the wired home phone number was working and someone answered to be there. This was after 6 or 7 previous calls to them and I went insane! Further calls led to no solution and they never were willing to repair my service.

As it turns out, they had a broken wire coming to our house through a bad splice that I fixed by climbing the side of the house myself and repairing it -- a violation of the TOS no doubt. I then sent them a letter which was ignored asking for service credit. They have ignored me every since.

The implications here are ominous. Video on demand downloads provided by D* but blocked or reason for disconnect by Charter. VoIP Phone service interrupted unless I buy their phone service package instead. No other rural option for internet access without uplink delays. Ugh, I can hear the lawyers at the gates now.

OK, that was my vent...:grin:

...And the Directv Fanboys wonder why we won't leave when we get mad at them...its beause Charter is WORSE, that's why. :lol: