Comcast Abolishes 250-Gigabyte Cap

[Philip_J_Fry]

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/05/...-gigabyte-cap/

good news, somewhat.. i guess

“Our network is not an unlimited and free resource,” Mr. Cohen said, adding that “fair pricing models” in the future will include varied pricing based on differing uses of the broadband network. “Customers are used to those pricing models in other contexts” in the mobile phone industry and with other Internet service providers, he added.

The cable operator plans to experiment with a couple of different ways to manage data use. Under one scenario, it will impose a data cap of 300 gigabytes and charge for additional use, likely $10 for each additional 50 gigabytes. A second possibility is to offer tiers of bandwidth, possibly starting with 300 gigabytes for those who subscribe to their lowest tier of Internet service. Customers who pay for premium tiers of broadband service will get higher thresholds.

so they will be like AT&T's 250GB cap and 10$/50GB after that. i have AT&T and for some reason they havent started the cap/usage pricing yet.

[D749]

I consider this progress. So I'll take it.

[n00b 0f l337]

I find it interesting that they seem to want to play the victim.
They signed millions at unlimited. Brought them in saying heres access to humankinds wisdom at your fingertips 24/7...

And then?

Whoa is us! We offered you as much as you'd like and you kept using what we told you you could have as much as you wanted!

Dirty. I see this being a step back, not a step forward.

[BeepBeep2]

Hmm, I only use about 80GB/month, I have VoIP and have done a lot of online gaming/video streaming.

[gumballguy]

You start with 250gb.

AU plans start at 20gb. Of which typically half is only usable between 1am-9am.

I get that they offered something and didn't live up to that. But... the difference in cost/data amount make me ill.

[Cordell Cahill]

If you have to use comcast just get business class. No cap

[zanzabar]

I find it interesting that they seem to want to play the victim.
They signed millions at unlimited. Brought them in saying heres access to humankinds wisdom at your fingertips 24/7...

And then?

Whoa is us! We offered you as much as you'd like and you kept using what we told you you could have as much as you wanted!

Dirty. I see this being a step back, not a step forward.

that is not really the dirty part, it is that they do not charge or count comcast services against the cap (and that most likely makes it illegal for being anti competative and breaks the rules set by the ftc/fcc with the comcast nbc merger)

You start with 250gb.

AU plans start at 20gb. Of which typically half is only usable between 1am-9am.

I get that they offered something and didn't live up to that. But... the difference in cost/data amount make me ill.

comcast generally is a premium service with 20Mb/s+ and the basic functioning tiers are about $50-60 a month, the dsl services that are $20 a month have 20-50GB caps most off the time. that said, they do traffic shaping and force disconnects when you use high speeds, so the only real way to download things with them is ftp or torrent that you throttle but then they do not like that. comcast also makes a huge amount of profits at the same growth year over year since they price fix and only enter into markets were they can be a local monopoly, so if you live were you have the only choice of comcast then you has a 250GB cap no matter what, so if you have a group of people that actually use the internet 250GB goes by quick.

[Philip_J_Fry]

Hmm, I only use about 80GB/month, I have VoIP and have done a lot of online gaming/video streaming.

i guess u dont download games often. i collect lots of games on steam. RAGE is 22GB, BF3 w/ all patches 15.4GB, Max Payne 3 will be 35GB. however most of the premium games (50, 60 dollar) are around 6 to 8GB. i havent bought any PC game in store for a while. i bought Crysis 2 in store last year. that was about it. also add 1080p twitch tv streaming starcraft 2 games. i dont go over 250GB all the time, but i am really close to that cap every month.

[D749]

If you have to use comcast just get business class. No cap

Business Class doesn't offer the same high speed as non-Business Class. That's why I haven't switched.

[Manicdan]

if the lower tiers are under 500GB, and the higher tiers near 1TB, this could be more than good enough, since most commonly the people who use the lower speeds dont care about massive downloads

im using 16Mb/6Mb for 30$ a month average (every year i renew and its a few months at 20$, a few at 30$ and a few at 40$)
its fine for daily stuff, but im jumping to 35/35 fios really soon i bet and then i can get a game in a 1/3 the time because fios actually gives you more bandwidth than you pay for in our area.

[Movieman]

I have fairpoint(Verizon) 30/15..$39.95/month
unlimited and I do maybe 5 tera a month, most on DC app MJ12..

[Zaskar]

How much are they refunding the grandparents who bought unlimited and use it just to check email from their grandkids?

[Movieman]

How much are they refunding the grandparents who bought unlimited and use it just to check email from their grandkids?

12 cents per account paid over a 25 year timeframe..

[Otis11]

I have fairpoint(Verizon) 30/15..$39.95/month
unlimited and I do maybe 5 tera a month, most on DC app MJ12..

This is what I want. I have the choice between Comcast and TWC - both get 1.5/0.384 Mb/s at $59 a month!!! Both have the exact same plans, exact same speeds. Only difference is TWC doesn't have a cap... but since I never actually get those speeds the most I could possibly use in a month - line fully saturated for an entire month, is 243 GB... You'd think I was in the middle of no where, but I live smack dab in the middle of Austin. I can walk to the capital building! If I lived in the middle of nowhere that'd be fine, but seriously, I have 200 people living within 1,000 feet of me! You'd think we could get some decent service!

Fortunately I can walk to campus and DL everything I need there, but it ticks me off that they charge and arm and a leg for crap service. Either make the speeds decent or drop the price! There's no way it costs that much for those speeds! :cuss:

Oh, and data caps on wired internet are crap. Period. Wireless caps are ridiculous simply because they extremely low threshold they set, but understandable in the long run, but wired is crap. There's no scientific/engineering limit that we could practically hit in the near future, just the company's unwillingness to invest in THEIR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE. Then they get subsidized by the gov?

Ok, I'm going to end this rant before I get in trouble for making this political...

[iboomalot]

[QUOTE=Otis11;5102513]This is what I want. I have the choice between Comcast and TWC - both get 1.5/0.384 Mb/s at $59 a month!!!QUOTE]

OUCH I get 32MB down and 8MB up with cox cable in OKC for $65 a month and I thought that was kinda lame.

Iam capped at 250GB but run between 90-180BG per month

[Movieman]

This is what I want. I have the choice between Comcast and TWC - both get 1.5/0.384 Mb/s at $59 a month!!! Both have the exact same plans, exact same speeds. Only difference is TWC doesn't have a cap... but since I never actually get those speeds the most I could possibly use in a month - line fully saturated for an entire month, is 243 GB... You'd think I was in the middle of no where, but I live smack dab in the middle of Austin. I can walk to the capital building! If I lived in the middle of nowhere that'd be fine, but seriously, I have 200 people living within 1,000 feet of me! You'd think we could get some decent service!

Fortunately I can walk to campus and DL everything I need there, but it ticks me off that they charge and arm and a leg for crap service. Either make the speeds decent or drop the price! There's no way it costs that much for those speeds! :cuss:

Oh, and data caps on wired internet are crap. Period. Wireless caps are ridiculous simply because they extremely low threshold they set, but understandable in the long run, but wired is crap. There's no scientific/engineering limit that we could practically hit in the near future, just the company's unwillingness to invest in THEIR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE. Then they get subsidized by the gov?

Ok, I'm going to end this rant before I get in trouble for making this political...

I live in a small town of 9000..We had the same issues here with Adelphia cable. I got mad and called the local town Cable commission and asked to come and speak with them.
they essentially knew nothing of how the infastructure of how the net worked.
When I finished talking they asked me if I wanted to join the cable commission..
Towns and cities have 5-8 year contracts with these companies. When the next cotract came up for renewal I got involved in the negoiations.
Adelphia was just selling out to Comcast then and Comcast "needed" approval from ALL the towns of the deal wouldn't go through.
Bottom line is we got what we wanted because we had them over a barrel..
Then Verizon came in and I got the line I have now, fiber all the way into the house..

[Manicdan]

This is what I want. I have the choice between Comcast and TWC - both get 1.5/0.384 Mb/s at $59 a month!!! Both have the exact same plans, exact same speeds. Only difference is TWC doesn't have a cap... but since I never actually get those speeds the most I could possibly use in a month - line fully saturated for an entire month, is 243 GB... You'd think I was in the middle of no where, but I live smack dab in the middle of Austin. I can walk to the capital building! If I lived in the middle of nowhere that'd be fine, but seriously, I have 200 people living within 1,000 feet of me! You'd think we could get some decent service!

Fortunately I can walk to campus and DL everything I need there, but it ticks me off that they charge and arm and a leg for crap service. Either make the speeds decent or drop the price! There's no way it costs that much for those speeds! :cuss:

Oh, and data caps on wired internet are crap. Period. Wireless caps are ridiculous simply because they extremely low threshold they set, but understandable in the long run, but wired is crap. There's no scientific/engineering limit that we could practically hit in the near future, just the company's unwillingness to invest in THEIR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE. Then they get subsidized by the gov?

Ok, I'm going to end this rant before I get in trouble for making this political...

my brother has the same issue and it was something dumb about how they needed the bandwidth for local business and so only a little was left for the residential

[kiwi]

May I tease you a bit? (See the attachment)

Usually it is 10-20MB/s (torrents etc.). I pay $30/month 100 channel TV + 100Mbit/s on paper but in reality the cable goes directly into the 1Gbit/s switch/gateway that belongs to my ISP and that is without a speed limit

And of course there is no cap

[BeepBeep2]

@kiwi your internet speeds are about the same as the average IDE hard drive

[Aberration]

I am guessing it is highly subsidized.

[Cordell Cahill]

Business Class doesn't offer the same high speed as non-Business Class. That's why I haven't switched.

I get 50/12 for $60 a month and I think I have one of the cheaper plans. How fast do you need?

[rintamarotta]

100/40M 49.99€/month unlimited, i use about 8-12Tb each month.
1000/1000M 500€/month unlimited, operator grade server connection directly to fibre optic core network.

Actually, i think there is no limited adsl/cable/fibre connections in here finland, at least i havent encountered such things.

[OutSider]

That`s what i missed the most while i was in usa 3 years ago. My internet connection without caps and good speed with low ping... and to top for a reasonable price