Comcast to Limit Internet Use

In the latest move to rein in the heaviest users of the Internet, Comcast Corp. announced a cap on the amount of data its customers can download.

Starting Oct. 1, residential high-speed Internet customers will be limited to 250 gigabytes of traffic a month. Typical customers use between two gigabytes and three gigabytes a month, Comcast spokeswoman Jen Khoury said.

As Internet traffic continues to surge, a number of other major U.S. carriers are also exploring caps as a way to manage the growing traffic on the network.

In June, Time Warner Cable Inc. began testing a metered billing system that would charge customers for usage beyond a certain point. AT&T Inc., the country's largest broadband provider, has said that a move to metered billing is inevitable.

Carriers are particularly concerned about a small subset of heavy users, who they say use powerful Internet applications like peer-to-peer filesharing and clog the networks.

Heavy use by some people is problematic for cable companies. Because of the way their networks are designed, capacity is shared at a neighborhood level. That means heavy use by a handful of customers can congest and slow service within the entire area.

Comcast's cap is different from the one being tested by other companies like Time Warner Cable in that Comcast doesn't seek to charge users extra for consumption beyond the specified limit. Instead, the company calls the top users of its service who exceed the capacity limit to issue a warning. People who exceed usage limits once more within six months are cut off from the service for a year.

Comcast's Ms. Khoury declined to comment on how many top users the company contacts.

online.wsj.com...

Thats bull, I go over 1TB every month... I guess its time to switch to Verizon FIOS

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by Lecter
Thats bull, I go over 1TB every month... I guess its time to switch to Verizon FIOS

what the hell are you doing that requires that kinda bandwidth???

i just play video games and surf the web, so im running about 20gb to 30gb a month TOPS (and thats if im on a downloading spree)

you use 1tb? maybe they should reign you in

i bet your causing alot of lag spikes on your server lol

you should at least have to pay a premium for that kinda bandwidth, if your clogging the lines

its unfair to normal customers like myself

as much as im agianst limiting bandwidth, 1TB is wayyyyy over the top man

as long as they keep the limit at around 100-200gb a month, id be fine with that
any lower and id be quite upset

i used to have satilite internet a few years ago, and those cheap skate capped my bandwidth at like 100mb a day

YES i said i was capped at 100MB in 1 day

i know man thats wayyy too low, i couldnt get anything done
couldnt download anything within a week

[edit on 29-8-2008 by muzzleflash]

1. this sucks. i just downloaded over 100gbs in the last week >.>
2. i dont think i could ever download 1tb a month >.> thats just insane! i couldenty even hold half that on my cp >.>

anyways this is just the start. first limiting are downloads...then are sites we can visit..whats next?

I'm pretty sure that this is for residential customers.

I have Comcast and I've never monitored my bandwidth, mainly because I don't know how, but 250GB a heck of a lot of bandwidth and I can't even think of a scenario where I might even approach that figure.

If a customer uses more than that, I think that customer needs a commercial account.

This solution is a lot better than limiting download speeds, while advertising to the world about how super fast they are.