[cherry]

I don’t like the sound of this.

[KarlInOhio]

That's actually a pretty good plan. If they are truly protocol agnostic they won't get into trouble for stomping on data which is in competition with their own products (sorry your Skype does work, but maybe you will consider signing up for Comcast's phone system). The 250 GB / month with an easy to handle step for more data is good, although they should add an easy way to track total usage so far in the month and a way for the customer to choose if he wants more data instead of assuming an automatic billing for it.

If you streamed 128kbps MP3 music for the entire month, that would only be about 41 GB of your 250 GB allowance. (assuming they have their bits and Bytes labeled properly).

[Turbopilot]

If Comcast puts limits on the amount I can upload/download per month, they’re fired immediately. Pay-per-kilobite went out in the 80’s, and good riddance.

[NormsRevenge]

250GB? wow.. that could cut into FR time.

[mysterio]

Comcast needs to stop trying to play copyright cop for the entertainment monopoly.

[jack_napier]

In related news, Verizon Online gains marketshare...

[TomGuy]

If their complaint is with streaming video, much of that is legitimate.

Many of the networks are streaming many of their programs online.

Several legit streaming video sites include:

Veoh.com
Fancast.com
AOL’s n2tv

And more are coming as the competition increases.

[ikka]

250GB = approximately 2Mbps of bandwidth. At today’s wholesale prices, that is less than $15; you are paying about $45 to Comcast.

[Gay State Conservative]

Given Verizon’s capacity I wonder if they'll do it too.Today I have the choice of two cable companies...Comcrap and RCN.Within a few weeks I'll also have Verizon as a choice.And although I don't do any downloading (no music or videos) I'll be upset if anything like this is put in place.Just on general principles.

[ThePythonicCow]

Comcast sells 6 Mbit/sec and 8 Mbit/sec lines.

But their upload is throttled to 0.4 or 0.8 Mbit/sec, and with this monthly limit, their -average- download is limited to 0.8 Mbit/sec. If you download constantly at 0.8 Mbit/sec for a month, you get about their planned limit of 250 GBytes downloaded that month.

For about the same cost, I get 5 Mbit/sec down, 2 Mbit/sec up from Verizon FIOS (these are the slowest speeds they sell.) These are real speeds; I run that way all month long sharing Linux and other open source software via bittorrent with others.

Speeds of essentially 0.4 Mbit/sec to 0.8 Mbit/sec are just not competitive at the prices they are charging and they are having to misrepresent this using what resembles the "peak audio wattage" numbers that cheap audio equipment uses to sell underpowered equipment. Their 6 or 8 Mbits/secs are essentially inflated.

If Comcast didn't have a near monpoly on cable television to a bazillion households, then their internet service product would not be competitive.

[goldstategop]

I don't think people download that much to their computers in a month. Unless its porn.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus