Another reason to buy Al's Online Offsets...
Posted on 03/12/2007 5:32:36 AM PDT by Fractal Trader
Amanda Lee of Cambridge received a call from Comcast Corp. in December ordering her to curtail her Web use or lose her high-speed Internet connection for a year.
Lee, who said she had been using the same broadband connection for years without a problem, was taken aback. But when she asked what the download limit was, she was told there was no limit, that she was just downloading too much.
Then in mid-February, her Internet service was cut off without further warning.
For Lee and an increasing number of people, a high-speed Internet connection is a lifeline to everyday entertainment and communication. Television networks are posting shows online; retailers are lining up to offer music and movie downloads; thousands of Internet radio stations stream music; more people are using WiFi phones; and "over the top TV," in which channels stream over the Internet, is predicted to grow.
That means that more customers may become familiar with Comcast's little-known acceptable-use policy, which allows the company to cut off service to customers who use the Internet too much. Comcast says that only .01 percent of its 11.5 million residential high-speed Internet customers fall into this category.
"Comcast has a responsibility to provide these customers with a superior experience and to address any excessive usage issues that may impact that experience," Comcast spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman said in a statement. "The few customers who are notified of excessive use typically consume exponentially more bandwidth than the average user."
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
What about their "unlimited" phone service? Will they cut it off, too, if someone talks too much?
Verizon Wireless is the same way with their unlimited data plans. The limit is roughly 5GB, stated in the small print of the contract for the "unlimited" plans.
Sounds like Comcast needs to update its Acceptable Use Policy so it includes a better explanation of the limits to 'unlimited' downloads.
Broadband rationing?
Depending on one's point of view or finances, the cost of broadband can be a lot or a little. Nevertheless, it is THE line of communication & entertainment for an increasing number of people especially in the valued demographic bands (see also: declining TV ratings, media layoffs).
One MIGHT think that the money spent on monthly fees would go towards the improvement and expansion of the ISP's infrastructure, making the harrassment of paying customers and possible breach of contract by the ISP unnecessary (not to mention foolish) with bandwidth to spare for all. Leaving things in the hands of traffic-shaping tinhorn dictators is hardly good policy - absolute power etc.
Unfortunately, Comcast and others rely on the 'dumb, lazy customers who will overpay for and underutilize our service' approach and it's backfiring on them.
They should be required to call it "limited service"
Nothing new. My mom got grief from Earthlink back in the 56K dial-up days, because she was using too much of her "unlimited" connection time. What she did was queue up downloads that would continue when she slept or as at work.
Then, as now, the ISP would hassle people if they though they were running a permanent server -- forbidden in the AUP -- or spamming or engaging in other nefarious activities. Mom was never cut off, and the company backed down; of course, this was back in the day, when she could call Mindspring and get Charles Brewer on the phone.
Bel South's unlimited long distance plan, which I have, has some small print that states roughly that if they think my use is excessive they can stop giving it to me. No explanation of what constitutes too much.
I have a small ISP which has made no comments on roughly 10 gigs a month, maybe more at times.
This situation has "class action" written all over it.
It took three days for Earthlink's "offshore" customer support to figure out what had happened. And there was no re-establishing it. I had "broken" my agreement and that was that.
I took it as an excellent opportunity to sign up with high-speed cable (got TV to boot.)
So, it's like a two-plate-per hour limit at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
And maybe a four hour time limit. "You been here fo howa, you go now!"
Then they should advertise this as limited service and priority service.
IOW this makes no sense unless the are trying to go to a per byte fee system.
per byte fees will lead to per byte taxation.
Nevertheless I feel that premium insulates us from bandwidth limits...We really do NOT have to pay it, you know, we are just being nice and honest.
Suspending an account that is paying an extra premium for extra machines can only be interpreted that the payment is for the extra bandwidth, so I would instantly sue them.
They sit around and wait. These corps rely on the sheep like actions of the masses to ramain sedate.
As Bubba Clinton would say, it depends on the meaning of unlimited.
When I had Comcast, I used to keep a Citrix server running so my wife could use it when she was traveling. The only downside was I'd change my IP address every day to keep the script kiddies from hitting me too hard.
Now that I have DSL, they won't let me access my IP address from the outside without buying the static IP package which is pretty expensive. At least I don't get hammered from all the punks on Comcast trying to access my network. I put a workstation on the outside once to see what would happen and it got hit hard. Comcast needs to stop that crap.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.