[fr_freak]

I hate to admit it, but the big moron has finally said something I might agree with. There should be just enough “neutrality” on the net to keep Comcast (or any other ISP) from putting Neflix, Vonage, or other emerging competitors out of business.

First, government regulation is almost NEVER the solution to any problem; it just makes it worse. Second, I can see free market forces possibly stopping this without government intervention. For example, let's say Comcast decides to limit the bandwidth for Netflix streaming. Well, then people who like Netflix streaming will go with another ISP. Any ISP that wants to get a leg up on Comcast would declare that they don't interfere with Netflix streaming, or anything else, et voila, Comcast loses a lot of business.

[lwd]

Good points. AT&T recently capped bandwidth to 250GB/month so we’re already seeing ISPs trying to curb overly excessive users. If I’m not mistaken, comcast has been doing this for a while.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/13/atandt-will-cap-dsl-u-verse-internet-and-impose-overage-fees/

AT&T says it will implement a 150GB monthly cap on landline DSL customers and a 250GB cap on subscribers to U-Verse high speed internet starting on May 2nd. AT&T will also charge overage fees of $10 for every additional 50GB of data, with two grace periods to start out — in other words, the third month you go over the cap is when you’ll get charged. DSLReports says it has confirmation from AT&T that these rates are legitimate, and that letters will go out to customers starting March 18th.