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Comcast Implements 250GB Usage Cap Effective October 1, 2008.
Comcast CEO Brian Roberts likes his new high-tech toys, even if using them on his own cable system is now pointless. At the January Consumer Electronics Show, Roberts demonstrated the next generation of broadband Comcast is poised to begin rolling out to consumers in the next several months.
Dubbed “wideband,” Roberts downloaded a High Definition copy of Batman Begins in less than four minutes. Comcast’s DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade, which bonds multiple channels together to deliver broadband speeds up to 160 Megabits per second, will be able to bring Comcast customers the latest high bandwidth applications, particularly including very high quality video, in just a matter of minutes.
Designed to compete with Verizon’s FIOS fiber to the home network, Comcast’s “wideband” service will create a new paradigm for high quality video services entering the home.
Except for one thing.
A 250GB monthly usage cap.
Using Comcast’s wideband service, customers downloading movies could easily exceed the 250GB cap in less than five hours.
Even the cable industry’s trade publications like Multichannel News are now posing questions about how exactly Comcast can promote customers upgrading to wideband service when a cap of 250GB stops the fun in a matter of hours. What MN didn’t add to the equation is the fact Verizon FIOS does not have a usage cap and has no current plans to implement one.
So exactly why would any consumer choose Comcast wideband, with a usage cap over Verizon FIOS, which leaves you alone and doesn’t threaten to terminate your service if you use more than the cable company deems appropriate?
Another issue MN touched on, but didn’t bother extending to the real issue – stifling competition:
Imagine if all your TV were delivered via the Internet. High-quality 1080i HD video at (conservatively) an average of 5 Mbps would chew up plenty of bandwidth: roughly 286 Gigabytes in a 30-day period, given that Americans watch an average of 127 hours and 15 minutes of TV per month, according to Nielsen. Cap busted!
Imagine indeed. Imagine virtual “cable companies” delivering cable networks and broadcast TV over the Internet. Pay your monthly bill for data from the cable company, but watch your video programming from another provider. A 250GB cap puts an end to that business plan quite nicely, thank you.
Comcast CEO Demonstrates Wideband At Cable Show In May
By the way, a quick note to Frontier, which still thinks 5GB a month is just plenty. Pay attention to the file sizes in this video and then get back to us about why you think your customers will never come close to using 5GB a month in the coming year or two.
Been waiting a long time already for media to converge, telephone, cellular, tv, movies, music, etc. And the resulting lowering of combined costs. This loss of revenue is why the big isp’s are fighting so hard to hold back the flood of progress. Policy is obviously being created by the horse-n-buggy old folks who are on the way out. The sooner the better.
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It’d be nice if there were more competition in my area, I hate having to change my internet/downloading/uploading habits, just so Comcast can get richer and richer. Aren’t they rich enough? When is the FCC gonna regulate this company and get some competition in many areas? FCC and others are too worried about piracy and media companies losing money. Way to go backwards America!!
That is so idiotic…
Why bother to develop such speeds if you are going to discourage people from using them?
freaking morons.
That is like those idiots that risk collisions when they pull out in front of you and then do 10-20mph under the speed limit stupid.
how exactly Comcast can promote customers upgrading to wideband service with a cap of 250GB? The solution is simple. THEY WILL ADVERTISE THEIR HIGH SPEED SHADOWING THE CAP WITH COMPLETE SILENCE. In other words, if they advertise their 250gb MONTHLY limit along with their high speed they will not manage to attract customers. It is advantageous to talk about high speed and NOT to talk about the cap.
The logic behind is simple. According to Comcast website the average customer monthly consumes 2-3gbs. The cap is 250 gb. Lets imagine the customer whose monthly brandwidth is 250gb. 250 divided by 2 = 125. One customer who downs 250gb equals 125 customers with 2gb monthly consumption.
Finally, Comcast does not have a limit imposed on a number of customers. In fact, there is no regulation that Comcast should have no more than 5 million customers. Since the number of customers is unlimited COMCAST is interested in getting more. The logic is simple: more limitation = more customers. 125 people who download 2gb a month for 1 guy who downloads more than 250gb.
June 2006. Comcast wants to attract more customers. In order to do so, the program turbocharge is created to double the speeds for CERTAIN CONTENT. In 2006 if you have a 2mb/s speed and download a movie your speed is doubled to 4mb/s and there is NO 250gb cap.
2007. Comcast buys insight.bb.com. Comcast “acquires more than more than 1.2 million customers (684,000 basic video customers, 296,000 digital video customers and 300,000 broadband customers).”
1st October 2008. ‘Slow-down-there policy’. Blocking services without notification. anti p2p war. ‘Time-out room’. 250gb monthly limit, at first UNSPOKEN. Comcast is pushed to publicly admit that the internet is NOT unlimited.
Let us summarize the argument. In 2006 the message is “GET MORE. YOU NEED IT”. IN 2008 they say “STOP GETTING MORE, WE KNOW YOU DO NOT NEED IT”. WHY? First of all, BECAUSE THE ‘AVERAGE CUSTOMER’ does not need more than 2gb. Second of all, because Comcast needs more average customers.
That is so idiotic…
Why bother to develop such speeds if you are going to discourage people from using them?
freaking morons.