Comcast To Slow Down Heaviest Users During Peak Periods Following FCC Decision

Portfolio:

The Federal Communication Commission has officially released its order sanctioning cable giant Comcast for blocking Web traffic.

Over the next 30 days, Comcast is required to:

- Disclose the details of its discriminatory network management practices to the Commission
- Submit a compliance plan describing how it intends to stop these discriminatory management practices by the end of the year
- Disclose to customers and the Commission the network management practices that will replace current practices

Although Comcast is expected to appeal the decision, the company is already threatening to implement an even more draconian form of network management.

As a result of the F.C.C.'s ruling, Comcast will begin slowing the internet speeds of its heaviest users for 20- to 30-minutes at time of network congestion, Mitch Bowling, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager of online services, told Bloomberg.

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Comments

[thegreatgiginthesky]

I used to have Comcast. Switched to Verizon FIOS about a year ago and could not be happier with the service. Once you go fiber you will never go back to the pathetic speeds of Cable.

[Tulka2]

I have no options. It's Comcast if i want broadband in my area. My sincere question....? What is a "heavy user"? Does anyone reading this know? Could a little old lady in Washington state doing historical and political research possibly be considered a "heavy user"?

[thegreatgiginthesky]

No, a heavy user would be someone doing large downloads and uploads.

[JScott]

And what 'brilliant' executive at Comcast dreamed up this?

Look for a loss of customers, and a churn of execs, and bankruptcy, and the difficulties that their marketing department will have about offering faster internet service.

Kinda what's wrong with corporate america-how can we nickel and dime customers and offer crappier service to em and MAKE EM PAY.... While other countries aren't even debating this-ALL SERVICE WILL BE HIGH SPEED INTERNET.

[PatCroft]

This is just another good example as to why some things the public needs to own outright. Because it will start as peak time charges and then they will get to content charges and then it will start limiting content. I was working on one of Comcasts interenet accounts and when I called them to reset the ports we were able to reach some great technicians in the Phillipines.

[FarOutFish]

As I remember the Congressional hearing on this issue, a reprehensive from Comcast said they were already slowing down heavy users during peak times. I suspect this will eventually lead to a proposal to charge more if you want to stay in the fast lane during heavy traffic.

[lapdogs]

Not to mention the dropping of MSNBC and C-SPAN in Windsor, Connecticut.

Lets see, MSNBC a Liberal Leaning station with the exception of Morning Joe and his Buchanan cohorts.
C-Span lets voters see the goings on in Congress. Can't have that, now can we?

Anybody else getting these types of station cuts from Comcast?

[Teyshar]

They cut C-span? Oh come on that is just a glaring black eye.

[MNmommy]

They dropped them off analog, you have to move to the digital tear to get them.

[MNmommy]

tier not tear...

must find coffee.

[Bobleblah1]

Wow! I cant believe that nobody can see what an opportunity this is.
This is an issue that can save Barack Obama from his recent dive.
Sen Obama should come out forcefully against comcast on this issue that
has much larger implications. Its a very easy way for him to show some progressives that
he's not a total corporate clown. This can be made much larger than just a tool for scoring political points.
This is a gift wrapped issue to help redefine his candidacy as one in support of American consumers
being ripped off at every turn by unscrupulous business practices.

Comcast sucks a big one and they will not get any sympathy from the public.
This is too easy of an issue to benefit from ( Thats If your not bought and owned by telecoms already)
Spread the word to anyone you know working for his campaign.
This should become one of his issues, and QUICKLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[max08]

It costs under $40/mo in Japan for 200 Mbps service. Wirelessly. That's four times faster than FIOS and 20 times faster than the fastest cable.

America has sub-standard internet service and Americans are too dumb to know the difference. We remain in the horse-and-buggy era in a world where Asian countries beat us hands down. There its a necessity; here its still a luxury. There, service has to be supplied wirelessly because they can't dig up all the ancient monuments and roadways in Malaysia and Vietnam and China; here, Americans buy into the idea of an actual cable snaking all over our plentiful land.

Bandwidth should be as plentiful as the highways.

[SmootyBooty]

Best post all day. We are also paying extra for international calls in the US, where no one else in the world does...

[Teyshar]

That is because Al Gore was not elected.

[Destin]

You got that right, excellent post! Hell, Korea and Japan make the US look like a joke when it comes to broadband and wireless service. Their citizens are literally 99% wired or wireless, plus practically every store is a hotspot where you can keep right on surfing on the go. Contrast that with the US and deals like AT&T/McDonald's where you have to PAY for the wireless hotspot that they feature. T-Mobile also does it. But still, people in the US think that cable's new 12mb download speed is blazing fast. Ummm, no. People in Europe even have twice that speed, with phone, tv and internet all in one bill for less than what I was paying for just dsl and phone. I tell ya, capitalism is getting to suck. All we are is victims to be nickle and dimed to death. I can remember also the actually early internet days, mostly 56k service, and even those limited you to 100 hours or less of surfing time a month. I can remember when unlimited dialup was like God opening the heavens. And I can remember the vow to not commercialize the internet. ;) Now it's full of commerce and propaganda outlets of every type.

Trust me, if someone can figure out a way to tack on an extra charge, or squeeze every last penny out of the consumer, the capitalists in the USA will do it in a heartbeat.

[tidefan408]

i would love nothing more than to be able to kick comcast out of my house but they are the only cable system on my street and i am too far from a switching station for DSL.i have had nothing but problems with my internet connection for the past year.comcast doesn't give a rat's ass about their customers.

[lisakaz2]

Can you do satellite internet? I'd like to dump Comcast -- for Knology or Satellie -- but I live in an apartment complex where can't really get either. I look forward to dumping Comcast tho.

[katmeyster]

I know it -- we have Comcast's "highest" speed Internet and it slows to a crawl -- often viewing videos on HuffPost. When you complain they ALWAYS blame it on your computer. Excuse me, Comcast, I have a brand new computer that does NOT need to be defragged or maintained. It is YOUR FAULT -- stop blaming me. Whew, that felt better. Anyway, it does seem to be selective that the most liberal sites have the slowest speeds -- is that a coincidence? I think not.

[Destin]

That's why we need a REAL FCC that protects the consumers. Along with a FTC that has a backbone to also jump in. Now both are nothing more than political tools of the President to espouse decrees from, as if some aristocrat speaking from a throne up high.

I would love it if there was something we could do to break up the damn regional monopolies of which you speak Tidefan408. Cause I'm suffering the same fate, only 2 choices here. Cox for cable service, or AT&T for dsl service. And both tend to suck. And both refuse to allow any competition to come into the area. That should be criminalized as racketeering since it's no different than what the mob bosses used to do. Divide up their turfs, then profit off it.

[Shaddup]

If the FCC did their job we'd already have net neutrality, and comcast would have ceased to exist long before this became an issue. Media belongs to the people--that's what the FCC was supposed to do.

[max08]

What belongs to the people are the airwaves, and you're correct: the FCC is supposed to be watching out for us and not the monopolies.

[Shaddup]

I meant the airwaves, thanks.

[JessWonderin]

You forget the FCC was packed by Bush with Com-Cons itching to secure their monopoly - I think ol Colon Powells son was on the FCC board that helped degrade the people's right to information access at competitive rates . . . go re-pugs.

[RatgurlSD]

Boycott Comcast.

[Pupadup4oBama]

I did - we use Verizon (prob not much better) and canceled our comcast cable. WOOO HOOOO!

[sacrebleu]

On it. Cancelled Comcast cable and got Qwest* for IP.

*Added benefit of doing business with Qwest is its refusal to cooperate with President Quacksalot's warrantless wiretapping program.

[max08]

If you can get FIOS, get it get it get it.

[max08]

Time Warner and now Cox Cable are using companies like Narus to packet sniff for VOIP routers and other devices hanging off your cable modem. [Narus is the company the NSA/AT&T whistleblower outed last December.] Esp. if TW and CC are supplying cable phone biz themselves.

Complain to the FCC and use the public safety complaint form only because they interrupt service and prevent you from accessing 911, ambulance and the police. It's a public endangerment issue.

[Destin]

Great post and thanks for the info and heads up.

[eugenegerard]

Simple, TAKE ALL COMCAST'S Licences away.

[Budokan]

Eff Comcast.

[Jason357]

That's what you guys say you wanted, net neutrality. it ought to be illegal using all that bandwidth for stealing music, oh IT IS.

[RatgurlSD]

How about filesharing?? Send an email with a picture? Blogging? Telecommuting for work?

It's not just people stealing music.

[tds1273]

Streaming videos off of a news site or c-span even.

[JessWonderin]

sheesh . . . an IT genius . . . so nice to heard from the Rush Home School Cheerleader Team . . . .

[frappe]

Comcast needs to build a network based completely on fiber optic. Otherwise, they will suffer the same fate as dial-up. If people are left with a choice of cable vs. fiber optic, they'll opt for fiber optic each and every time. So unless they want to be another AOL, they should go fiber optic all the way. It's the only way that they'll survive in the long run...and they wouldn't have to resort to "managing" their network traffic either.

[max08]

FIOS is based on fiber optic. You can get it now in certain markets.