Comcast Officially Limits Subscriber Internet Use

NEW YORK — Comcast Corp., the nation's second-largest Internet service provider, Thursday said it would set an official limit on the amount of data subscribers can download and upload each month.

On Oct. 1, the cable company will update its user agreement to say that users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of traffic per month, the company announced on its Web site.

Comcast has already reserved the right to cut off subscribers who use too much bandwidth each month, without specifying exactly what constitutes excessive use.

"We've listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive," the company said in a statement on its Web site.

Customers who go over the limit are contacted by the company and asked to curb their usage.

"We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily," the company said.

Comcast floated the idea of a 250 gigabyte cap in May and mentioned then that it might charge users $15 for every 10 gigabytes they go over, but the overage fee was missing in Thursday's announcement.

Curbing the top users is necessary to keep the network fast and responsive for other users, Comcast has said.

Comcast stressed that the bandwidth cap is far above the median monthly usage of its customers, which 2 to 3 gigabytes.

Very few subscribers use more than 250 gigabytes, it said. A user could download 125 standard-definition movies, about four per day, before hitting the limit.

The cap is also above those of some other ISPs. Cox Communications' monthly caps vary from 5 gigabytes to 75 gigabytes depending the subscriber's plan. Time Warner Cable Inc. is testing caps between 5 gigabytes and 40 gigabytes in one market. Frontier Communications Co., a phone company, plans to start charging extra for use of more than 5 gigabytes per month.

Comments

[paulbikes]

Besides the fact that your paying for speed, not quantity, if im paying for 50mb/s, then its my right to download 50mb/s continuously if i feel like it, its a flat rate.

What they are doing is completely wrong, and makes no sense.

That said most people will never realize the cap, but some might, amusing a 31 day month that means you need to move a little over 8000mb in a day, Which even for a gamer or work-at-home graphic designer is a ton, but possible. No matter what its still absolutely wrong. And the math just means its a stupid idea on their part because its a pointless rule that will only piss off customers who might never use that much bandwidth anyway.

[paulbikes]

And thats while ill never use them. Pigs.

Though time warner is even worse, they sell broadband all day long and they dont have the infrastructure to support it. If they did then my connection wouldnt drop or slow to a crawl on a regular bases.

Its all just their way of saying "thanks for your money, heres the bottom of my boot"

[ObiW]

Already, I see people researching other ISPs . . . and good for them. As long as people vote with their credit cards, Comcast isn't long for this WWW! I know some are stuck with Comcast in their area. But now that we know Comcast's limit of 250GBs, the competition is on and hopefully they'll lose enough customers to realize, what they're doing is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo wrong!

Greed is not good Comcast! You'll pay for this blunder through the nose . . . I mean through the web!

By-bye Comcast, RCN, WOW, AT&T and all the others who are trying to follow
Comcast on this mistake . . .

[Oldbuck]

The next thing will be to set limits on the amount of TV you can watch will have a teared type billing according to amount of time you watch.

[Dutschke]

Well done Comcast. The same company that wants to make sure that the internet is not left neutral (see their anti net neutrality lobbying efforts) but becomes even more of a corporate owned environment, is now also making sure, that the people which they are in effect lobbying against (their own subscribers),will now also be paying more for their services (Anyone belileving, that the 250Gb limit is the last word needs to wake up). So now they have even more cash available to lobby against the interests of their own customers.

[dagnome27]

This is a SERIOUS problem, as most customers do NOT have a choice when it comes to broadband Internet access. This calls for immediate GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT.

[TheIndependenceParty]

Comcast allows itself and its advertisers and partners to stuff our pipes full of advertising, ... then threatens to cut us off (or maybe charge us more) if we exceed their arbitrary limits.

If newspapers were sold by the pound, ... would the publishers put more ads in your Sunday edition, ... or less?

Sorry, Comcast, but I don't buy my data buy the pound, ... particularly when you load it with advertising!

[TheIndependenceParty]

I have no idea how may Gb's I transit monthly on Comcast. I will say this, ... I service hospitals around the world by way of that connection. I troubleshoot patient care systems and can not afford to have anyone, least of all my ISP, interfere with the work my customers require of me.

At the very moment that Comcast restricts any of my work, or the work of my hundreds of colleagues, ... my company of 7000 employees would mandate us to drop Comcast as our ISP. And that would be okay, ... because at that moment they would have ceased to meet our customer's and our business needs. Since they insist on cable plus ISP, ... they would lose my cable service as well. $ 270 per month, ... $ 3,240 a year x 1500 users (estimated) in my company alone = - $4,860,000.

Doesn't strike me as a sound business approach, Comcast! But then again, ... It's your circus and you can do what you want, ... for now.

Comcast pretends they are a service when in fact they are a utility. We'll fix that again in the future, ... but maybe not before Comcast loses a few million customers.

[ipv4]

Well for what is worth I live in NY and have Verizon which has this amazing fiber optic connection called FIOS that gives me 50mbs downloads speed and with 100 HD channels.. Im loving the internet like never before. They DO NOT have plans to charge customer extra due to extended usage because they have actually spent the money on the infrastructure to handle the demands of the youtube generation. If it's in your area I highly recommend it.

[VOTER]

Can I have John McCain's unused gigabytes?

Just asking...........

[ndem]

This is the gatekeeper aspect of the internet which is anti what the internet is about. Nobody should control what you access how much and how often. Ever.

[Woggles]

Most public libraries in the US will allow unlimited use of their WiFi, if you have a library card. So bring in your laptop. Would you really want to spend more than 2 hrs/day on the internet anyway? That's simply not healthy.

[dadw5boys]

Turn off Comcast internet !!!!!!!!!

[gretchenart]

First step in censorship of downloads. Bloggers with high traffic sites, etc., especially those having a political viewpoint too leftwing for Comcast? Other sites not meeting the political agenda of the company? Who is really going to be blocked? People talking on Internet phones, listening to the wrong radio stations. All those things--i.e. voip, streaming audio and video cause larger downloads. Instead of blocking they need to have a scale of fees that charges over and above the GB of limit, that way it will supposedly be based on actual GB regardless of content. The other way, it is purposely vague and could essentially label entire groups of people the equivalent of "enemy combatent" and take them off the Internet "fly list"!

[gman337665]

Im just curious, How many people use 250 GB in 1 month ?? I know I dont. I took a poll of my friends and they responded the same way. There seems to be ALOT of Comcast bashing going on but I just wanted to say that I am happy with the service I receive from Comcast and have had it for years. I went from dial up to Comcast and never looked back ! The price I pay for internet hasn't changed since I have had it either (of course im talking about after the promotion). I think having some type of gauge which is accessable through my laptop would be more user friendly than having a rep call me to say that I am near my limit. I can click on it before I start using my service to see how much bandwith I have used so far for the month.

I agree with some of the other posts about pop-up ads. They should not count toward my usage.

[Indubio]

I generally agree with you. I've been a comcast subscriber since their service began almost 10 years ago, and, as a former ISP owner, I can tell you that their service is above average with rarely an outage. Over the past 6 months however, I have noted significant slow down of the data pipe between 4:30 and 9:00 PM PST. Loading of web pages, especially graphics and Flash laden pages like Huffington Post, becomes glacial during this period. In the "old days" we placed total hourly limits on consumers (200 hours per month for example was a common figure used) and if a customer wanted more time s/he had to pay for it. No one complained because small ISPs that offered unlimited service usually went out of business quickly. AOL was one of the first national providers to come out with unlimited access and most thought it was ridiculous and wouldn't last...time has of course sustained AOL's policies, which have been largely adapted acorss the board by all ISPs. There is no question that America and the world lacks appropriate bandwidth for today's WWW. Ten years ago, there was excess band width but that's no longer the case. Frankly, if ISPs wished to reduce clogging on data pipes they would do well to figure out a way to curb spam, which is far more insidious and affecting of data transfer speeds than customers using more than 250GB/month of WWW data transfers.

[TheIndependenceParty]

Seems to me contradictory for Comcast to push Flash and Java promos, ads and come-ons on their home page, ... then tell us they will cut off people who use too much bandwidth. I receive Flash ads on my e-mail sign on page!!! My wife's old Dell can't even view You-Tube for all the crap that comes with it! The internet has changed and requires considerable bandwidth.

Early on Comcast had two-tier pricing, ... but had to give it up. Seems they are pressing to restore premium service. Seems I should consider another ISP, ... FIOS?