Comcast putting limits on heavy bandwidth users

Posted by Gwyddia on September 3, 2008

As announced on August 28, 2008, Comcast, the nation’s second-largest cable and internet service provider, plans to limit the amount of data its users can send to 250GB. These new limits will be in effect starting October 1.  Customers who exceed this limit twice within six months may have their service suspended for a year, potentially “stranding” thousands of customers without internet access.

 

Comcast seems to realize whom this cap will hit hardest.  The company has stated that they believe the cap will only affect those 1% of users who are heavy gamers or downloaders. This statement in and of itself evidences a clear target.  After being admonished by the FCC earlier this year for blocking customers’ access to websites including Bittorrent, this latest move by the media giant seems like a backdoor way of cutting off users’ access.

 

Most ISPs promise “reasonable access”, (which is why it is so hard to get a credit when your cable goes out for three days – 27/30 days of service a month is “reasonable” by your provider’s standards).  I suspect that Comcast, and the myriad of ISPs that follow their lead, will attempt to invoke the “reasonable” mantra when they are put to the question about their caps.  But while 250GB a month may seem reasonable to many people today, let me remind you that in 2003 a 5GB iPod was gargantuan.  And while Comcast may be starting with a “reasonable” 250GB, other ISPs, such as TimeWarner and Cox, are playing around with caps as small as that antiquated iPod.

 

Keep an eye out, WoW players, XBox Live downloaders, and Valve Steam users – that hot new game that you just paid for and legally downloaded might get you kicked off the ‘net.

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