Comcast rolling out faster internet

[Baked]

Originally posted by: ric1287
is that only on the WAN or internal networked compooters too.

It's all WAN. I have 2 computers and a PS3, but they're not networked to each other for file transfer. Will setup Tversity on Vista for PS3 streaming when I have time.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: DomS
how will they announce this?

" Comcast said it plans to rollout Docsis 3.0 to more than 10 "major" markets and nearly 10 million homes and businesses in the next several months -- equal to about 20 percent of its U.S. cable footprint."

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: DomS
how will they announce this?

"Comcast said it plans to rollout Docsis 3.0 to more than 10 "major" markets and nearly 10 million homes and businesses in the next several months -- equal to about 20 percent of its U.S. cable footprint."

OK, so how will they announce it?

 

[Quiksilver]

I love my ISP.
They actually encourage users to download music/movies(if I had a scanner I'd scan the advert proving this). in fact they just gave me a free upgrade to a 8Mb line for free (same price as before, was a 6Mb line).

<3 Wide Open West.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: DomS
how will they announce this?

"Comcast said it plans to rollout Docsis 3.0 to more than 10 "major" markets and nearly 10 million homes and businesses in the next several months -- equal to about 20 percent of its U.S. cable footprint."

OK, so how will they announce it?

Same way any business announces news. Press release.

 

[vshah]

even if someone downloads 10 350mb hdtv rips a week, that would still only be 14gb. seed to 1.0 each and that's 28gb. way under the limit. i would like to know what it is that people who break this limit download/upload on a daily basis to hit ~8 gigs every day

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: thegimp03

Originally posted by: Canai

Comcast to roll out faster Internet speeds
by ,
October 22, 2008, 04:27 PM ? Associated Press ?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Comcast Corp. on Wednesday said it will begin rolling out faster Internet speeds over the next few weeks in selected markets to homes and businesses.

The nation's largest cable operator and residential Internet service provider will offer speeds up to 50 megabits per second, which enables users to download a high-definition movie in 16 minutes and a standard definition movie in 5 minutes.

Most Comcast customers will double their speeds for free.

The service will be available in parts of New England, including the Boston area and southern New Hampshire, as well as in portions of Philadelphia, New Jersey and the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Over the next few months, Comcast expects to roll it out to over 10 major markets.

For residential users, Comcast's new 'Extreme 50' tier, including up to 10 Mbps upstream service, will cost $139.95 a month. For businesses, it will cost $189.95 monthly, including extra features and support.

The 'Ultra' plan for individuals will offer speeds up to 22 Mbps for downloading and up to 5 upstream for $62.95 a month. The business "premium" tier will offer the same speeds for $99.95 a month.

To get the new Internet plans, individuals must also subscribe to Comcast's cable TV service.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

source: http://www.itworld.com/node/56577

So, they announce the cap right before rolling out much faster internet. Coincidence? I think not.

(I searched and didn't find anything on this, sorry if it's a repost)

Wait, why does it say that "most users will double their speeds for free", then states prices below?

because they are already paying that price for slower speeds?

 

[randay]

i would cap out in 2 days. no joke.

 

[Skeeedunt]

Originally posted by: Canai
So, they announce the cap right before rolling out much faster internet. Coincidence? I think not.

No, probably not a coincidence. I'm guessing Comcast saw the inevitable. As HD streaming becomes commonplace, average bandwidth skyrockets and their existing network can no longer support providing "unlimited" bandwidth to the same number of users.

Of course, many people seem to be under the impression that this is all BS and that the marginal cost of increasing bandwidth to these users is minimal. But is that really the case?

I honestly have no idea. There are a lot of variables involved, including massive infrastructure costs and government involvement, and the scope of "what it all really costs" is way out my league. I wish I had a better idea though so I could decide whether to be dutifully outraged or smugly satisfied with my grip on reality.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Evadman

Originally posted by: Canai
So, assuming that you can get sustained download speeds of 5Mb/s (the 50mbit line should net 6Mb/s, but I'll drop it to 5 for simplicity), you'd hit the 250gb cap in less than 14 hours.

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Ocguy31
Cue the 1% of internet users who go over 250GB because they violate intellectual property laws.

According to Comcast, it's only 0.1% of their users.

So you can download almost 18 GB in an hour. There is an easy solution, but you have to plan ahead since Comcast computes usage at EOM.

Queue up everything you want to download at the beginning of the month then start downloading. By end of month 30 days later, you will have 12,857GB of data downloaded. That's 51 months worth of data transfer in 30 days. Comcast cancels your account, you wait 6 months and sign up again, then pull some more data. Heck, Comcast may not even charge you for the month since they canceled the account.

Correction - if you download 12,857 GB in a month (I'm assuming your math is correct), Comcast will send you a bill for $18,910.50 + whatever your regular monthly bill is. You won't pay this bill, then they'll send you to collections. Your credit will be destroyed, and they will come to your house and kill your cat.

 

[Gibson486]

I am not surprised that they are rolling this out in the outer boston area first. FIOS just came to my neighborhood and you see teh FIOS trucks here everyday until 10 at night. When they guy came to install my FIOS, he said that they had the option to work 7 days a week because installation demand was so high.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: hanoverphist

Originally posted by: thegimp03

Originally posted by: Canai

Comcast to roll out faster Internet speeds
by ,
October 22, 2008, 04:27 PM ? Associated Press ?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ Comcast Corp. on Wednesday said it will begin rolling out faster Internet speeds over the next few weeks in selected markets to homes and businesses.

The nation's largest cable operator and residential Internet service provider will offer speeds up to 50 megabits per second, which enables users to download a high-definition movie in 16 minutes and a standard definition movie in 5 minutes.

Most Comcast customers will double their speeds for free.

The service will be available in parts of New England, including the Boston area and southern New Hampshire, as well as in portions of Philadelphia, New Jersey and the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Over the next few months, Comcast expects to roll it out to over 10 major markets.

For residential users, Comcast's new 'Extreme 50' tier, including up to 10 Mbps upstream service, will cost $139.95 a month. For businesses, it will cost $189.95 monthly, including extra features and support.

The 'Ultra' plan for individuals will offer speeds up to 22 Mbps for downloading and up to 5 upstream for $62.95 a month. The business "premium" tier will offer the same speeds for $99.95 a month.

To get the new Internet plans, individuals must also subscribe to Comcast's cable TV service.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

source: http://www.itworld.com/node/56577

So, they announce the cap right before rolling out much faster internet. Coincidence? I think not.

(I searched and didn't find anything on this, sorry if it's a repost)

Wait, why does it say that "most users will double their speeds for free", then states prices below?

because they are already paying that price for slower speeds?

true, but comcast is actually rated at 5 down 512K up with out that speed boost thing. Looks like those who do not upgrade will get 10 down 1 up, which is FIOS range if they decide 2 up.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: vshah
even if someone downloads 10 350mb hdtv rips a week, that would still only be 14gb. seed to 1.0 each and that's 28gb. way under the limit. i would like to know what it is that people who break this limit download/upload on a daily basis to hit ~8 gigs every day

I watch several hours of streaming HD content every night, and on the weekends I usually have movies / documentaries playing on my laptop all the time. I don't have a TV, so all my visual media comes through the internet. While I may be in the minority right now, it's not going to stay that way. The number of people who have PCs hooked up to HDTVs / large monitors is constantly going up, and nobody wants to watch low quality content on their big fancy HDTVs.

This whole thing is basically Comcast preempting the HD revolution. It won't be long before we see streaming Blu-Ray quality content, and with something like that you're going to hit the bandwidth cap very quickly, especially with the faster internet.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I never measured how much I use, but even with VOIP I know I don't even get close to 250GB. That's a lot of porn.

 

[alkemyst]

Your problem with math is you aren't expected to be just downloading the whole internet.

If you need more bandwidth their are services you can buy to supply that.

What's happening now is so many people are just torrenting and streaming 24/7 and never really watching any of it. I don't get it.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Originally posted by: vshah
even if someone downloads 10 350mb hdtv rips a week, that would still only be 14gb. seed to 1.0 each and that's 28gb. way under the limit. i would like to know what it is that people who break this limit download/upload on a daily basis to hit ~8 gigs every day

350mb rips are for losers. 1.1gb 720p is the way to go. Better yet, just watch it live because it's a LOT better uncompressed. With that said, even if you do go with 1.1gb, that's like 70 - 80gb a month assuming they seed 1.0 also. Shrug.

People also whine about HD streaming. Now, let's ask how much bandwidth do those use? As much as the 1.1gb 720p TV shows or less? If it's less, then STFU because streaming only saves you bandwidth, and if us downloaders can survive, then 250gb is plenty.

It is plenty even for people I know who use newsgroups. If you just got a 1.5 TB hd and you want to populate it, that's a different story, but how often does that happen?

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I never measured how much I use, but even with VOIP I know I don't even get close to 250GB. That's a lot of porn.

voip and gaming consume very little bandwidth.

It's the leechers and P2P that are the problem.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Canai

Originally posted by: vshah
even if someone downloads 10 350mb hdtv rips a week, that would still only be 14gb. seed to 1.0 each and that's 28gb. way under the limit. i would like to know what it is that people who break this limit download/upload on a daily basis to hit ~8 gigs every day

I watch several hours of streaming HD content every night, and on the weekends I usually have movies / documentaries playing on my laptop all the time. I don't have a TV, so all my visual media comes through the internet. While I may be in the minority right now, it's not going to stay that way. The number of people who have PCs hooked up to HDTVs / large monitors is constantly going up, and nobody wants to watch low quality content on their big fancy HDTVs.

This whole thing is basically Comcast preempting the HD revolution. It won't be long before we see streaming Blu-Ray quality content, and with something like that you're going to hit the bandwidth cap very quickly, especially with the faster internet.

Nothing is free. The sooner you learn that the better.

You want free HD, put up an antenna. The HD revolution is already here, otherwise pay for it.

You are not entitled to your every whim.

 

[wetcat007]

The higher speed plans such the the 50MB/s one is a business class plan, and does not have a cap unless they added it just now.

 

[SparkyJJO]

The notion that nobody will ever need more than 250GB is crap, just look at what happened with memory and hard drives. I don't know the exact amount, but Gates said something like the average user will never need more than 64k of memory.. uhh right.

So while it may be OK now doesn't mean it will be ok later and knowing the way they work they'll use it as a reason to charge even more for a higher cap.

I'm speaking as someone who doesn't do any torrenting or P2P shares or anything like that, so don't roll me into that group because I don't like caps.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: SparkyJJO
The notion that nobody will ever need more than 250GB is crap, just look at what happened with memory and hard drives. I don't know the exact amount, but Gates said something like the average user will never need more than 64k of memory.. uhh right.

So while it may be OK now doesn't mean it will be ok later and knowing the way they work they'll use it as a reason to charge even more for a higher cap.

And what the hell does that have to do with TODAY?

You guys complained endlessly about "they're all evil and corporationy, they need to upgrade their networks! *rabble* *rabble*"

Comcast and other MSOs upgrade their networks thanks to competition from telcos, and yet you still whine, moan, piss and complain.

It's not free, bandwidth/capacity isn't free. Stop thinking that it is, you are not entitled to it. You must pay for it.

 

[Nocturnal]

Come on guys, you cannot expect 1s and 0s and electricity to be free! You have to pay and we should all go back to the times where 14.4Kbps modems were the greatest thing since sliced bread. We really should. There's no reason why we should have these 50Mbit connections anyhow. I am a network admin and I approved this message.

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: spidey07
They upgrade, provide blazing speed at a good price and you guys still whine and complain. Typical.

their move to docsis 3.0 has been known about most of this year.

True. But, spidey, you have to admit this is going to scare up more bandwidth cap overage fees for them. I'm sure they're well aware of that and planned it.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Come on guys, you cannot expect 1s and 0s and electricity to be free! You have to pay and we should all go back to the times where 14.4Kbps modems were the greatest thing since sliced bread. We really should. There's no reason why we should have these 50Mbit connections anyhow. I am a network admin and I approved this message.

Do you have any idea how much a 45 meg connection costs?
Do you have any idea how much a 155 meg connection costs?

And Comcast is giving it to you for less than 200 bucks? That's the deal of the century right there.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: child of wonder

Originally posted by: spidey07
They upgrade, provide blazing speed at a good price and you guys still whine and complain. Typical.

their move to docsis 3.0 has been known about most of this year.

True. But, spidey, you have to admit this is going to scare up more bandwidth cap overage fees for them. I'm sure they're well aware of that and planned it.

I have not doubt that they're aware of it and it's planned. As already stated the 250 GB folks are the obscene abusers and represent fractions of a percent of customer base. They don't want those (no provider does) and are more than happy for them to switch. Or force them to.