Comcast Usage Meter

[thescreensavers]

Comcast said I used 254gb in May. Now thats funny.

 

[child of wonder]

I don't work for comcast. I am a network architecht responsible for building these networks, I get called in on consulting gigs for big upgrades and planning strategy for providers and large enterprises.

Yes, the caps will be raised. The caps are based on profitability and overall subscriber usage. Remember the people that hit this are a very small percentage of subscribers but cause the most pain in terms of cost and performance. The 250 cap was based on current and projected traffic patterns including the 3.0 push.

Bandwidth/capacity is now under the two year mark when it doubles. So in just 24 months a providers network will have delivered roughly 2 times what it does today.

Oh, and last mile isn't the choke points. It's at the distribution to access layer - longer distances, much more expensive from an optics perspective to get more speed.

So with DOCSIS 3.0 allowing them to catch up with demand, any idea how that will affect the cap? It's officially stood pat for nearly 2 years (who knows how much longer "unofficially") and as individuals like myself begin to discard cable TV to save money and more streaming options become available, plus more people working from home, Google Voice, etc., etc. etc. demand is only going to increase exponentially as more and more "abusers," to use the industry term, are being born every day -- kids obviously use FAR more bandwidth than adults and as the baby boomers die off they're going to be replaced with a younger generation that is going to use thousands if not millions of times more bandwidth than their predecessors.

 

[zach0624]

my cap is 17gb a month with wildblue satellite internet

 

[TheVrolok]

my cap is 17gb a month with wildblue satellite internet

Ouch.

 

[zach0624]

Ouch.

Yeah and i'm part of a family of four too. We have to plan out when I download linux or windows upgrades and steam sits in offline mode for weeks so I don't get throttled. I would kill for a 50gb cap.

 

[mrjminer]

I'm sure the word "unlimited" appears on an advertisement, but that really doesn't mean shit. I'm also going to bet that the fine print says that Comcast is allowed to make changes as necessary for whatever legalese reason they put in there. If the "unlimited" advertisement was actually part of a legally binding contract, don't you think you'd have seen a class-action suit since the implementation of the cap? Hell man, as long as you still can go ahead and use the 250 GB/month, you're allowed (for no additional charge).

It's funny, though, I hear nothing but terrible things about Comcast but I've had a wonderful experience over the last year and a half. Good service, and customer service was fantastic the 3-4 times I needed it. They even threw me a discount for some reason after one of the customer service bits.

Damned legalese /shakes fist

Anywho, you are probably still in the majority in having no (or few) problems with Comcast, but there is definitely a growing minority that has severe, lasting problems with them. For example, my service has gone out EVERY day that I've had their service at random times (1pm, 3am, 8:10pm, etc...), for random durations (~30 seconds - 4 hours). There was even a period of 6 months when I played WoW a whole lot, but was forced to stop due to the connection dropping constantly (30 seconds on wow... disconnected. 15 minutes... disconnected. 5 minutes... disconnected. 10 seconds... disconnected.)

Every one of my friends left Comcast years ago due to similar issues, I didn't cancel because my only alternatives were Verizon DSL (at the time it was horrible here) or dial-up.

I plan to move soon, though, so I don't want to pay more for slower service and don't want to get locked into a contract when I have my eyes set on larger environments with FIOS available.

 

[spidey07]

Damned legalese /shakes fist

Anywho, you are probably still in the majority in having no (or few) problems with Comcast, but there is definitely a growing minority that has severe, lasting problems with them. For example, my service has gone out EVERY day that I've had their service at random times (1pm, 3am, 8:10pm, etc...), for random durations (~30 seconds - 4 hours). There was even a period of 6 months when I played WoW a whole lot, but was forced to stop due to the connection dropping constantly (30 seconds on wow... disconnected. 15 minutes... disconnected. 5 minutes... disconnected. 10 seconds... disconnected.)

Every one of my friends left Comcast years ago due to similar issues, I didn't cancel because my only alternatives were Verizon DSL (at the time it was horrible here) or dial-up.

I plan to move soon, though, so I don't want to pay more for slower service and don't want to get locked into a contract when I have my eyes set on larger environments with FIOS available.

So let me get this straight. You guys scream and say they aren't doing the necessary upgrades and then bitch about the service interruptions when they do?

This shit is incredibly difficult and complicated. We can't just wave the magic wand and *POOF* upgrade. There is so much work involved it isn't even funny.

 

[mrjminer]

So let me get this straight. You guys scream and say they aren't doing the necessary upgrades and then bitch about the service interruptions when they do?

This shit is incredibly difficult and complicated. We can't just wave the magic wand and *POOF* upgrade. There is so much work involved it isn't even funny.

Bitch about service interruptions?

So, you're trying to tell me...
1. They upgrade my service on a daily basis.
2. This myth of a "service upgrade(s)" you mention make it acceptable to drop someone's connection between 1-30 times per fifteen minutes for about 3 months straight.
3. Their service update you claim they are aggressively pushing has been ongoing in my area and remains incomplete after 7 years of daily work.

Yes, the shit is difficult and complicated. That's why they get PAID BY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE to specialize in and perform these services. That payment comes with the expectation that service won't be consistently degraded and interrupted, which has not occurred.

I'm trying to tell you...
1. That you're full of shit. They have pathetic service in many areas.

 

[spidey07]

I'm trying to tell you...
1. That you're full of shit. They have pathetic service in many areas.

I'm not full of shit. There are constant upgrades on circuits going on constantly just to keep up with demand.

If your service is that bad then go get another ISP or demand you not pay for the times of service outage.

 

[mrjminer]

I'm not full of shit. There are constant upgrades on circuits going on constantly just to keep up with demand.

If your service is that bad then go get another ISP or demand you not pay for the times of service outage.

Changing ISPs is not an option. I simply have no alternative but to accept that the government sold my city out to a monopoly (there USED to be 5 or 6 ISPs here that went under when Comcast bought Insight, rolled in with ridiculously low prices, then jacked up the prices after their competition was exterminated). Verizon offers DSL in my area now, but I plan to move within the next 6 months or so, and I don't want to get stuck in a contract when I'm planning on moving somewhere with FIOS.

You really think Comcast is going to pay me for every service outage? I think that's pretty unlikely. Also, it's a waste of my time to call them on a daily basis. I haven't even had them send service techs out in years. Why? Because the first service tech had them drop a new cable line to resolve the problem. Know what the second did? Had them drop a new cable line to resolve the problem. Third? Take a guess. I had to solve the problem myself for over a year by tethering my phone every day as a result of their unexplained outages. Now, I just have enough I can do offline to deal with their daily outages.

Like I said, Comcast sucks in many areas. You might be in a place where Comcast rocks, but I can assure you, the only rocking they do here is rocking around the clock to their loss of my money.

I think we can agree on something, though: zach0624 has it the worst out of anyone.

 

[alkemyst]

Any ISP has bandwidth limits on unlimited accounts. The thing is Comcast is now the WAMU off the internet world and like totally free checking everyone thinks all services at the bank should be free to them as well.

AOL, AT&T, etc have all had to cap customers esp on DSL circuits where serial uploaders fuck things up.

Your utility company analogies are bad as well because at least here those that use major amounts of water and power are heavily surcharged. They even have to report their usage weekly. These people own mansions on the ocean where windows are rinsed hourly, have multiple clay tennis courts they 'hydrate' a few times a day, and all the exotic type landscaping that requires tons of water a day in our hot sun. Same with power...you pull in too much and they are going to pull you out of a residential setup.

Those that are paying equipment rental charges, yet own their own are simply spineless. Get on the freaking phone and tell comcast. I have never had any equipment rental not removed and credited back when I have reported it.

I have Comcast cable and internet here and we use this for our remote roll-outs for cable, internet and voice in the field. It's a great bang-for-buck as I am not charged as high a 'business rate' as DSL does and the speeds are much better for our users.

Those using TB's a month are abusers...they are not watching all that content anyway, much like porn people think they have to download it all and then one day Chris Hansen and team storm their homes and they wonder how did kiddie porn end up on their machines.