thescreensavers
Diamond Member
- Aug 3, 2005
- 9,930
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- 81
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.
my cap is 17gb a month with wildblue satellite internet
Ouch.
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.
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.
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.