Comcast 250GB cap starting October

[Tokeman]

"Comcast Corp said Thursday it will limit the amount of data its Internet customers can send and receive each month to 250 gigabytes, effective Oct. 1. The Philadelphia-based cable-television, Internet, phone and media company said that if a customer exceeds the limit and is among the heaviest users of its Internet service twice within six months, it will suspend the customer’s service for a year."

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelp...5/daily33.html
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So I'm assuming the 250gb is total traffic, up + down. The cap is reasonable, but man, this still sucks...

[SenseiChaz]

Redefining the term "unlimited" !!!

[gtxl1200]

We can say well we should start shopping around.. That wont matter they're all going to go to some kind of band width limit any way.

[Skerven]

THIS IS ALL ABOUT SUPPLY AND DEMAND

if the consumers demand a higher cap, they will make a higher cap. they don't want competitors, who would offer a higher or no cap, to undercut their profit margins.

but if you can only get comcast... that sucks. oh well, the number of ISPs will only grow.

250GB isn't that big of a deal anyway... that is a huge cap. 250/30=8.33GB per day...

[S!X]

that is a huge cap. 250/30=8.33GB per day...

Indeed it is, mine's only like what 60GB/month

[Feather]

time for a customer complaint program to start.

[Rustican]

Wow, that's sad new for the Comcast users.
Also, I heard Time Warner is testing the capping(additional fee after the standard) of customer's bandwidth on Texas.

[Appzalien]

Much of this is the fault of the Government that allowed the cable companies to make exclusive deals with cities and certain areas in the US. In my area the city only allows Cox Cable, and other companies cannot come in. That means that Cox has exlusivity in this area, if you want cable or cable internet its the only game in town. If the Government changed the rules so that a city could not sell exclusivity to a cable company all this crap would go away, because alot of Comcast customers would switch in a heart beat. They got around the monopoly laws by making it area by area instead of statewide.

Incidently, a few years back the goverment broke up Ma Bell for having a monopoly on the phone service. In recent years with the Republicans having had control of the county for so many years, AT&T has taken advantage of the situation to buy up all the smaller companies it could. They leave just a few intact so they can't be accused of being a monopoly, but they're now more powerful than they have been since the breakup. I just wonder if their leaking of personal information to the Government wasn't some kind of deal to let them inturn expand beyond what is reasonable.

I for one have always hated AT&T, they are what makes America a bad place, corporate greed and dishonesty at its worst. Yet to watch their commercials you would think they're your best friends and couldn't harm a fly. Yeah Right!

[saulin]

That's a nice cap. Mine is 150GB/mo. I should be fine doing 200GB though. I think if you guys are getting over 250GB every month, then you guys need to stop downloading just any crap. Or move to newsgroups where only download counts.

[silent h3ro]

Much of this is the fault of the Government that allowed the cable companies to make exclusive deals with cities and certain areas in the US. In my area the city only allows Cox Cable, and other companies cannot come in. That means that Cox has exlusivity in this area, if you want cable or cable internet its the only game in town. If the Government changed the rules so that a city could not sell exclusivity to a cable company all this crap would go away, because alot of Comcast customers would switch in a heart beat. They got around the monopoly laws by making it area by area instead of statewide.

Incidently, a few years back the goverment broke up Ma Bell for having a monopoly on the phone service. In recent years with the Republicans having had control of the county for so many years, AT&T has taken advantage of the situation to buy up all the smaller companies it could. They leave just a few intact so they can't be accused of being a monopoly, but they're now more powerful than they have been since the breakup. I just wonder if their leaking of personal information to the Government wasn't some kind of deal to let them inturn expand beyond what is reasonable.

I for one have always hated AT&T, they are what makes America a bad place, corporate greed and dishonesty at its worst. Yet to watch their commercials you would think they're your best friends and couldn't harm a fly. Yeah Right!

Certain cable companies are allowed monopolies in certain areas because they don't want there to be competition with companies constantly adding new cables underground and making a mess while doing it. That's what I learned in economics class at least.

I am a Comcast customer and this sucks for me because I am constantly uploading and downloading, almost 24/7. Although I don't think I reach 250 gigs/ month with our current speed.