“Comcast Corp., the nation’s second-largest Internet service provider, Thursday said it would set an official limit on the amount of data subscribers can download and upload each month,” The Associated Press reports.
“On Oct. 1, the cable company will update its user agreement to say that users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of traffic per month, the company announced on its Web site,” AP reports.
AP reports, “Customers who go over the limit are contacted by the company and asked to curb their usage. ‘We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily,’ the company said.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Patrick” for the heads up.]
how the hell do you download/upload 250g per month? all of the time? i think it’s pretty reasonable.
rick.
I would kill my first-born for a limit like that!!! I have a 4GB download limit right now with Excel.Net here in wisconsin. Its terrible! I can’t watch more that 4 youtube videos every month plus regular downloading… its BS!!!
PS, I wouldn’t really kill my first born, cuz I don’t have any kids yet…
I don’t know why so many people are upset about this…
250 GB? Unless you’re running a Hotline server or something, that’s going to be plenty for pretty much anyone.
I think that the FTC should force Comcast to advertise their service as a 100 KB/sec (or 800 Kbits per second) service. After all that is all that you can achieve with it. A little bit of “truth in advertising” might make some of the service providers a bit more considerate of their customers.
And just for the record, you could consume 30 percent of this bandwidth by merely listening to one of the 256 Kbit per second Internet radio stations 7×24.
250GB equals how many porn downloads? I need to know.
I wonder how many hours I get to play WoW before I run up against that limit! Me. And my son-in-law. And his two sons. My wife could be added to that list, except she just surfs, rather that plays what is fully admitted to being a “game”.
Palen is a babe, that’s for sure. I didn’t realize that babe-ness counted that much in a political race. Of course, she IS the only one of the four with any executive experience. And she IS the only one currently being investigated for corruption.
Let’s go at this a different way. Sure, 250 gb is a “lot”, but what is Comcast stuffing down the pipe for all those TV signals?
Let’s assume it’s all HD (it isn’t, but will be soon), and let’s assume there are 100 channels. There really aren’t 100, but will be soon, and there are more SD channels than 100, so this will probably give a close estimate.
A compressed HD TV channel takes about 15 mbit/sec, so 100 channels like that is 1.5 gbit/sec.
The 250 giga Byte limit (2×10^12 bits) is a continuous (30*24*3600 seconds in t month) 770 kbits, so Comcast is “capping” internet speed to 770k bits/sec, while continuously sending 1.5 GIGABITS of TV programming down the wires.
Put another way, the “heavy users” that Comcast is so worried about are using 0.05% of the bandwidth used by the TV channels.
So much for being bandwidth hogs.
Put another way, your full speed 15 mbit/sec internet for which you pay $40-$50 month, takes the bandwidth of ONE TV channel. Of course, you typically get a package of 100+ TV channels for $50, so Comcast (and, to be fair, all the others) charge for internet bandwidth at a rate that is 50 times higher than they charge you for the TV bandwidth.
Plus, the “content” on the internet is FREE, while Comcast pays content providers for the TV programming.
You are being vastly overcharged by Comcast for your internet bandwidth. It is not physically possible, even with the fastest internet connection that Comcast sells to move as much data as leaving your TV on 24/7. Not even close.
I left Comcast as soon as FIOS came to our area, and I’ve never looked back.
I agree with those who’ve been arguing that we need more competition in the ISP sector. Besides Comcast, the only other ISP in my area is Qwest.
Unfortunately, Qwest is extremely disorganized and/or sloppily dishonest. I’ve been lied to by more than one Qwest representative regarding pricing, hidden fees, etc. And the speeds of Qwest’s DSL services are much slower than advertised. Furthermore, I have a friend who has been even more swindled by Qwest. My friend was overcharged for her DSL modem, and then Qwest tried to raise her supposedly “price for life” rates without her knowledge!
Like many, I’ve been encouraging Comcast to either set an official cap for its internet customers or forget about the cap idea entirely. Now that Comcast has set an official number for the cap, I’m going to seriously consider switching from Qwest to Comcast.
250 GB cap is pretty good from where I sit: Videotron in Quebec gives us different packages with caps:I’m capped at 20 GB d/l and 10 GB u/l while the largest capped package offers 100 GB for $64.90
Wow, I wish I had 250GB a month allowance!
We have 40GB in our house which is seen as HUGE down here in Australia. Our internet is so far behind it’s not funny.
OK, I’ve always called them Comspastic! My down times are ALWAYS line issues and they ALWAYS insist to send a no brain tech first, second, and even third,.. weeks later the line guy fixes the issue. Spastic way to do business.
250Gb are you serious
I pay 40 Aus for 5gb
250GB sounds good now, but…Apple’s iTunes movies will not always by 1 mere 1.5-to-3GB files. Gradually (as broadband speeds improve) Apple will increase the HD bit rate to improve their movie download quality. At some point, that 250GB cap will be insufficient. The only question is when…
everyone here is ignoring Video Conferencing, nanny cams, etc,,,
And yes, I beleive this is all about getting out in front of Internet Based TV offerings. That includes any online iTunes like movie rentals or the like. Multi-person households with teenagers are going to be hit hard with this. Maybe not this year but stuff is in the pipe that has them doing this to cover there ass. The consumer gets shafted again.
Upside: I guess all those Windows users will start to learn how bad (inefficient) networking is on their boxes.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> As well as curtail those virus laden zombies out there plastering the internet with spam.
It’s better than Rogers. I pay $45/mo + tax and my bandwith limit is 60GB. It’s $2/GB and I’ve crossed it many, many times.
I’ve always believed that two wrongs don’t make a right. So just because other ISPs have imposed fascist-like caps on their customers, it doesn’t automatically follow that Comcast’s 250 GB cap is generous.
Indeed, as many have observed about the future, connections will only get faster and downloads larger. So does Comcast plan to raise its cap on a regular schedule, or will this cap be in place for the next 10 years? Also, why not provide users who go above the cap an opportunity to buy more GB?
I have the following two words.
DROP COMCAST!!!!!!!!
FSCK COMCAST!!!
A vote for Obama is a vote for terrorism!
Frankly, 250 gigs per month, to me, is fine. I’m unlikely to need quite so much. I would love to meet people who need more than that, just to see why.
Perhaps CC could offer a bit more flexibility – like “rollover” minutes, so unused DL capacity is not lost. Offer that, plus a higher monthly limited, for a bit more per month, for the benefit of really high-bandwidth users.
MD, were getting spammed here by the (Palin) fundies.
no birth control, no condoms, not even for married couples, and she smokes pot. the G-man is proud today (except for the pot, but all alaskans USED TO smoke pot… pre-Reagan).
Sarah Palin supports teaching creationism in public schools. “You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important, and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both,” she said in a debate.
<object width=”425″ height=”344″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1RN5xbWtNSU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1″></param></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/1RN5xbWtNSU&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″></embed></object>
Why is it, that such crap has been on the rise of late… I didn’t think that “bushism’ has such a following and was so influential?
Who ever said that fascism wasn’t on the rise in America?
Fascist are all about control of someone or something!
I think I stay with troubling AT&T;, at least I understand SBC’s bad habits!
Here in Australia the best we’ve got is 55gig per month ADSL2(24mbs) 90 bucks a month. Internode are Gods over here. It might sound crap compared to what’s available in the U.S. but it’s all we got. I’d kill for a 250gig limit.
iDont…
Assuming a porno is 700meg avi about 357movies a month. I don’t think they make that much porn a month.
So am I reading this right. Is Comcast the Telstra of America?