Time Warner and Comcast to cap bandwidth

[Guest Boomhower]

Alright, before I get all bent out of shape over this (because concast has been raping me for a long time now) what say a few of you about this? I do not understand the bandwidth usage vs. KB's vs. GB's and all of that stuff, but I do know that if my comcast bill goes up higher than I am paying now over this, I'm going to be pissed.

O and thank you all the 5 percenters out there for screwing it up for everybody. Yeah, you know who you are.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080603/bs_nf/60098

Time Warner Launches Bandwidth-Capped Internet Plan

Barry Levine, newsfactor.comTue Jun 3, 4:42 PM ET

On Thursday, Time Warner Cable will begin testing a new pricing plan that caps bandwidth usage. Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable's executive vice president, said the plan will be launched as a trial in Beaumont, Texas, and will consist of several tiers. The first tier, at $29.95 monthly, will be a relatively slow 768 kilobits per second with a 5GB monthly cap, while a plan at $54.90 per month will offer 15 megabits per second and a 40GB cap.

Both downloads and uploads count toward the monthly total. Overages will be charged at $1 a gigabyte.

Only New Customers

Time Warner has an estimated 90,000 customers in the area, and only new customers will be offered the tiers. With some users exchanging huge, media-based files like video, some other cable companies have also considered caps. For instance, Comcast, the largest cable company in the United States, has reportedly said it may cap usage at 250 gigabytes per month.

The experiment comes as consumers have grown used to unlimited Internet usage. But Larry Hettick, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, said the current problem for Internet service providers is mostly created by five percent of users, while the rest have usage patterns within expectations. Those five percent, he added, are frequently downloading or uploading huge files.

Hettick noted that providers have previously said, in effect, that their policy is "unlimited, within reason," and then kicked off those few who go unreasonably beyond expected usage. "From a marketing point of view," he said, "it's probably a better approach."

He added that it will be interesting to see how users react to this experiment, as they have become accustomed to unlimited bandwidth, and the phone market is going the other way -- toward unlimited use for a flat price. "Personally," said Hettick, who sometimes works at home and depends on his online connection, "I would not buy a usage-sensitive data plan."

'Probably Enough'

He did note that, for the 95 percent of normal users, a 40GB cap is "probably enough." But addressing the short-term problem of dealing with the five percent of overusers, he added, will not fix the long-term problem, with high-definition home movies being uploaded to YouTube or users downloading high-definition features from iTunes.

"There has to be several parts to the solution," he said. One of these is increasing capacity in the so-called "last mile" to the home, by implementing new technologies such as DOCSIS 3.0 or reducing the number of homes on a given line. "Three years ago," Hettick noted, "a cable company might have served 100 homes in a neighborhood with one access point, but now could be serving 25."

Hettick said another part of the solution is increasing capacity at the central parts of the network. But, even with these adjustments, cable companies and other service providers will still have to come to terms eventually with those ultra-high-bandwidth users.

[Guest bkelm18]

That's actually very ridiculous. 250GB really isn't a whole lot when you sit down and think about it. All the webpages you use, all the graphics and pictures they have on them, videos, sound files... it adds up.

[Punisher84]

I don't upload or download a ton of stuff, but yea I agree that's pure crap.

[Guest kwikrnu]

What does "unlimited within reason" mean anyway?

[einnor1040]

I heard Comcast was jacking with the bandwidth causing Vonage to not work sometimes. I had Vonage and it worked up until Comcast announced they were getting into the phone game. Then my Vonage service started getting crappy. I ended up dropping it and going back to AT&T.

[Guest dotsun]

Seems like I read a story about them admitting to capping bandwidth on torrents a few months ago. I hate Concast personally, but they're the only cable game in town here.

[Guest bkelm18]

Cable companies... almost as bad as oil companies.

[TripleDigitRide]

I already pay $132/month for Comcast TV and Internet, and that is without any movie channels. I'll look into switching if it gets much higher.

[Guest CrazyLincoln]

They just want to save a few bucks. If they really cared, they would do like Verizon and do FiOS and this wouldn't be as big a problem. But this is BS. I download huge files for work all the time. I'm not downloading pirated music or movies. 40GB is hardly anything. Heck, my webhost allows more traffic on my website than that, and I have a cheapo plan.

Don't get me wrong, long distance bandwidth IS extremely expensive, but if they are too cheap to upgrade their equipment to account for 5% of the users to make it better for everybody, then use throttling, not capping. i.e. If you download more than 5GB (the size of 2 or 3 3D games) in a day your speed drops to 756kbps for 24 hours (figuring you have the high end plan).

The truth is its all about the $$

I've worked for an ISP before, and this is just a way to squeeze more money out of the existing equipment.

[Pokey]

wheww...the big question for me is what's more important TV or Gas???? The way it's going it's going to be one or the other, definately not BOTH!

[Guest Boomhower]

The truth is its all about the $$

I've worked for an ISP before, and this is just a way to squeeze more money out of the existing equipment.

Yep, and I just love to consistently watch and listen to all the promotionals that I am not eligible for (because I am a preexisting customer). I wonder, if I am watching your commercials on your cable provider, why the heck do I need to see all the promos your company offers if I can't get any of them.....Oh right, cause I'm gonna run out and tell all my friends...how I'm getting raped by you....Sure I'll tell em for ya.

[Guest jackdog]

I'm on satellite here, they do have restricted band width but it rarely effects me. They base it on usage in a 24 hour period. Cost me 65.00 pm. Not as fast as cable but still damn quick compared to dial up. Cable companies need to just shut off the abusers, but there real goal is to improve there profit margin.

[Guest dotsun]

I'm not sure how they could call us high users abusers when they sold me an unlimited plan. Sounds more like they wrote a check with their mouths that their ass can't cash.

[Guest kwikrnu]

I'm not sure how they could call us high users abusers when they sold me an unlimited plan. Sounds more like they wrote a check with their mouths that their ass can't cash.

they sold you an unlimited within reason plan.

[Guest Boomhower]

I'm not sure how they could call us high users abusers when they sold me an unlimited plan. Sounds more like they wrote a check with their mouths that their ass can't cash.

O their cashing checks alright....and will continue to regardless of what they do to increase their profit.

[Guest db99wj]

Semi related question:

My highspeed cable modem is probably 6-8 years old. Should I get a new one? I am renting it from Comunistcast cable for a couple of bucks a month. Have the modems improved enough to get a newer one and it upload and download faster?

[Guest sling]

Semi related question:

My highspeed cable modem is probably 6-8 years old. Should I get a new one? I am renting it from Comunistcast cable for a couple of bucks a month. Have the modems improved enough to get a newer one and it upload and download faster?

As long as it works you're fine. Your download\upload cap is dicated by the ISP (internet service provider) not necessarily by your modem. They've pretty much stayed the same over the years.

As they say, if it aint broke dont fix it.

[Guest db99wj]

As long as it works you're fine. Your downloadupload cap is dicated by the ISP (internet service provider) not necessarily by your modem. They've pretty much stayed the same over the years.

As they say, if it aint broke dont fix it.

Cool. I was looking at it thinking that thing is old!

[Mike.357]

I am ready to throw the TV's out, go back to ATT and use dial up for the internet.

If not the for boss, err wifey I would not have cable at all.

My year is almost up from comcast. A year was what they guarenteed my pricing for. I now pay about $135 for Phone, Internet and digital cable including Encore, HBO and Starz. No telling what the bill will be when the year is up.

At minimum I will keep their basic cable I guess but I will dump them on internet and telephone services.

ATT is begging me to come back.

[Guest UofM Matt]

I hate comcast. I have found however that when you call to complain, ask immediately to ask to a supervisor. Don't deal with the lower level folks. I waited on hold the other day for 45 minutes (while also waiting for the technician to show up, 45 minutes late). Finally talked to a supervisor and let her have it. She knocked $50 off the bill immediately.

Worst part was listening to the commercials whilst on hold. "Always connected, always online" my ass.

[Punisher84]

I have a buddy who works for Communistcast and he swears they are Nazis. I hated Time Warner worse though.

[Guest dotsun]

I hate comcast. I have found however that when you call to complain, ask immediately to ask to a supervisor. Don't deal with the lower level folks. I waited on hold the other day for 45 minutes (while also waiting for the technician to show up, 45 minutes late). Finally talked to a supervisor and let her have it. She knocked $50 off the bill immediately.

Worst part was listening to the commercials whilst on hold. "Always connected, always online" my ass.

Don't even get me started on their lovely phone support crew. Almost to a man they are the absolute epitome of stupidity. I think I've talked to one person over there that half knew what he was talking about instead of blindly reading the flow chart. One lady I talked to had no freaking clue what I was talking about when I tried to convince her my network was fine, she was convinced the problem was on my end when it wasn't.

[Luckyforward]

Comcast sux

[Guest UofM Matt]

Don't even get me started on their lovely phone support crew. Almost to a man they are the absolute epitome of stupidity. I think I've talked to one person over there that half knew what he was talking about instead of blindly reading the flow chart. One lady I talked to had no freaking clue what I was talking about when I tried to convince her my network was fine, she was convinced the problem was on my end when it wasn't.

Went to check this thread again and drumroll....my internet went out. Twenty minutes later I'm now able to read it, only because I'm "borrowing" the neighbors wireless for a second.

I've had the exact same experience. Typically they tell me they don't know what's wrong, and then schedule an appt. for 4 days later, to which the technician always shows up late because they overbook them. Lovely. Also, Comcast was recently ranked 2nd worst in customer service, just behind AOL, which I didn't realize people still used.

[Guest CrazyLincoln]

This is how great their phone support is.....

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVp7b5gzqU[/ame]