consumerist.com — It seems more and more people are getting the "drastically cut back your bandwidth" call, and even being banned for 12 months. Some people have no other Internet options. They refuse to tell you what the bandwidth limit really is. Is Comcast abusing their customers?
Feb 10, 2007 View in Crawl 4
tmac79Feb 11, 2007
They offer it based on percentages... the same reason your telephone company doesn't have 1 connection to the "rest of the world" for every 1 telephone line they sell. because statistics say that at peek usage, only, say, maybe 1 out of 20 will be using the phone at the same time. So, they buy 1 link to the PSTN for every 20 subscribers. same thing with G-Mail, unlimited web hosts, etc. Oh, and same for any internet connectivity. Remember the famous busy signals dialing in to your old ISP?If everyone used 2.7 gb, it'd be quickly limited to 10mb.
y0tsuyaFeb 11, 2007
Speakeasy now caps bandwidth. Use more than 100GB/mo and you'd get a friendly call from one of their minions. But it's not as simple as it seems. You have to do something to trip their log monitor at the NOC, like downloading 8GB in a single day from giganews, which was what I did. Once you do, you're on their radar screen. Now they nag me once a month about usage. I'm in the process of switching to a dedicated line, but not from Speakeasy. Paying them $116/mo just to be nagged pisses me off to no end. Goodbye Speakeasy. You used to be cool, what happened?
digggoFeb 11, 2007
I will say that I love optimum online in new york. good service, fast and havent seen a cap. I use newsgroups, so not a lot of uploading... here is a bit from giganews report for my account:start - end - days - bytes - GB01/07/2007
cleveltechFeb 12, 2007
I myself was booted off their network for the same reasons Comcast accused Frank of. I have never useda Bitorrent client, am not running a server and I don;t own a business. What angers me about this is they clearly have a cap but won;t reveal what it is and I (like Frank) am speaking out and letting other subscribers that are unaware of this heavily enforced fuzzy policy that Comcast enforces know about it. They have a right to know.
chickenrobFeb 19, 2007
In my friends defense. I do have comcast in the same general area he is in and I do routinely get their advertised 6M with their 8M "power boost" for about the first 20 seconds of _some_ downloads. I see no reason he should not be getting the same performance. It is true that what you are connecting to can make all the difference, but if you are routinely connecting to large sites in this country you should see your connection achieve far greater then a 2M limit.
steveatdownmixFeb 26, 2007
Well, I think we can all agree that 2gb or even 700mb (an iso) is considered a large file. Everything else should be up to abuse and interpretation. The problem here is that interpretation should be overseen somehow (not sure how) by customers and it's not. This leaves the policy open to abuse, but as soon as you set an exact number on it, abuse will become pore prevalent.
Closed AccountJun 21, 2007
Comcast can go f**k themselves. They have no idea how to communicate within their company, and nearly everyone that works there is an idiot. I have had signal problems on my internet connection for months now, and everytime I call they give me a different answer. One person told me they have to install and amp outside in the closet, and yet another told me that the drop box is screwed up and they need to replace it. Comcast is seriously retarded, and it's gonna be hilarious when they start to lose money because of fios. I cannot wait until they need to sell their precious newly built skyscraper in Philadelphia to cover their bankruptcy. You hear that Mr. Roberts, you crooked piece of s**t. I can't wait until your crooked ass company goes belly up. You run a disgustingly incompetent company, and you deserve to go out of business you f**king assh**e. All of the bulls**t that has been dished out by Comcast customer support is going to be spit right back into your uncooperative, selfish, money grabbing face. If I could, I'd make it my personal mission to see you rot in hell, but I'm not like you. I will never sink that low. You will get what's coming to you Brain, oh you will. f**k Comcast!<a class="user" href="http://www.dpodgor.net">http://www.dpodgor.net</a>
docsharp76Feb 11, 2008
More broadband providers do cut back the bandwidth because they have to accomodate their customers. However, Speakeasy T1 high speed internet access does not for its residential or business customers. <a class="user" href="http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/T1-Internet-Service.html">http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/T1-Internet-Se ...</a>