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Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a fe

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a few times they won't ban you from their service for a year. They just want you to curb your use, which is exactly what this guy was willing to do.

reduxredacted 15y ago
To be clear, though: Water and Electric utilities in the US (and I believe this is true of Canada) are also heavily regulated, including the requirement of a government approved meter that measures in a consistent and accurate manner. In addition, one pays based on what one consumes at rates that are at least partially controlled by another regulatory body. In our area, this is the case because there we have no choice to use a different electricity or natural gas provider. The same could be said about our options for broadband service, except that it lacks the same oversight. As a result, municipalities that have AT&T, Wide Open West, Comcast and a variety of less-fast DSL options have significantly better "specials" and even service options. I, for instance, can subscribe to Comcast Business service, whereas my parents a few cities over, where Comcast is the only reasonable choice, can only use their residential option. I agree, it's not a right, but I think the author is correct in stating that Internet access is an essential utility.
- knowtheory 15y ago
  One should add that it's ridiculous that Comcast counts 250gb transferred up or down, since almost all of their customer related information refers to down speeds.
chopsueyar 15y ago
My water and electricity utilities charge per gallon and kilowatt-hours, respectively. Comcast does not charge by the megabyte. Instead, it is all you can eat, until Comcast says that is all you can eat. This guy was actually using his residential account for business purposes.
- mentat 15y ago
  Both of these utilities have sliding scales (at where I've lived in California) which become punitive at higher levels. Comcast could do that same as long as they provided reasonable visibility.
- jerf 15y ago
  "Instead, it is all you can eat, until Comcast says that is all you can eat." No. A year or two ago, Comcast clarified their position on bandwidth usage as allowing you to use 250GB a month. This is now visible on their account, although I always have to poke around to get it: After logging in at comcast.com, go to the Users and Settings tab and look in the middle column. There's a link there to click that will let you look at your last three months history. I have 16GB in April, 80 in May, 57 in June, and 7 on my current billing cycle. They no longer advertise "all you can eat" and you are provided tools to see what is going on. It is still bizarre to me that you can't pay for more usage, and you are free to disagree with the policy in philosophy or in detail, or to be annoyed at how much brow-beating it took to get Comcast to this point, but they are no longer just randomly cutting you off when you silently cross an arbitrary standard. It is now cutting you off when you cross a public threshold, and you can easily see where they think you are in the month.
  - sitkack 15y ago
    And why can't you pay $60 for the next 250 GB?
  - keenerd 15y ago
    But it is very very easy to go over 250GB in a DAY, let alone a month. 250GB ÷ 15MB/sec = 4 hours 36 minutes Doesn't it seem a little odd that you can blow through an entire month's service in less than a day?
    - keenerd 15y ago
      Other comment - 250GB/month is less than 800Kb/sec. Cheap DSL is faster. Hulu uses 1Mb/sec. If you are one of those people who like a TV playing in the background, you can go over your cap just from running free television 24x7.
bryanlarsen 15y ago
At least in Canada, there are rules governing when the electricity company can cut you off. To oversimplify, you cannot be cut off during winter.
- someone13 15y ago
  Really? Can you point to a link about this? I'd love to see what the rules actually say. NOTE: What I wrote above sounds kind of confrontational - it's not. Badly worded, yes, but I believe you and am actually interested in seeing the rules.
  - timmaah 15y ago
    Turn to google my friend.. http://liheap.ncat.org/Disconnect/disconnect.htm http://liheap.ncat.org/Disconnect/disconnect.htm
  - bryanlarsen 15y ago
    It looks like you were right to be confrontational. According to Google, that was a temporary moratorium that has expired: http://www.ontariotenants.ca/electricity/articles/2004/ltw04a27.phtml http://www.ontariotenants.ca/electricity/articles/2004/ltw04... It's certainly a common misconception. I certainly know that people in the "which bill do I pay this month" scenario often choose to hold off on paying Hydro during the winter. It's also quite likely that Hydro is less likely to disconnect during the Winter. Frozen water pipes can cause a lot of damage...
    - pyre 15y ago
      To be clear Ontario residents (really just in the GTA) refer to electricity as 'Hydro' because most(?) of it comes from the hydro-electric plant near Niagara Falls, and the company is called Toronto Hydro. Personally, whenever someone refers to the 'hydro bill' I have to internally connect the dots that it's not the water bill. In this case, it's even less clear to those not in the know, because the next sentence refers to water pipes.
fr0sty 15y ago
>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. They do? Where is this the case? My water and electricity usage have no monthly cap and are only shut off if I fail to pay the bills.
- evan_ 15y ago
  My friend had some kind of washer hose burst in his house when he was away for the weekend. The damage was minimal (it was in his unfinished basement) but the water company, detecting a large amount of water being used, came by and shut his water off. "Oh but that's different" - not really. Same thing would have happened if my friend was intentionally trying to fill his basement with water.
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    What about a pool?
    - EdwardMSmith 15y ago
      (not relevant to the article, but...) when you fill a pool, generally you call the water company and they'll hook a meter to a fire hydrant. This will fill a lot faster then a 1" home service, and you also won't be charged for sewer as well as the water. This can save significant money, since, at least where I live, sewer fees are about 8x the actual water cost.
  - Luyt 15y ago
    I suspect that would not have been a problem. The water company guy rings at your friends door: Water Company Guy: "Just checking, we think there might be a burst pipe around here somewhere. Have you noticed some flooding?" Your friend: "No. I'm just filling up my pool however, but everything is fine." Company guy: "Ah, ok. Excellent. Have a nice day!"
    - evan_ 15y ago
matwood 15y ago
Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Most utilities cannot just shut you off. Many states have laws that determine when and how. The biggest thing about a utility though is that you pay for usage. If you want to leave your lights on all day, they really don't care as long as you continue to pay your bill. Personally, I don't see a problem with metered broadband, and only have a problem with the current pricing structures. Look at the mobile space to see how messed up it can be. Companies set prices at a usage level that is just below what a person really needs so they force people into the next tier with the hopes the person will not actually use it. Instead, I would support a flat rate per GB. I've seen numbers like $6/GB thrown around for mobile (it would obviously be a lot lower for line connected broadband, but you get the idea). If we do end up with broadband treated as a utility in the US, I would bet that it will be metered and charged for usage. It's the most fair way to support the system and will naturally prevent people from doing something similar to leaving their lights on all day.
- aeontech 15y ago
  $6/Gb on mobile? That would be wonderful compared to, let me check... $20/Mb that I just paid for checking google maps over AT&T roaming when lost in another country. Sigh.
  - matwood 15y ago
    I think the $6/GB came from the original unlimited plans in the US that were $30/month and had soft caps of 5GB. Pretty much all those plans have since disappeared. The point is, I think most consumers are fine with metered data if they feel like it's mostly fair.
    - chris11 15y ago
      Virgin mobile has unlimited internet plans that start at $25 a month. I'm not sure what the soft cap is though. http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-...

reduxredacted 15y ago

To be clear, though: Water and Electric utilities in the US (and I believe this is true of Canada) are also heavily regulated, including the requirement of a government approved meter that measures in a consistent and accurate manner. In addition, one pays based on what one consumes at rates that are at least partially controlled by another regulatory body. In our area, this is the case because there we have no choice to use a different electricity or natural gas provider. The same could be said about our options for broadband service, except that it lacks the same oversight. As a result, municipalities that have AT&T, Wide Open West, Comcast and a variety of less-fast DSL options have significantly better "specials" and even service options. I, for instance, can subscribe to Comcast Business service, whereas my parents a few cities over, where Comcast is the only reasonable choice, can only use their residential option. I agree, it's not a right, but I think the author is correct in stating that Internet access is an essential utility.

knowtheory 15y ago
One should add that it's ridiculous that Comcast counts 250gb transferred up or down, since almost all of their customer related information refers to down speeds.

chopsueyar 15y ago

My water and electricity utilities charge per gallon and kilowatt-hours, respectively. Comcast does not charge by the megabyte. Instead, it is all you can eat, until Comcast says that is all you can eat. This guy was actually using his residential account for business purposes.

mentat 15y ago
Both of these utilities have sliding scales (at where I've lived in California) which become punitive at higher levels. Comcast could do that same as long as they provided reasonable visibility.
jerf 15y ago
"Instead, it is all you can eat, until Comcast says that is all you can eat." No. A year or two ago, Comcast clarified their position on bandwidth usage as allowing you to use 250GB a month. This is now visible on their account, although I always have to poke around to get it: After logging in at comcast.com, go to the Users and Settings tab and look in the middle column. There's a link there to click that will let you look at your last three months history. I have 16GB in April, 80 in May, 57 in June, and 7 on my current billing cycle. They no longer advertise "all you can eat" and you are provided tools to see what is going on. It is still bizarre to me that you can't pay for more usage, and you are free to disagree with the policy in philosophy or in detail, or to be annoyed at how much brow-beating it took to get Comcast to this point, but they are no longer just randomly cutting you off when you silently cross an arbitrary standard. It is now cutting you off when you cross a public threshold, and you can easily see where they think you are in the month.
- sitkack 15y ago
  And why can't you pay $60 for the next 250 GB?
- keenerd 15y ago
  But it is very very easy to go over 250GB in a DAY, let alone a month. 250GB ÷ 15MB/sec = 4 hours 36 minutes Doesn't it seem a little odd that you can blow through an entire month's service in less than a day?
  - keenerd 15y ago
    Other comment - 250GB/month is less than 800Kb/sec. Cheap DSL is faster. Hulu uses 1Mb/sec. If you are one of those people who like a TV playing in the background, you can go over your cap just from running free television 24x7.

bryanlarsen 15y ago

At least in Canada, there are rules governing when the electricity company can cut you off. To oversimplify, you cannot be cut off during winter.

someone13 15y ago
Really? Can you point to a link about this? I'd love to see what the rules actually say. NOTE: What I wrote above sounds kind of confrontational - it's not. Badly worded, yes, but I believe you and am actually interested in seeing the rules.
- timmaah 15y ago
  Turn to google my friend.. http://liheap.ncat.org/Disconnect/disconnect.htm http://liheap.ncat.org/Disconnect/disconnect.htm
- bryanlarsen 15y ago
  It looks like you were right to be confrontational. According to Google, that was a temporary moratorium that has expired: http://www.ontariotenants.ca/electricity/articles/2004/ltw04a27.phtml http://www.ontariotenants.ca/electricity/articles/2004/ltw04... It's certainly a common misconception. I certainly know that people in the "which bill do I pay this month" scenario often choose to hold off on paying Hydro during the winter. It's also quite likely that Hydro is less likely to disconnect during the Winter. Frozen water pipes can cause a lot of damage...
  - pyre 15y ago
    To be clear Ontario residents (really just in the GTA) refer to electricity as 'Hydro' because most(?) of it comes from the hydro-electric plant near Niagara Falls, and the company is called Toronto Hydro. Personally, whenever someone refers to the 'hydro bill' I have to internally connect the dots that it's not the water bill. In this case, it's even less clear to those not in the know, because the next sentence refers to water pipes.

fr0sty 15y ago

>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. They do? Where is this the case? My water and electricity usage have no monthly cap and are only shut off if I fail to pay the bills.

evan_ 15y ago
My friend had some kind of washer hose burst in his house when he was away for the weekend. The damage was minimal (it was in his unfinished basement) but the water company, detecting a large amount of water being used, came by and shut his water off. "Oh but that's different" - not really. Same thing would have happened if my friend was intentionally trying to fill his basement with water.
- kenjackson 15y ago
  What about a pool?
  - EdwardMSmith 15y ago
    (not relevant to the article, but...) when you fill a pool, generally you call the water company and they'll hook a meter to a fire hydrant. This will fill a lot faster then a 1" home service, and you also won't be charged for sewer as well as the water. This can save significant money, since, at least where I live, sewer fees are about 8x the actual water cost.
- Luyt 15y ago
  I suspect that would not have been a problem. The water company guy rings at your friends door: Water Company Guy: "Just checking, we think there might be a burst pipe around here somewhere. Have you noticed some flooding?" Your friend: "No. I'm just filling up my pool however, but everything is fine." Company guy: "Ah, ok. Excellent. Have a nice day!"
  - evan_ 15y ago

matwood 15y ago

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Most utilities cannot just shut you off. Many states have laws that determine when and how. The biggest thing about a utility though is that you pay for usage. If you want to leave your lights on all day, they really don't care as long as you continue to pay your bill. Personally, I don't see a problem with metered broadband, and only have a problem with the current pricing structures. Look at the mobile space to see how messed up it can be. Companies set prices at a usage level that is just below what a person really needs so they force people into the next tier with the hopes the person will not actually use it. Instead, I would support a flat rate per GB. I've seen numbers like $6/GB thrown around for mobile (it would obviously be a lot lower for line connected broadband, but you get the idea). If we do end up with broadband treated as a utility in the US, I would bet that it will be metered and charged for usage. It's the most fair way to support the system and will naturally prevent people from doing something similar to leaving their lights on all day.

aeontech 15y ago
$6/Gb on mobile? That would be wonderful compared to, let me check... $20/Mb that I just paid for checking google maps over AT&T roaming when lost in another country. Sigh.
- matwood 15y ago
  I think the $6/GB came from the original unlimited plans in the US that were $30/month and had soft caps of 5GB. Pretty much all those plans have since disappeared. The point is, I think most consumers are fine with metered data if they feel like it's mostly fair.
  - chris11 15y ago
    Virgin mobile has unlimited internet plans that start at $25 a month. I'm not sure what the soft cap is though. http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-...