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Comcast has gone from being synonymous with Bittorrent throttling to making the "best" list for lowest throttlers.

by Legion 15y ago

jerf 15y ago
This is why when Comcast announced its bandwidth limit policy, I actually cheered rather than jeered. By solving the problem correctly, they eliminated their need to solve it incorrectly. I only sort of wish you could pay for more bandwidth, though that's an abstract concern as my worst month ever barely cracked 1/3 usage. (But I know others can have issues.)
- joshAg 15y ago
  I don't even think the monthly bandwidth policy is enforced that strictly. I built a new gaming computer a couple months ago, and needed to redownload my steam library and a few other things. Long story short, I grabbed 1.5 TiB over the course of a week, and comcast has yet to complain.
  - j_baker 15y ago
    You have to exceed it twice in a 6-month period for them to contact you. The third time, your service may be suspended for a year. http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=ce29dfac-73d9-4cb4-b433-70abe3b295e6#excessive6 http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=ce29df...
- dotBen 15y ago
  I have it on good authority that converting your residential account to a business account (~25% more expensive) will 'remove' Comcast's bandwidth limits (or have them turn a blind eye, etc). If you don't want to pay the extra, often downgrading the line to the business equivalent of the speed tier below what you are currently using on your residential package will net out a similar monthly fee. They have better contention ratios on Business accounts and so you may even see faster speeds at that lower tier.
  - khafra 15y ago
    Interesting. Will that improve latency, as well? I have a 50mpbs connection, but I'd be happy with a 10mbps if it didn't take 45 seconds to load reddit.
    - dotBen 15y ago
      It might in general, but Reddit's bottleneck might be their own servers. We downgraded a 50Mbps Comcast line to a 25Mbps line and I honestly couldn't see much difference in terms of actual page load time, file download speeds etc but we saved some $
  - learc83 15y ago
    Yes this works. I upgraded to business class because I was going over the limit. Now I use 300-500GB every month with no problems. Also they have a thing where you can pay an extra $5 to get basic TV (local channels, weather channel public access etc...). It works out to be cheaper than residential internet + basic channels.
- ceejayoz 15y ago
  > By solving the problem correctly, they eliminated their need to solve it incorrectly. A correct solution would include a guaranteed increase in the cap yearly (at least) based on the rate of bandwidth usage inflation. I've used massively more bandwidth every year as things like streaming, HD video, etc. become commonplace.
- j_baker 15y ago
  It's certainly better than throttling BitTorrent, but it's very easy to go over if you get 2 or 3 techies living together. Personally, I think the whole thing is somewhat anti-competitive. It discourages people from using services like Hulu or Netflix and encourages them to buy TV service from their cable provider. And plus, I don't buy the "Our networks can't handle the strain!" argument companies like Comcast keep bringing up. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, 250 GB of data isn't that much for a company the size of Comcast.
- xenophanes 15y ago
  cap with no ability to pay for more is not "solving the problem correctly". I use a multiple of the cap every month and I have a roommate who often uses at least the cap himself. Imagine a family of 5 where everyone actually uses the internet. The cap would not work. If you break the cap twice there are no overage charges, they just disconnect you for a year, no matter what you're willing to pay. When they called me and said "use less or use nothing" and refused to suggest any way to let me pay for more of their product, that was extremely consumer hostile. The only solution is the small business plans which are not capped, which they do not tell you about, but fortunately I found out about them in HN comments.
  - palish 15y ago
    What was your monthly bill before and after switching to Business?
    - xenophanes 15y ago
      pricing is here: http://business.comcast.com/SMB/services/Internet/plans http://business.comcast.com/SMB/services/Internet/plans
sp332 15y ago
And all it took was a direct order from the FCC. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/09/comcast-disclos/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/09/comcast-disclos/

Comcast has gone from being synonymous with Bittorrent throttling to making the "best" list for lowest throttlers.

by Legion 15y ago

Comcast has gone from being synonymous with Bittorrent throttling to making the "best" list for lowest throttlers.

jerf 15y ago

This is why when Comcast announced its bandwidth limit policy, I actually cheered rather than jeered. By solving the problem correctly, they eliminated their need to solve it incorrectly. I only sort of wish you could pay for more bandwidth, though that's an abstract concern as my worst month ever barely cracked 1/3 usage. (But I know others can have issues.)

joshAg 15y ago
I don't even think the monthly bandwidth policy is enforced that strictly. I built a new gaming computer a couple months ago, and needed to redownload my steam library and a few other things. Long story short, I grabbed 1.5 TiB over the course of a week, and comcast has yet to complain.
- j_baker 15y ago
  You have to exceed it twice in a 6-month period for them to contact you. The third time, your service may be suspended for a year. http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=ce29dfac-73d9-4cb4-b433-70abe3b295e6#excessive6 http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=ce29df...
dotBen 15y ago
I have it on good authority that converting your residential account to a business account (~25% more expensive) will 'remove' Comcast's bandwidth limits (or have them turn a blind eye, etc). If you don't want to pay the extra, often downgrading the line to the business equivalent of the speed tier below what you are currently using on your residential package will net out a similar monthly fee. They have better contention ratios on Business accounts and so you may even see faster speeds at that lower tier.
- khafra 15y ago
  Interesting. Will that improve latency, as well? I have a 50mpbs connection, but I'd be happy with a 10mbps if it didn't take 45 seconds to load reddit.
  - dotBen 15y ago
    It might in general, but Reddit's bottleneck might be their own servers. We downgraded a 50Mbps Comcast line to a 25Mbps line and I honestly couldn't see much difference in terms of actual page load time, file download speeds etc but we saved some $
- learc83 15y ago
  Yes this works. I upgraded to business class because I was going over the limit. Now I use 300-500GB every month with no problems. Also they have a thing where you can pay an extra $5 to get basic TV (local channels, weather channel public access etc...). It works out to be cheaper than residential internet + basic channels.
ceejayoz 15y ago
> By solving the problem correctly, they eliminated their need to solve it incorrectly. A correct solution would include a guaranteed increase in the cap yearly (at least) based on the rate of bandwidth usage inflation. I've used massively more bandwidth every year as things like streaming, HD video, etc. become commonplace.
j_baker 15y ago
It's certainly better than throttling BitTorrent, but it's very easy to go over if you get 2 or 3 techies living together. Personally, I think the whole thing is somewhat anti-competitive. It discourages people from using services like Hulu or Netflix and encourages them to buy TV service from their cable provider. And plus, I don't buy the "Our networks can't handle the strain!" argument companies like Comcast keep bringing up. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, 250 GB of data isn't that much for a company the size of Comcast.
xenophanes 15y ago
cap with no ability to pay for more is not "solving the problem correctly". I use a multiple of the cap every month and I have a roommate who often uses at least the cap himself. Imagine a family of 5 where everyone actually uses the internet. The cap would not work. If you break the cap twice there are no overage charges, they just disconnect you for a year, no matter what you're willing to pay. When they called me and said "use less or use nothing" and refused to suggest any way to let me pay for more of their product, that was extremely consumer hostile. The only solution is the small business plans which are not capped, which they do not tell you about, but fortunately I found out about them in HN comments.
- palish 15y ago
  What was your monthly bill before and after switching to Business?
  - xenophanes 15y ago
    pricing is here: http://business.comcast.com/SMB/services/Internet/plans http://business.comcast.com/SMB/services/Internet/plans

sp332 15y ago

And all it took was a direct order from the FCC. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/09/comcast-disclos/ http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/09/comcast-disclos/