6 ms·

I recently signed up on twitch and started watching 1-2 hours of streams a day, usually whenever TotalBiscuit, Hafu, or Amaz are on in the evenings CST (which i

by Zikes 12y ago

I recently signed up on twitch and started watching 1-2 hours of streams a day, usually whenever TotalBiscuit, Hafu, or Amaz are on in the evenings CST (which isn't terribly often). I also use Netflix exclusively as opposed to cable or satellite, and this is the unfortunate result: http://i.imgur.com/i7MKXWC.png http://i.imgur.com/i7MKXWC.png I used to think I'd have to torrent to hit typical consumer data caps, but that's no longer the case. I didn't do any torrenting whatsoever in July, but I still used over 300GB. Even if Verizon ever pull their head out of their rear in regards to peering, so long as data caps exist we'll still be artificially throttled in our internet usage.

baby 12y ago
you still have limited plans for internet in the US?
- wlievens 12y ago
  Same where I live (Belgium), typical limit is around 150 gig.
  - TillE 12y ago
    Isn't Belgium notoriously bad when it comes to internet service? I remember hearing that a decade ago. 150GB is really low, unless it's some crazy cheap deal. Deutsche Telekom has been making noises about instituting a cap at some point in the coming years, but it's still no problem to get 50Mbit VDSL with no long-term contract and no cap through resellers like 1&1.
    - ekianjo 12y ago
      > Isn't Belgium notoriously bad when it comes to internet service? I remember hearing that a decade ago. 150GB is really low, unless it's some crazy cheap deal. Belgium is sooo backward for Internet. When I used to live there 7 years ago, prices were like twice the price of what you could get in France and my ADSL contract would only get 10 Gb per month, and I had to pay 5 euros to get 5 Gb more of data. The total ripoff. I'm so glad I left.
      - phamilton 12y ago
        I was on the same plan. To top it all off the ISP was named Skynet.
  - NicoJuicy 12y ago
    For some reason, i can't reply on the comment below, so i'm doing it here. We don't have crappy internet service when it comes to Telenet in terms of speed. The competition (DLS) is not stable on a lot of places. All of them have caps on the internet and are very expensive when looking at our neighboured countries. But then again, everything is expensive and everyone has a monopoly here in some sector... The governement has financial intrest (stocks) in the telecom companies. So that won't change soon.
  - cinskiy 12y ago
    This is awful, 1 game on Steam can weight 40 Gb now (see Injustice), here in Russia I pay only 12.5 EU/month for 30 Mbit/s and unlimited traffic. I hope telecoms won't start reimplementing traffic caps.
- Zikes 12y ago
  We started out with limited, then everybody started advertising unlimited because they never thought anyone could use a ton of data. Then things like torrenting and Netflix and YouTube came along, and now everyone's using a lot of data again, so they're re-introducing data caps. Of course, data caps are ridiculous in concept. It's not like they go out and dig up infrastructure when it's not in use. It's their anticompetitive attempt to put online video services out of business and reinvigorate the outdated and overpriced cable/satellite TV model.
  - talaketu 12y ago
    It is misleading to sell something as unlimited when that can't actually be fulfilled, and it's unrealistic to believe you can buy something of value that is unlimited. Setting a price for finite capacity that is to be reserved is a robust user-pays approach.
    - Zikes 12y ago
      I don't expect unlimited, because that would be unrealistic. What I expect, if I paid for 50Mbps, is to be able to realistically consume 50Mpbs. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=50Mbps+*+%28seconds+in+a+month%29 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=50Mbps+*+%28seconds+in+... A 16TB data cap would be realistic and reasonable.
      - jamespo 12y ago
        Maybe you should read the T&Cs, the 50mbps probably refers to the maximum speed you can expect
        Zikes 12y ago
        T&Cs don't mean squat when you're dealing with a monopoly. They can put any sort of consumer-unfriendly terms they want in there and then say "if you don't like it, you're free to go to our competitors" of which there is only one and they are colluding.
  - 12y ago
- kayoone 12y ago
  germany is still unmetered and the last attempt of Deutsche Telekom to introduce a cap resulted in a huge backslash. For now we are save, but i have the feeling it won't last forever.
  - Semaphor 12y ago
    I think the worst we have is Kabel Deutschland, they say in their ToS they'll slow filesharing services down to 100kbit/s for the day if you reach 10GB on that day with any kind of traffic. But as far as I know that limit is not enforced.
Nk26 12y ago
I get that email pretty much every month now, nice thing about Cox is they don't do anything if they have to send it out. It's really just a notification.
amorphid 12y ago
Data caps do suck, but I do have a happy memory of working the system. Around March of 2011, Verizon Wireless was promoting it's new 4G networking by offering unlimited data plans. I bought an HTC Thunderbolt, the Verizon network's first 4G phone, and promptly started tethering it to my laptop using a program called Easy Tether (purchased through the Amazon's app store). While I had that phone, I would routinely consume hundreds of gigs of bandwidth each month, mostly from watching streaming videos. I wasn't even torrenting. Before there were a bunch of other people using 4G, I got some pretty good download speeds. One day, I remember downloading the Xcode, a 4 or 5 gig download, within a few minutes. Another day, Speedtest clocked my download speed at something like 33gps, although 9 to 12 gigs per second for the norm. Today I'm on a cheapo prepaid wireless plan and settle for 2G download speeds of about 50kbs, which is fine most of the time. My cheapo phone plan and cable internet subscription are cheaper than any reasonable plan Verizon Wireless offers. For now, I'll enjoy my reasonably speedy Netflix streaming at home until Comcast throttles my download speeds to that of a 28.8K modem.
- chrishacken 12y ago
  So you're the reason they kicked us all off unlimited plans!
  - vog 12y ago
    -1 for blaming users to acually use what they pay for. If the company isn't able provide unlimited plans, it shouldn't have offered those in the first place. It's more honest to clearly communicate the real volume limit from the very beginning, instead of making false promises.
    - chrishacken 12y ago
      Take a joke. I agree though; hence why I switched to T-Mobile. It's technically, "unmetered", due to them capping your data speed after X/GB's
- nitrogen 12y ago
  33 gbps? Those units seem quite unlikely.
Shivetya 12y ago
I use twitch for three things. 1) tips on how to play some games better 2) entertainment 3) determine if a game has any potential for me to buy I cannot estimate how much twitch has saved me because of #3 Towelliee, TotalBiscuit, and a few others, can make even rotten games look and sound good
shard972 12y ago
Shouldn't people be throttled though? It seems like over the last few years there has been a huge spike in consumer video, and as far as I have seen people aren't paying much more.
jasontraff 12y ago
I ran some tests a few months back on how much bandwidth I use up while watching Twitch. What I found is that if I streamed Twitch 24/7 that I'd hit something like 1.2 TB down in a month. By that logic, even just 3 hours a day would be 150 GB down a month.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - jasontraff 12y ago
    Sorry; wasn't trying to make that point at all. Instead, I was agreeing that I also was surprised with how much bandwidth Twitch takes up.
    - Zikes 12y ago
      Ah, sorry. Too much time on the internet, I'm starting to read everything too cynically. I'll delete my comment responding to yours, since it doesn't add anything to the discussion and misrepresents what you were trying to say.
      - mabbo 12y ago
        Responses like this are why I still come back to HN. Thanks for keeping this place pleasant.
thomasahle 12y ago
Data caps are the only thing that makes sense. Nobody can deliver 'unlimited' data, and it just ends up being trolling the users. Instead they should gradually deprioritize the connection/lower the speed, and allow you buying additional GB's.

by Zikes 12y ago

baby 12y ago

you still have limited plans for internet in the US?

wlievens 12y ago
Same where I live (Belgium), typical limit is around 150 gig.
- TillE 12y ago
  Isn't Belgium notoriously bad when it comes to internet service? I remember hearing that a decade ago. 150GB is really low, unless it's some crazy cheap deal. Deutsche Telekom has been making noises about instituting a cap at some point in the coming years, but it's still no problem to get 50Mbit VDSL with no long-term contract and no cap through resellers like 1&1.
  - ekianjo 12y ago
    > Isn't Belgium notoriously bad when it comes to internet service? I remember hearing that a decade ago. 150GB is really low, unless it's some crazy cheap deal. Belgium is sooo backward for Internet. When I used to live there 7 years ago, prices were like twice the price of what you could get in France and my ADSL contract would only get 10 Gb per month, and I had to pay 5 euros to get 5 Gb more of data. The total ripoff. I'm so glad I left.
    - phamilton 12y ago
      I was on the same plan. To top it all off the ISP was named Skynet.
- NicoJuicy 12y ago
  For some reason, i can't reply on the comment below, so i'm doing it here. We don't have crappy internet service when it comes to Telenet in terms of speed. The competition (DLS) is not stable on a lot of places. All of them have caps on the internet and are very expensive when looking at our neighboured countries. But then again, everything is expensive and everyone has a monopoly here in some sector... The governement has financial intrest (stocks) in the telecom companies. So that won't change soon.
- cinskiy 12y ago
  This is awful, 1 game on Steam can weight 40 Gb now (see Injustice), here in Russia I pay only 12.5 EU/month for 30 Mbit/s and unlimited traffic. I hope telecoms won't start reimplementing traffic caps.
Zikes 12y ago
We started out with limited, then everybody started advertising unlimited because they never thought anyone could use a ton of data. Then things like torrenting and Netflix and YouTube came along, and now everyone's using a lot of data again, so they're re-introducing data caps. Of course, data caps are ridiculous in concept. It's not like they go out and dig up infrastructure when it's not in use. It's their anticompetitive attempt to put online video services out of business and reinvigorate the outdated and overpriced cable/satellite TV model.
- talaketu 12y ago
  It is misleading to sell something as unlimited when that can't actually be fulfilled, and it's unrealistic to believe you can buy something of value that is unlimited. Setting a price for finite capacity that is to be reserved is a robust user-pays approach.
  - Zikes 12y ago
    I don't expect unlimited, because that would be unrealistic. What I expect, if I paid for 50Mbps, is to be able to realistically consume 50Mpbs. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=50Mbps+*+%28seconds+in+a+month%29 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=50Mbps+*+%28seconds+in+... A 16TB data cap would be realistic and reasonable.
    - jamespo 12y ago
      Maybe you should read the T&Cs, the 50mbps probably refers to the maximum speed you can expect
      - Zikes 12y ago
        T&Cs don't mean squat when you're dealing with a monopoly. They can put any sort of consumer-unfriendly terms they want in there and then say "if you don't like it, you're free to go to our competitors" of which there is only one and they are colluding.
- 12y ago
kayoone 12y ago
germany is still unmetered and the last attempt of Deutsche Telekom to introduce a cap resulted in a huge backslash. For now we are save, but i have the feeling it won't last forever.
- Semaphor 12y ago
  I think the worst we have is Kabel Deutschland, they say in their ToS they'll slow filesharing services down to 100kbit/s for the day if you reach 10GB on that day with any kind of traffic. But as far as I know that limit is not enforced.

Nk26 12y ago

I get that email pretty much every month now, nice thing about Cox is they don't do anything if they have to send it out. It's really just a notification.

amorphid 12y ago

Data caps do suck, but I do have a happy memory of working the system. Around March of 2011, Verizon Wireless was promoting it's new 4G networking by offering unlimited data plans. I bought an HTC Thunderbolt, the Verizon network's first 4G phone, and promptly started tethering it to my laptop using a program called Easy Tether (purchased through the Amazon's app store). While I had that phone, I would routinely consume hundreds of gigs of bandwidth each month, mostly from watching streaming videos. I wasn't even torrenting. Before there were a bunch of other people using 4G, I got some pretty good download speeds. One day, I remember downloading the Xcode, a 4 or 5 gig download, within a few minutes. Another day, Speedtest clocked my download speed at something like 33gps, although 9 to 12 gigs per second for the norm. Today I'm on a cheapo prepaid wireless plan and settle for 2G download speeds of about 50kbs, which is fine most of the time. My cheapo phone plan and cable internet subscription are cheaper than any reasonable plan Verizon Wireless offers. For now, I'll enjoy my reasonably speedy Netflix streaming at home until Comcast throttles my download speeds to that of a 28.8K modem.

chrishacken 12y ago
So you're the reason they kicked us all off unlimited plans!
- vog 12y ago
  -1 for blaming users to acually use what they pay for. If the company isn't able provide unlimited plans, it shouldn't have offered those in the first place. It's more honest to clearly communicate the real volume limit from the very beginning, instead of making false promises.
  - chrishacken 12y ago
    Take a joke. I agree though; hence why I switched to T-Mobile. It's technically, "unmetered", due to them capping your data speed after X/GB's
nitrogen 12y ago
33 gbps? Those units seem quite unlikely.

Shivetya 12y ago

I use twitch for three things. 1) tips on how to play some games better 2) entertainment 3) determine if a game has any potential for me to buy I cannot estimate how much twitch has saved me because of #3 Towelliee, TotalBiscuit, and a few others, can make even rotten games look and sound good

shard972 12y ago

Shouldn't people be throttled though? It seems like over the last few years there has been a huge spike in consumer video, and as far as I have seen people aren't paying much more.

jasontraff 12y ago

I ran some tests a few months back on how much bandwidth I use up while watching Twitch. What I found is that if I streamed Twitch 24/7 that I'd hit something like 1.2 TB down in a month. By that logic, even just 3 hours a day would be 150 GB down a month.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- jasontraff 12y ago
  Sorry; wasn't trying to make that point at all. Instead, I was agreeing that I also was surprised with how much bandwidth Twitch takes up.
  - Zikes 12y ago
    Ah, sorry. Too much time on the internet, I'm starting to read everything too cynically. I'll delete my comment responding to yours, since it doesn't add anything to the discussion and misrepresents what you were trying to say.
    - mabbo 12y ago
      Responses like this are why I still come back to HN. Thanks for keeping this place pleasant.

thomasahle 12y ago

Data caps are the only thing that makes sense. Nobody can deliver 'unlimited' data, and it just ends up being trolling the users. Instead they should gradually deprioritize the connection/lower the speed, and allow you buying additional GB's.