4 ms·

Why can't I just pay Comcast money and get a set exact pipe size that I can use? I didn't pay for 16mbits for 15 minutes. This is false advertising.

by dcurtis 17y ago

maukdaddy 17y ago
Unless you're in FIOS land, or until real competition steps in, you won't be able to. This is the sad state of broadband here in the US. =(
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
  - codexon 17y ago
    Wherever Verizon feels like laying down fiber.
psadauskas 17y ago
At least you get it for that long. I pay Qwest for 20Mbps, and get 5Mbps. (and an insulting 180kbits up!)
- ars 17y ago
  180kbits? Are you sure? Because that seems to me to be the reason for your slow download - you need more upload than that to handle a fast download. (A download from a single server probably isn't being hurt, but if you connect to multiple servers then you need more upload to handle each download stream.)
- talktoqwest 17y ago
  Hello there psadauskas, this is Brian with Qwest. Getting 180K upload speed when you're paying 5M isn't right. I'd be happy to take a look at your line for you, and see how we can get your upload speeds working right. Just send me an e-mail to TalkToUs@QWest.com if you would like my help. Thanks, B Consumer Affairs Manager Qwest Communications www.socialmedia.qwest.com
wmf 17y ago
Why can't I just pay Comcast money and get a set exact pipe size that I can use? Because the resulting pricing would be crazy high, like 512 kbps for $50/month and you really want bursty Internet service anyway because your usage is probably bursty.
- enneff 17y ago
  So why don't they advertise it like the datacentres do? "512kbps burstable to 16mbit" or some such.
  - wmf 17y ago
    Because that would make it sound worse than all their competitors' services. The only way to get truth in advertising is going to be regulation, and even if that happened lots of people would ask why their speed "went down" (when it really didn't).
    - enneff 17y ago
      'lots of people would ask why their speed "went down"' I don't see that as a problem. It's just an education issue. Besides, better products thrive in a marketplace with educated consumers. If broadband providers were required to advertise their offerings in a consistent way (as they are here in Australia, although not in the way I describe upthread) choice for consumers would be a lot easier. The only people that lose are the big companies with big marketing budgets and inferior products.
- holdenk 17y ago
  Where are you getting this 512kbs for $50 per month from? When I do a quick back of the envelope calculation using relatively recent wholesale bandwith costs and backhaul costs I get much more reasonable numbers. Wholesale bandwidth pricing isn't anywhere near that high, and back haul costs at most double it. $10 per mbs per month isn't uncommon for wholesale bandwith pricing from "on-net" buildings (and now days $2 to $4 isn't unheard of). The back haul cost to your local C.O. is probably roughly around $10 per mbs as well (admitedly I'm going of backhaul costs from Toronto to Waterloo up in Canada) and then your down to the local loop. We will assume the cost of the local loop is allready covered in the existing price paid, so if the user wanted N dedicated mbbits it should cost N[margin][12 to 20 dollars] per month more. Now are most users may not be willing to pay for this. A frequent way of dealing with the "bursty" nature for servers is 95th percentile billing where by you pay for the max of what you use, dropping the top 5%. Admittedly these numbers are very back of the envelope, but I think its a bit more realistic than $50/month for 512kbs.
chadaustin 17y ago
You want Speakeasy. It's much slower and much more expensive than you'll get with Comcast, but you can use all of your pipe all of the time with no strings attached.
eli 17y ago
Um, you can. Comcast Business Internet. It costs 2x to 4x as much and there's no throttling.

Why can't I just pay Comcast money and get a set exact pipe size that I can use? I didn't pay for 16mbits for 15 minutes. This is false advertising.

by dcurtis 17y ago

Why can't I just pay Comcast money and get a set exact pipe size that I can use? I didn't pay for 16mbits for 15 minutes. This is false advertising.

maukdaddy 17y ago

Unless you're in FIOS land, or until real competition steps in, you won't be able to. This is the sad state of broadband here in the US. =(

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
- codexon 17y ago
  Wherever Verizon feels like laying down fiber.

psadauskas 17y ago

At least you get it for that long. I pay Qwest for 20Mbps, and get 5Mbps. (and an insulting 180kbits up!)

ars 17y ago
180kbits? Are you sure? Because that seems to me to be the reason for your slow download - you need more upload than that to handle a fast download. (A download from a single server probably isn't being hurt, but if you connect to multiple servers then you need more upload to handle each download stream.)
talktoqwest 17y ago
Hello there psadauskas, this is Brian with Qwest. Getting 180K upload speed when you're paying 5M isn't right. I'd be happy to take a look at your line for you, and see how we can get your upload speeds working right. Just send me an e-mail to TalkToUs@QWest.com if you would like my help. Thanks, B Consumer Affairs Manager Qwest Communications www.socialmedia.qwest.com

wmf 17y ago

Why can't I just pay Comcast money and get a set exact pipe size that I can use? Because the resulting pricing would be crazy high, like 512 kbps for $50/month and you really want bursty Internet service anyway because your usage is probably bursty.

enneff 17y ago
So why don't they advertise it like the datacentres do? "512kbps burstable to 16mbit" or some such.
- wmf 17y ago
  Because that would make it sound worse than all their competitors' services. The only way to get truth in advertising is going to be regulation, and even if that happened lots of people would ask why their speed "went down" (when it really didn't).
  - enneff 17y ago
    'lots of people would ask why their speed "went down"' I don't see that as a problem. It's just an education issue. Besides, better products thrive in a marketplace with educated consumers. If broadband providers were required to advertise their offerings in a consistent way (as they are here in Australia, although not in the way I describe upthread) choice for consumers would be a lot easier. The only people that lose are the big companies with big marketing budgets and inferior products.
holdenk 17y ago
Where are you getting this 512kbs for $50 per month from? When I do a quick back of the envelope calculation using relatively recent wholesale bandwith costs and backhaul costs I get much more reasonable numbers. Wholesale bandwidth pricing isn't anywhere near that high, and back haul costs at most double it. $10 per mbs per month isn't uncommon for wholesale bandwith pricing from "on-net" buildings (and now days $2 to $4 isn't unheard of). The back haul cost to your local C.O. is probably roughly around $10 per mbs as well (admitedly I'm going of backhaul costs from Toronto to Waterloo up in Canada) and then your down to the local loop. We will assume the cost of the local loop is allready covered in the existing price paid, so if the user wanted N dedicated mbbits it should cost N[margin][12 to 20 dollars] per month more. Now are most users may not be willing to pay for this. A frequent way of dealing with the "bursty" nature for servers is 95th percentile billing where by you pay for the max of what you use, dropping the top 5%. Admittedly these numbers are very back of the envelope, but I think its a bit more realistic than $50/month for 512kbs.

chadaustin 17y ago

You want Speakeasy. It's much slower and much more expensive than you'll get with Comcast, but you can use all of your pipe all of the time with no strings attached.

eli 17y ago

Um, you can. Comcast Business Internet. It costs 2x to 4x as much and there's no throttling.