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Comments on news posted 2008-05-06 16:15:28: A Comcast insider tells me the company is considering implementing very clear monthly caps, and may begin charging overage fees for customers who cross them. ..

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Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to Jeff

Member

to Jeff

Re: Cable companies need to wake up

said by Jeff:

Someone else made this point at some other spot in this thread....if 99+% of the customers are below the 250GB cap - by a large margin - then why the need for this to begin with?
Because of shareholder pressure to make more money on the high consumption users?
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to jmbailey2000

Member

to jmbailey2000

Re: What about the bandwidth I'm FORCED to use?

ads take up nothing. I've checked. most ads are well under 100 KB and even if the average was 100 KB you'd have to see 3500 ads a DAY to reach 10 GB in a MONTH.

Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium Member
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1

2 edits

Anonymous_

Premium Member

said by 88615298:

ads take up nothing. I've checked. most ads are well under 100 KB and even if the average was 100 KB you'd have to see 3500 ads a DAY to reach 10 GB in a MONTH.
but flash ad's are huge they are about 1 to 2 megabytes or more roadrunners web site is 8 megabytes of flash crap

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
Premium Member
join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

Jeff to Crookshanks

Premium Member

to Crookshanks

Re: Cable companies need to wake up

said by Crookshanks:
said by Jeff:

Someone else made this point at some other spot in this thread....if 99+% of the customers are below the 250GB cap - by a large margin - then why the need for this to begin with?
Because of shareholder pressure to make more money on the high consumption users?
Possible. In the end though, you'd lose customer. But businesses rarely think that far ahead.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5

Premium Member

said by Jeff:

In the end though, you'd lose customer. But businesses rarely think that far ahead.
Some customers are not worth having. They bring in less revenue than it costs to service them.

Jeff
Connoisseur of leisurely things
Premium Member
join:2002-12-24
GMT -5

1 edit

Jeff

Premium Member

said by FFH5:
said by Jeff:

In the end though, you'd lose customer. But businesses rarely think that far ahead.
Some customers are not worth having. They bring in less revenue than it costs to service them.
Oh, that's completely true. I just think if you piss off enough of them, and there is an alternative, another company can take advantage of that situation. Comcast doesn't exactly have glowing reviews over the last year or so, either.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Anonymous_

Member

to Anonymous_

Re: What about the bandwidth I'm FORCED to use?

said by Anonymous_:

said by 88615298:

ads take up nothing. I've checked. most ads are well under 100 KB and even if the average was 100 KB you'd have to see 3500 ads a DAY to reach 10 GB in a MONTH.
but flash ad's are huge they are about 1 to 2 megabytes or more roadrunners web site is 8 megabytes of flash crap
No they aren't that huge. As I said most are under 100 KB.

Go to buccaneers.com that page is FULL of flash and it's under 4 MB.

That Roadrunner site is about 2.5 MB and that's a whole page. So how is an AD going to be 3-4 MB?

Portland OR
@comcast.net

Portland OR to PortlandOR

Anon

to PortlandOR

Re: 250gb is a lot more than most of you think.

Have you guys ever thought about just accepting that current technology does not allow EVERYONE to download 50 high def movies a month while still retaining good speeds?

The $50 or so comcast charges is for normal residential use. If your not normal maybe you should pay more.

NOCMan
MadMacHatter
Premium Member
join:2004-09-30
Colorado Springs, CO

NOCMan to justin

Premium Member

to justin

Re: 250gb is generous - overage charges are not

They are clearly looking into this as a money maker.

If comcast and others would just make a few free changes and employ QOS to prioritize HTTP/HTTPS/SSL IMAP/POP3/SMTP DNS TELNET/SSH Routing/VoIP.

They would eliminate 99% of their customers who complain of slow browsing. Everything else can be delivered on a bulk priority which does not slow it down unless the node is congested. At that point they're effectively sharing the pipe with any downloaders after the above protocols.

Then they can feel free to upgrade as needed without pressure to keep mass downloaders happy.

It would be fine with me as long as it avoids caps and overage charges.

justin
..needs sleep
Mod
join:1999-05-28
2031
Billion BiPAC 7800N
Apple AirPort Extreme (2011)

justin

Mod

some at comcast may see the opportunities to make money but if I was running an ISP i would see it more as a fairer allocation of costs. if the top 0.1% of user are responsible for 20% of your variable costs, and bring forward infrastructure upgrades and force them to be larger and more frequent than otherwise, I'd want those 0.1% to be paying that bill, or go to another ISP. Then I could drop the bill to everyone else.

The fee structures are out of wack: you pay more for higher speeds (that cost the ISP nothing to offer) but you pay no more for more data per month (that cost the ISP something).

caffeinator
Coming soon to a cup near you..
Premium Member
join:2005-01-16
00000

caffeinator

Premium Member

Seems OK here...

Well, this got me thinking about my usage lately.


Can you guess when my TV croaked?


I'm a 'moderate to heavy user', meaning I have a website, upload a lot of images, and FTP, occasional videos, etc.

Not a gamer. Hate using P2P...just won't do it.

However, my faithful old Zenith TV from 1991 finally went to solid-state heaven. Betcha can't tell when based on the graphs?

Even so, watching several tv shows and movies a day for the last 10 days or so, I only accumulated about 3Gb of bandwidth used. Do that times 3, and it's still nowhere near any caps.

I also am on low-income disability and yet still can afford 7/896 ADSL for about $50/mo. (which doesn't cap or throttle FAIK)

Then again, I don't d/l many .ISO's, or gigantic files. It's nearly all streamed plus a lot of smaller up/downloads.

Even if I d/l'd 2gigs a day, which is a hell of a lot, that's not even close to 100Gb's a month. Thats with 3 computers on 24/7, and including updates and such for 3 different OS's and AV's etc.

What's the problem?

-CaFF

joetaxpayer
I'M Here Till Thursday
join:2001-09-07
Sudbury, MA
552.8 23.8

joetaxpayer to davidwr

Member

to davidwr

Re: 2nd 250 should be the same $ as the first 250

It's like my water bill;
$10 base charge plus:
$3/1000 gal up to 40K gal
$6.00/1000 gal for 40K-60K gal
$7.00/1000 gal for 60K-80K gal
$9.00/1000 gal for 80K-1000K gal
$11.00/1000 gal for 1000K-120K gal
$13.00/1000 gal for 120K gal and over

My six month bill including winter just came in. It's $190.
In the summer, it runs close to $1000. More than 4X the cost when you go over 120K for each 1000 gal used. Makes you think before watering the lawn.
Joe
joetaxpayer

joetaxpayer to Hehe

Member

to Hehe

Re: Background noise is 2-4KB/sec.

regardless of the 10GB/mo noise, you'd still have 240GB/mo.
That .1% is the tail of a bell curve that probably averages 40-50GB/mo or less. So the .1% are hogging more bandwidth than the bottom 20% or more.

Do some more math. Even if you are transferring legitimate video "family movies", this (240GB) is over 100 hours of video/ mo. (assuming a 4.3GB DVD).

Last debate on this, someone said they have software to trap multiple audio streams and were simultaneously recording 5 radio stations 24/7. huh? what's the point of that?

More math - correct me if wrong. 250GB/mo = 828KB/sec 24/7.
Is anyone's need 24/7? I never see a BT stream go much over 100KB. How many downloads would it even take to hit that 800KB constant level? This such seems to be much about nothing.

I just want to know there's a counter someplace, and an option to get an email if you break 200GB nearing mid month. Who knows if their wireless connection got hacked somehow? Or if a virus is actively running off your machine.
Joe
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Hehe

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to Hehe
said by Hehe :

said by 88615298:

said by Hehe :

Oops, bad math. 3KB/sec would be 7.4GB per month. So about an extra $10 - $15.

3*60*60*24*30/1024/1024=7.415GB per second
you fail math. At 4 Kbps it's barley over 1 GB a month.
Useless post. Explain my error?
I said KB, not Kb!
B=byte
b=bit
3 KB a sec would = 24 Kbps. Sorry I highly doubt anyone has that much background noise continually. I'd switch ISPs if I did. IF I have any background noise it's rarely over 4 Kbps and most time MUCH less than that. In fact over a 9 hour period in which I wasn't on my computer I used ZERO KB. So I doubt I would use even 1 GB due to background noise over a month.
88615298

88615298 (banned) to joetaxpayer

Member

to joetaxpayer
said by joetaxpayer:

Do some more math. Even if you are transferring legitimate video "family movies", this (240GB) is over 100 hours of video/ mo. (assuming a 4.3GB DVD).
Yeah I'm sure most people are legitimately transferring 100 hours of "family videos" every month. There's only 720 hours in a month. Who is filming 1/7 of their life?
I just want to know there's a counter someplace, and an option to get an email if you break 200GB nearing mid month. Who knows if their wireless connection got hacked somehow? Or if a virus is actively running off your machine.
Most wireless connections won't get hacked if they are actually secured. people looking to get free wi-fi aren't going to wast time hacking into a secured connection when they can easily find unsecured ones. And I'm sorry if one is too stupid to secure thier wireless connection then I'm not feeling sorry for them when they get a huge bill.

Same thing goes with a virus.

joetaxpayer
I'M Here Till Thursday
join:2001-09-07
Sudbury, MA
552.8 23.8

joetaxpayer

Member

said by 88615298:

Yeah I'm sure most people are legitimately transferring 100 hours of "family videos" every month. There's only 720 hours in a month. Who is filming 1/7 of their life?
Well, that was exactly my point. Any legit user would be hard pressed to claim the need or the right to more than the 250GB.

If someone is running a business and needing to transfer raw video, they can ask for a different level of service.
Joe
Crookshanks
join:2008-02-04
Binghamton, NY

Crookshanks to SpaethCo

Member

to SpaethCo

Re: Cable companies need to wake up

said by SpaethCo:

The costs are in the last mile, always have been.
This held true even for POTS services. Recall how the price of long distance dropped like a stone after the AT&T divestiture while the price of local service has done nothing but increase. AT&T was using long distance revenue to subsidize the last mile and couldn't keep doing that once other players entered the long distance market.

How quickly we forget.

dosguy2000
@comcast.net

dosguy2000 to greg523

Anon

to greg523

Re: once this happens im dumping comcast

I'm with you on this. If the ISPs all start capping usage and charging for overage, I'll throw in the towel and go back to dialup. After all, the only reason for having high-speed in the first place is to be able to download large files in a reasonable amount of time. When it starts costing too much, I'll quit. (Not a threat, Comcast. A promise).

a333
A hot cup of integrals please
join:2007-06-12
Rego Park, NY

a333 to CheteBrown

Member

to CheteBrown

Re: whiners quit whining

So... according to you, I pay $150 for a 50/5 Mbit connection, then must be expected not to be a power user/"hog"/whatever term you want to substitute? Isn't the whole POINT of 50 Mbit to appeal to the "hogs"? I sure as hell don't want to buty that service to make my e-mail appear quicker. $150/month is about half the price of a T1, so I sure have the right to unshaped trafffic, AND caps WAY higher than 250 gigs. And Picture this:
Joe Sixpack is streaming 20 Mbit kiddie pr0n on his HDTV in the living room. (using Apple TV)
At the same time, he has Slingbox set to stream last weeks flicks to Ginny Granny 150 miles away.
Danny Downloader is downloading 'every possible flavour of linux', and video conferencing with his friends using a 5 Mbit Up/down link speed.
Diane is in HER bedroom VPN'ing into work, and catching up on the latest flick of newsgroups, and DL'ing the latest episode of whatever TV show she missed last Saturday.
Not to mention Tamey teenager getting the latest WoW patches, and purchasing the few games off of Steam.
Tell me, how the HELL does the above use ONLY home network capacity? You clearly have no idea of what you're talking about.

joetaxpayer
I'M Here Till Thursday
join:2001-09-07
Sudbury, MA
552.8 23.8

joetaxpayer to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
I think the OP here has some good points. Nothing to contradict.
Just a remark - Comcast should offer a simple way to check the odometer. I can go to my basement, see the water meter. I know in August it's $10 to water the GD lawn.

A meter on the account would let me look anytime I wish, and if I see I use 50GB/mo average, fine, I have little to worry about. If I see I average over 200GB, I can decide to change my behavior, tell the kids to get off YouTube, or stop renting Apple Movies the last week of the month.
I can only guess my usage right now, about 25MB for an hour of audio podcast, barely 30 hrs a month, there's a GB, not even. Hmmmm, maybe I'm good for 10-15GB?
mlmcasual
join:2007-09-18
Commerce Township, MI

mlmcasual to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
Quite whining? well then go use your 486 because Bill Gates told you 64K is more then anyone will ever need.. (cough *noob)

Im amazed how short sighted and ignorant" some responses are here.. The REAL issue is having fair options to meet YOUR own usuage..thats fair if there are different rates for different uses.

To say 250gig is enough casle closed is a clueless argument. 250gb is roughly 2 DAYS continuous full speed use.. This is easily reached (and legally) by downloading a couple episodes of LOST off usenet/giganews.. and for those saying nothing uses it shows how clueless you are about the future.. MS-Xbox has a deal with netflix to do unlimited monthly rental for one thing.. and who know what else the future holds..

Im tired clueless computer illiterate users that don't know thier elbow from usenet saying THIER limited mental and computer capabilities are enough a cap for all others.. We need options for legit power users not be crippled by lemmings.
soulfringe
join:2005-04-30
Woodland, CA

soulfringe to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
Have you seen the size of video games lately ?

Take Age of Conan for example. More than 30GB.

Now think about how many people buy their video games digitally from the likes of Direct2Drive, Steam, EA, Ncsoft.

And exactly how does this effect streaming videos from the likes of Hulu or crunchy roll.

There is a lot more legitimate downloads out there than you think, and the sizes of files these days are enormous.

We are living in a digital age now, to put a cap on your useage, is to put a cap on what you can and can't buy.
regmanabq
join:2006-10-18
Albuquerque, NM

regmanabq to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
What about those of us who use virtual worlds??

I do a lot in Second Life, got comcasts suggested meter today. In two hours, going to two places i used up 500mb.

Now, throw in the fact I watch my tv, listen to the radio, browse the web and then throw in the kid doing the same plus MySpace and YouTube, and i'm pretty sure i'm sucking up my new 250GB limit quick.

I don't even mind paying more. Except at this time they don't have another option and the only thing available to me is Comcast or Qwest/Microsucks.

But to just start cutting me off, with five calls to support who never once mentioned that i'm being throttled while i waste days checking cables, running new ones, changing settings, changing out my modem etc... and i'm upset.

I've always thought it bad the TV company got into internet and i have to agree with the others, the more we start to use the net for our media and games and don't simply pay the 70 bucks a month to get emails, the more ISPs will have to change things.

Hell, with the new limits if i was grandma getting my email and pictures of the grandkids once in a while, the more i'd be asking "why am I haveing to pay 70 a month for 1gig??
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