said by wispagod :

Well, it seems like fals advertising to me if they say unlimited usage, then try to enforce a cap, or complain when you use it to much, that's not right either

said by KrK :

I'd tend to agree. These days they have shied away from using the word "Unlimited" to avoid the legal consequences but have done nothing to disperse the public misconception that it is unlimited, and since they don't tell you it's capped, in fact, they deny it if asked, people DO assume it's unlimited.

Thus the bad press every time a heavy user gets stomped on.

said by wispagod :

Well, it seems like fals advertising to me if they say unlimited usage, then try to enforce a cap, or complain when you use it to much, that's not right either

said by Nightfall :

Where have they advertised unlimited usage? I keep hearing this from various people here, and in the last 3-4 years there hasn't been a single print or TV ad that has been released that says "unlimited usage". Please provide some kind of proof.

said by funchords :

They have advertised unlimited use by not advertising limited use. Remember, they are head-to-head in competition with DSL and FIOS. Comcast's tiers are set to make the customer believe that Comcast HSI is superior (to DSL) or equal (to FIOS).

This issue is illustrating, in bright lights, that Comcast HSI is not what it seems.

See my post here: »Re: Comcast Bandwidth Abuse/Limits - Discuss here only

said by Nightfall :

It seems that a bunch of people here believe that Comcast advertises unlimited access. I would like to see that for myself. So far, no one has come forward with that proof.

said by funchords :

I fixed my earlier post to say that they imply it by not advertising it. But you were too fast!

I haven't seen it, either.

But it does stand to reason that if my tier is 6 Mbps, that I'm allowed to use up to 6 Mbps (Megabits per second) ... or 360 Megabits per minute ... 21,600 Megabits per hour ... 518,400 Megabits per day ... and so on.

And if that's not the deal -- then what is the deal? What am I forking my hard-earned money for?

The only reason that I can fathom that Comcast has an invisible cap is because of the shared nature of Cable Internet service. There are plenty of other shared Internet services that have solved this problem -- EDVO, WISPs, Satellite ISPs.

Comcast DOES NOT WANT to be known as a shared service. They're in competition with FIOS and DSL which doesn't have to impose such restrictions.

said by Rob :

Bad press by who? By DSLReports? By the Washington Post? Other than DSLReports, most news outlets that report the bad press have no clue what they are talking about. They only see 1 side of the story.

said by Nightfall :

I do see your point and I do have to agree with it in some sense. The problem is that there is oversubscribing done on every ISP. If everyone was given permission to use their line full bore all the time and everyone did, can you imagine the bandwidth issues?

said by Nightfall :

At least now I know why Comcast isn't complaining about usage to everyone and there is no set cap in some areas. I suspect that its all about usage on a specific node and if people are complaining.

said by Nightfall :

And if you don't think that any of those other services are not shared, then you are sadly mistaken. It isn't like you are sitting right on the backbone with ANY residential based ISP.

said by funchords :

DSL/FIOS generally have a much bigger pool of bandwidth and a much bigger pool of customers that divide it. The actions of a few will not affect so many with DSL/FIOS, because the larger group can absorb it.

With Cable (DOCSIS), the pool of bandwidth is limited by the technology, and the ability to divide it is also constrained by the way that the neighborhood was wired. At some point with cable, you reach the maximum amount of bandwidth you can deliver and you have already divided the neighborhood into the smallest groups possible.

Unlike DSL/FIOS, CATV providers reach a point where they cannot add bandwidth and they cannot divide the neighborhood any further (without rewiring it).