bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
4 edits | reply to disco
Re: Speakeasy "we don't cap" bandwidth cap. Are they serious?
I have the 6.0/768. I've been with them since 2001. The name of service has changed several times, but now it's called 'Business DSL.'
I'm not at all opposed to capping -- but I'm stunned by the way they're going about this. The tech I talked to on the phone indicated that this is a 2-month old policy and that 30 gigs a week or less would stay off their radar.
My usage has gone *down* over the years -- and not up -- and last month, for example, I used 160 gigs. Sure, that's a lot of data -- but it's certainly not 24/7 -- and it's all between midnight and 6am -- with very little data during business hours. (A year ago I was told that this kind of usage would keep me off the radar. I said, fine, no problem -- and arranged to do any heavy-duty streaming or downloading late at night or on the weekends.)
I run Tomato on my Linksys, so I'm easily able to track my bandwidth -- yet Speakeasy insisted that I was downloading 24/7. I said, no, that's not the case -- and I have 2 months worth of data to show it. But the tech was looking at raw number -- not usage charts -- so he assumed that whatever I was doing was constant and incessant.
As I say, I understand the realities of caps. But I (wrongly) assumed that the Comcast 250 gig/month would probably be the industry standard. It seemed a reasonable compromise to me -- an enormous amount of data but a tangible ceiling.
Speakeasy, however, is adopting a draconian 100 gig a month cap -- yet consistently saying that they have no cap. In fact, the tech repeated this over and over -- we have no cap, but you're using too much. I said, well, what's not too much?
He wouldn't say.
He then said I should think of the bandwidth like a water faucet. "You simply cannot use your water faucet 24/7."
I said, well, I don't use my water faucet 24/7 -- and I don't use my DSL 24/7 -- and here's the stats to prove it. Sure, I had spikes between midnight and 6am -- but even my spikes had plenty of space between them. I would download, say, an HD movie at night -- watch it the next day.
Anyway, the tech had no idea what HD was -- and had no idea how big the movies were. I said I'm seeing anywhere between 4-8 gigs per movie. "And with a 100 gig cap -- that's five, six movies a month -- and then other stuff like streaming."
So I'm perplexed. I've stopped using torrents long ago -- and not particularly minding it since most of what I want to see is easily available now via iTunes or the PS3 or XBOX -- but now, suddenly, Speakeasy is dropping the bandwidth cap bomb -- yet insisting that they have no cap (in the same breath). And Covad found it odd that Speakeasy is talking about caps since they (Covad) apparently have no caps. So Covad was very curious about my Speakeasy experience and was interested in the details.
It's all very weird. And apparently very new. The rep talked about management reimplementing a bandwidth policy that had long ago languished. I said, well, that's fine -- but why didn't you announce this to the users?
The rep's response was that they were calling users one-by-one. I then asked that since there's now a cap what tools can you offer me to officially monitor my usage?
The rep responded that there's no cap. And then said, well, we don't have any tools either. "I'm just looking at a printout."
So what the heck? |
