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JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ to GTFan

Premium Member

to GTFan

Re: Comcast Xfinity for Xbox launching soon (possibly next week)

said by GTFan:

said by JohnInSJ:

said by egeek84:

What's very interesting to me though is that any video viewed through the app won't count against the 250GB data cap Comcast has in place. Anyone else shocked by this?

You pay for your video streaming already via your video bill, and can consume this content on your STB without it counting against your cap, so no, this does not surprise me.

On a totally different delivery method over dedicated QAM channels.

The Xbox is just another IP-attached device on your network, same as a PC. Which makes it really odd that PC streaming from Xfinity would count but the Xbox wouldn't - this makes no sense and cannot easily be explained away.

The only way to view xfinity on demand on a xbox is on the xbox in your home on your comcast broadband, and it's only available as an app if you are an xfinity subscriber. Comcast is using their content delivery cable to deliver video to your xbox instead of your STB, no video is being sent over the internet.

Sorry, it makes perfect sense and can be explained to everyone who thinks it all the way through.
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

2 edits

GTFan

Member

said by JohnInSJ:

The only way to view xfinity on demand on a xbox is on the xbox in your home on your comcast broadband, and it's only available as an app if you are an xfinity subscriber. Comcast is using their content delivery cable to deliver video to your xbox instead of your STB, no video is being sent over the internet.

Sorry, it makes perfect sense and can be explained to everyone who thinks it all the way through.

You completely ignored what I said - a PC (or an iPad) accessing Xfinity on demand is an STB just like an Xbox for video delivery, and yet the PC gets the cap and the Xbox doesn't. They are both IP devices on your LAN, no more no less, and if you're on Comcast's network you'll never leave it either way.

Besides, what's so special about VOD? It's just another IP app. If the argument is that 'it's on Comcast's internal network', then why do emails or files sent from one Comcast user to another count against the cap? Where do you draw the line?

I'm sorry, saying it's like an STB is way too fuzzy for me. It's ALL IP-based delivery to IP-attached, non-Comcast devices on your LAN from Comcast's internal network.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by GTFan:

said by JohnInSJ:

The only way to view xfinity on demand on a xbox is on the xbox in your home on your comcast broadband, and it's only available as an app if you are an xfinity subscriber. Comcast is using their content delivery cable to deliver video to your xbox instead of your STB, no video is being sent over the internet.

Sorry, it makes perfect sense and can be explained to everyone who thinks it all the way through.

You completely ignored what I said - a PC (or an iPad) accessing Xfinity on demand is an STB just like an Xbox for video delivery, and yet the PC gets the cap and the Xbox doesn't. They are both IP devices on your LAN, no more no less, and if you're on Comcast's network you'll never leave it either way.

Besides, what's so special about VOD? It's just another IP app. If the argument is that 'it's on Comcast's internal network', then why do emails or files sent from one Comcast user to another count against the cap? Where do you draw the line?

I'm sorry, saying it's like an STB is way too fuzzy for me. It's ALL IP-based delivery to IP-attached, non-Comcast devices on your LAN from Comcast's internal network.

You ignored what I said... you can access xfinity on demand from any browser, any network. The content is served to the internet.

The xbox xfinity app will ONLY work on an xbox on your xfinity internet connection in your home - the content is served only to the internal comcast network, not to the CDN to the edge. In that sense it is exactly the same as a STB.

It's not a hard concept.
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

1 edit

GTFan

Member

said by JohnInSJ:

said by GTFan:

said by JohnInSJ:

The only way to view xfinity on demand on a xbox is on the xbox in your home on your comcast broadband, and it's only available as an app if you are an xfinity subscriber. Comcast is using their content delivery cable to deliver video to your xbox instead of your STB, no video is being sent over the internet.

Sorry, it makes perfect sense and can be explained to everyone who thinks it all the way through.

You completely ignored what I said - a PC (or an iPad) accessing Xfinity on demand is an STB just like an Xbox for video delivery, and yet the PC gets the cap and the Xbox doesn't. They are both IP devices on your LAN, no more no less, and if you're on Comcast's network you'll never leave it either way.

Besides, what's so special about VOD? It's just another IP app. If the argument is that 'it's on Comcast's internal network', then why do emails or files sent from one Comcast user to another count against the cap? Where do you draw the line?

I'm sorry, saying it's like an STB is way too fuzzy for me. It's ALL IP-based delivery to IP-attached, non-Comcast devices on your LAN from Comcast's internal network.

You ignored what I said... you can access xfinity on demand from any browser, any network. The content is served to the internet.

The xbox xfinity app will ONLY work on an xbox on your xfinity internet connection in your home - the content is served only to the internal comcast network, not to the CDN to the edge. In that sense it is exactly the same as a STB.

It's not a hard concept.

And my iPad/iPhone, using Comcast's Xfinity app on Comcast's network (i.e., my HSI), is different from an Xbox how, and yet counts against the cap? Not talking about accessing it from the internet, it's from my house. The same network my Xbox accessing Xfinity lives on. If it's on Comcast's network it shouldn't count, regardless of whether I can also access it elsewhere.

You really don't get it, nor did you explain how Comcast draws the line for any internal network-only traffic counting against the cap.

WoofieInPC
Premium Member
join:2009-04-04
Panama City, FL

WoofieInPC

Premium Member

I'm a bit confused. I can use my Xfinity app on my Android phone anywhere, but I can't use my Xbox anywhere. Not sure I understand your comparison.
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

1 edit

GTFan

Member

said by WoofieInPC:

I'm a bit confused. I can use my Xfinity app on my Android phone anywhere, but I can't use my Xbox anywhere. Not sure I understand your comparison.

Sure, I get that. What I'm saying is that if I use that app at home, on the same network my Xbox lives on, why does the traffic then count but the Xbox's doesn't? It never leaves Comcast's internal network either way, and that's the argument they're using to say the Xbox doesn't count.

And then, if you accept that it seems odd, where do you draw the line? Why does sending a file or email from my PC to another Comcast user's PC count against the cap? After all, it never left their network.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ to GTFan

Premium Member

to GTFan
said by GTFan:

And my iPad/iPhone, using Comcast's Xfinity app on Comcast's network (i.e., my HSI), is different from an Xbox how, and yet counts against the cap? Not talking about accessing it from the internet, it's from my house. The same network my Xbox accessing Xfinity lives on. If it's on Comcast's network it shouldn't count, regardless of whether I can also access it elsewhere.

You really don't get it, nor did you explain how Comcast draws the line for any internal network-only traffic counting against the cap.

Comcast draws the line at the xbox xfinity app, streaming to your house.

Because comcast views the app running on the xbox in your house as a STB.
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

GTFan

Member

And how is this different from the app running on an iPad in your home, other than it's not connected to your TV? The answer is that it's not.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

1 edit

telcodad

MVM

The problem that I have with the exclusion of the Xbox 360 VoD app's data from Comcast's residential HSI service cap is that it contradicts the rational that Comcast has been using to place the cap on it in the first place - to avoid having certain heavy users (aka "Data Hogs") in a given area degrade the service for most of the other users.

The arguments citing the current Network Neutrality rules probably won't go anywhere because of the many loopholes in them and Comcast's claims that they are only using their internal network/servers vs. the public internet.

However, I think the latest arguments, that the cap exclusion for the Xbox 360 VoD app violates Comcast's agreements that it made as part of its take-over of NBC Universal last year, are valid.

That agreement (»transition.fcc.gov/trans ··· bcu.html) states that any Comcast service involving "caps, tiers, metering, or other usage-based pricing" shall not treat affiliated network traffic differently from unaffiliated network traffic and offer the same facilities and capabilities to others on commercially equivalent terms.

See: »dwmw.wordpress.com/2012/ ··· trality/

So, what then, do I think Comcast should do?

Some different possibilities:

1) Remove the cap on residential HSI service

2) Raise the cap to something more reasonable, like 1TB or more

3) Have the cap vary by HSI speed tier, with higher tiers having higher caps (e.g., Economy: 250GB, Performance: 500GB, Blast: 750GB, Extreme: 1 or 2TB, etc.)

4) Allow users to pay an extra fee for a higher cap (or an unlimited connection), regardless of speed tier

Personally, I'd favor either #3 or #4, as having no restrictions at all for everyone would probably lead to actual service slowdowns, especially during prime usage times.

If some users paid more for a higher cap (or no cap) then Comcast can use that extra income to add more capacity in problem areas.

Edit: I have now posted a poll thread for CHSI forum users to express what they think Comcast should do about the data cap now: »[Caps] What do you think Comcast should do now about its data ca
telcodad

telcodad

MVM

Another good article about all this on the Raw Story site:

Comcast exempts its new streaming video service from bandwidth caps
Raw Story - March 28, 2012
»www.rawstory.com/rs/2012 ··· th-caps/

An excerpt:

"By exempting its own service from the company’s bandwidth caps, Comcast places its content rivals at a disadvantage that, on its face, appears to violate the principle of Internet neutrality, which the Federal Communications Commission mandated for the public Internet in rules (»www.rawstory.com/rs/2010 ··· -agenda/) issued two years ago. Internet neutrality stipulates that all web traffic must be treated equally, which would seemingly prevent big corporations from prioritizing their traffic over small businesses, activist groups and others.

Comcast is getting around those rules by delivering Xfinity over a “private IP network,” it explained in a customer FAQ published this week. By drawing a distinction between “the public Internet” and its own high bandwidth “private” network, Comcast has proved its critics were right to suggest that weakened neutrality rules would lead to the creation of “super tiers,” (»www.itworld.com/internet ··· et-costs) where more bandwidth would be available to the owners, operators and, potentially, anyone who can pay enough.

Comcast and Netflix did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Internet freedom activists have long warned that the “cableization” of the Internet was coming, and if Comcast were to open up its own “private IP network” to other major content providers — for a fee, of course — it would represent the creation of a super-tiered Internet of sorts, where moneyed players essentially run the show, forsaking the public Internet for the private Internet and hauling millions of users along with them into a new environment with entirely different rules.

It’s also not the first time Comcast has used its bandwidth resources to hurt a competitor and enrich itself: in 2010, Netflix partner Level 3 was forced into paying a reoccurring fee to “transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast’s customers who request such content.” (»www.rawstory.com/rs/2010 ··· r-video/) They agreed under protest, saying their highest priority was averting service interruptions, which Comcast threatened if Level 3 did not pay up.

Critics compared the move to extortion and blackmail, but it was perfectly legal because no regulations at the time had addressed network operators charging tolls or blocking content. Now that those rules are solidified and “public Internet” traffic must be treated equally, network owners have been eyeing ways to further monetize their bandwidth resources.

Xfinity, it would seem, is just the beginning."

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ to GTFan

Premium Member

to GTFan
said by GTFan:

And how is this different from the app running on an iPad in your home, other than it's not connected to your TV? The answer is that it's not.

The xbox only streams content from the xfinity app, which is only functional if you have both xfinity tv and xfinity broadband. There is no requirement for xfinity broadband to stream xfinity content via the web.

This is the difference.
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

GTFan

Member

Which, again, has nothing to do with what I said. I give up, we'll have to agree to disagree.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

A blog item on the Media Matters for America website:

Degrading Net Neutrality In Plain Sight
By Simon Maloy, Media Matters for America - March 29, 2012
»mediamatters.org/blog/20 ··· 03290003

An excerpt:

"When the FCC passed the Open Internet Order in December 2010, which put in place regulatory strictures for network neutrality, a number of public interest groups raised the alarm over potential loopholes internet service providers could exploit to get around the spirit of the rules. Andrew Jay Schwartzman of the Media Access Project said the rules "foreshadow years of uncertainty and regulatory confusion, which those carriers will use to their advantage." Craig Aaron of Free Press said they "don't do enough to stop the phone and cable companies from dividing the Internet into fast and slow lanes, and they fail to protect wireless users from discrimination."

It's looking like they were prescient on this one. In the last month, two internet service providers have proposed new plans that, while they appear to technically comport with the FCC's Open Internet Order, nonetheless threaten the principles undergirding net neutrality.

Outside The Xbox

On March 23, Comcast quietly announced that usage of their soon-to-be-released XFINITY streaming video service for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console will not count against the 250 gigabyte cap the ISP puts on monthly data usage for residential customers.

Per Comcast's FAQ page on XFINITY TV:

[Note that the original wording of it is shown here, not the latest revised one (»gigaom.com/video/comcast ··· -update/) - telcodad]

Q: Will XFINITY On Demand content a customer views via the Xbox 360 go against their bandwidth cap?

A: No, since the content is being delivered over our private IP network and not the public Internet, it does not count against a customer's bandwidth cap. XFINITYTV.com and the XFINITY TV app stream content over the public Internet and count toward the customer's bandwidth cap.


What Comcast is doing by offering this streaming video all-you-can-eat buffet through their private network is prioritizing their own content. Think of it this way: if you're a Comcast subscriber and you want to watch a movie online but are worried about bumping up against the monthly data cap, you're incentivized to watch that movie via XFINITY on your Xbox, rather than through "public internet" providers like Netflix. It has less to do with consumer choice than it does with which services Comcast favors.

The FCC says companies like Comcast that provide "broadband Internet access service" shouldn't use that service to prioritize their own content (or enter into financial arrangements with outside content developers to favor their content) because it's wildly anti-competitive. What's at issue, though, is how the FCC defines "broadband Internet access service."

The FCC order's definition of "broadband Internet access service" specifically excludes "content delivery network services," which is what Comcast is using to deliver their streaming video to the Xbox. To borrow from the late Sen. Ted Stevens, if you think of the internet as a tube, then content delivery networks are smaller tubes within that tube devoted exclusively to providing specific services. There's a techno-wonky debate over whether content delivery networks should count as part of "the internet," but since the FCC says no (at least from the regulatory viewpoint), Comcast can argue that they're still in compliance with the Open Internet Order.

Consumer advocacy groups like Public Knowledge say Comcast is violating the "spirit of net neutrality" by transforming "the competitive online video marketplace into a two-tiered world, where its own online video doesn't have to play by the same rules as everyone else's.""

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by telcodad:

Consumer advocacy groups like Public Knowledge say Comcast is violating the "spirit of net neutrality" by transforming "the competitive online video marketplace into a two-tiered world, where its own online video doesn't have to play by the same rules as everyone else's.""

Media matters doesn't understand what since the content is being delivered over our private IP network and not the public Internet, it does not count against a customer's bandwidth cap means. This seems to be the central problem for everyone.

In fact, Netflix is benefiting from the asymmetric relationship between its CDN and comcast to have comcast subscribers subsidize its costs across all comcast users, including those that don't use netflix at all.

No one seems to be screaming about that though.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

said by JohnInSJ:

said by telcodad:

Consumer advocacy groups like Public Knowledge say Comcast is violating the "spirit of net neutrality" by transforming "the competitive online video marketplace into a two-tiered world, where its own online video doesn't have to play by the same rules as everyone else's.""

Media matters doesn't understand what since the content is being delivered over our private IP network and not the public Internet, it does not count against a customer's bandwidth cap means. This seems to be the central problem for everyone.

But that excuse doesn't fly as mentioned before in this same thread (»Comcast Xfinity for Xbox launching soon (possibly next week)) and see: »www.publicknowledge.org/ ··· 360-play Even Comcast must have finally come to realize that, as they later removed that line from the FAQ (»gigaom.com/video/comcast ··· -update/).

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by telcodad:

said by JohnInSJ:

said by telcodad:

Consumer advocacy groups like Public Knowledge say Comcast is violating the "spirit of net neutrality" by transforming "the competitive online video marketplace into a two-tiered world, where its own online video doesn't have to play by the same rules as everyone else's.""

Media matters doesn't understand what since the content is being delivered over our private IP network and not the public Internet, it does not count against a customer's bandwidth cap means. This seems to be the central problem for everyone.

But that excuse doesn't fly as mentioned before in this same thread (»Comcast Xfinity for Xbox launching soon (possibly next week)) and see: »www.publicknowledge.org/ ··· 360-play Even Comcast must have finally come to realize that, as they later removed that line from the FAQ (»gigaom.com/video/comcast ··· -update/).

"A: No; similar to traditional cable television service that is delivered to the set-top box, this content doesnt count toward our data usage threshold. The Xbox 360 running our XFINITY TV app essentially acts as an additional cable box for your existing cable service, and our data usage threshold does not apply."

They're saying the same thing, in a different way - watching your comcast content on any comcast device that only can receive comcast content when used in your home on your comcast internet connection doesn't count towards the internet content cap.

Which differs from the xfinity internet streaming option, that is available to you as a comcast cable subscriber, over any internet connection you may have, anywhere.

I think you can beat this dead horse as much as you want, but it will still be dead.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Comcast can try and justify the Xbox VoD app's exclusion from the cap anyway they want, but it is inconsistent with their other "private network" apps for other devices that use their HSI IP service in the home (on TiVos, etc.), that still have their data use subject to the cap.

Why aren't their Comcast-supplied apps "essentially acting as an additional cable box for your existing cable service" like the Xbox?

I think this "horse" may still have some life in her yet!
telcodad

telcodad

MVM

Apparently, I'm not the only person to see this inconsistancy:

Reed Hastings: "I want my HBO Go"
Netflix chief complains about Comcast broadband loophole
Variety - March 30, 2012
»www.variety.com/article/ ··· 18052125

Reed Hastings says:

"Comcast: I'm paying you a lot of money for HBO, so please let me watch HBO Go on my TV," Hastings wrote. "I want my HBO Go."

For Hastings to come to the defense of HBO Go is more than a little odd given he's repeatedly referred to it and HBO in general as competitive threats.

But Hastings hints at an ulterior motive later in his Facebook post: "Once I get HBO Go on my Xbox, then it will be strange that streaming 'Game of Thrones' from the HBO Go app on my Xbox will count against my Comcast Internet cap, but when I watch those same 'Game of Thrones' streams through the Comcast app on Xbox, over the same Wifi connection to my Xbox, then it will not count against my cap. Hmmm…"
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

1 edit

GTFan

Member

Nor I, but you can't convince John of this. For some reason if you can stream it from anywhere it's subject to cap, even though that has nothing to do with getting it on the same network that your Xbox lives on.
And I'm not talking about HBO Go, which presumably comes from public servers - I'm talking about Xfinity on Demand on an iPad vs. the app on an Xbox, which presumably both come from Comcast servers and therefore never leave their network.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by GTFan:

Nor I, but you can't convince John of this. For some reason if you can stream it from anywhere it's subject to cap, even though that has nothing to do with getting it on the same network that your Xbox lives on.
And I'm not talking about HBO Go, which presumably comes from public servers - I'm talking about Xfinity on Demand on an iPad vs. the app on an Xbox, which presumably both come from Comcast servers and therefore never leave their network.

No, they HAVE to send that content to the edge of their network via their external CDN, and if you happen to access it internally it routes back in.

Like I said, if you understood how the different content was distributed, you could see their argument as reasonable.

The content stream for Xbox app is different -its never going to be routed to the edge, because it's never gonna leave the comcast internal network.

And, as we have also discussed, you CANNOT get the Xbox content on your xbox if you only have xfinity video. You need both residential video and residential internet. With their web on-demand product you only need to be a comcast video subscriber.

So, even if you don't want to believe it, there is a large difference between the two.
dtherbert
join:2009-04-24
Evanston, IL

dtherbert

Member

So quick question:

I have Xfinity video and internet. I go over to my son's house to help him take care of his children. He has Xfinity internet only and an Xbox 360. Can I activate/login with my account on his Xbox so we are able to watch more things when I am over there?

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by dtherbert:

So quick question:

I have Xfinity video and internet. I go over to my son's house to help him take care of his children. He has Xfinity internet only and an Xbox 360. Can I activate/login with my account on his Xbox so we are able to watch more things when I am over there?

I believe not.

That's my understanding of how it works - it will not activate there.

Edit: »www.xbox.com/en-US/live/ ··· /xfinity

Note steps 2 and 3.
Restrictions apply. XFINITY TV Digital Starter service or above and XFINITY Internet required. on bottom of page.

utsports
join:2009-07-13
Knoxville TN

utsports to dtherbert

Member

to dtherbert
said by dtherbert:

I have Xfinity video and internet. I go over to my son's house to help him take care of his children. He has Xfinity internet only and an Xbox 360. Can I activate/login with my account on his Xbox so we are able to watch more things when I am over there?

Actually I tried this recently and it worked, I think if your both on the same headend HFC Network it will.

JohnInSJ
Premium Member
join:2003-09-22
Aptos, CA

JohnInSJ

Premium Member

said by utsports:

said by dtherbert:

I have Xfinity video and internet. I go over to my son's house to help him take care of his children. He has Xfinity internet only and an Xbox 360. Can I activate/login with my account on his Xbox so we are able to watch more things when I am over there?

Actually I tried this recently and it worked, I think if your both on the same headend HFC Network it will.

Should not work, unless both people have xfinity broadband and video. Since comcast easily can figure out which account the xbox is on (if its on comcast at all) and verify it qualifies or not, it seems unlikely they wouldn't check.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Looks like HBO Go will soon be available on the Xbox 360 for Comcast customers:

Comcast Prepped To Launch HBO Go On Xbox
MSO, Programmer Hashed Out Business Issues Unrelated to Platform: Source
By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News - April 4, 2012
»www.multichannel.com/art ··· Xbox.php

"Comcast subscribers will soon be able to log in to HBO's TV Everywhere service from the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console, after the two sides resolved business issues unrelated to the device itself, according to an industry source.

The MSO will allow Xfinity TV and Internet subscribers to access the HBO Go app on the Xbox as early as this week, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Sources confirmed that the companies have reached a deal.

HBO launched its app on the game platform (»www.multichannel.com/art ··· B_TV.php) last week, but it is not currently available through Comcast, Time Warner Cable or Bright House Networks.

Comcast and HBO declined to comment.

According to a person familiar with the negotiations, Comcast's holdup on the HBO Go service for Xbox had "nothing to do" with the technical integration with the game console. Rather, there were other business issues that Comcast and HBO were working out before the MSO gave the go-ahead on the Xbox.

Sources close to Comcast previously indicated that HBO had not agreed to all of the conditions it required of TV Everywhere partners, such as how subscriber information is handled on third-party devices and websites.

For now, Comcast, the largest pay TV provider in the U.S. with 22.3 million video subscribers, still will not provide access to the HBO authenticated programming service through Roku set-tops or Samsung Smart TVs, as many other HBO affiliates do.

Meanwhile, public-interest groups complained (»www.multichannel.com/art ··· uiry.php) that Comcast's policy of not counting video-on-demand consumed through its Xfinity TV app on the Xbox was anti-competitive. Comcast said that because the Xbox acts as effectively another set-top box, usage of the the Xfinity app is not subject to the 250-Gigabyte monthly limit on broadband users.

It is not known whether video streamed using the HBO Go app on Xbox will count toward the Comcast cap. The MSO, in its frequently asked questions section of its website, says all Internet-delivered video -- including that on its XfinityTV.com site -- counts toward total usage."

Also, an article on this in the NY Times: »mediadecoder.blogs.nytim ··· comcast/

egeek84
Premium Member
join:2011-07-28
Livermore, CA

egeek84

Premium Member

telcodad, can i just say that you rock for keeping us up to date and posting these news articles!! THANK YOU!

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Well thank you. It's nice to be appreciated, especially when others have sometimes complained to me about how many articles I've posted on these forums.

While, posting news items is probably more Karl Bode's job, when I do come across an interesting news item on one of the websites that I normally visit, I like to share that with others who may not have seen it.
telcodad

telcodad to JohnInSJ

MVM

to JohnInSJ
Another article, on the Forbes site today, about the controversy over Comcast's exclusion of their Xbox VoD app from the data cap:

Are Broadband Markets Stagnating?
By Timothy B. Lee, Forbes - April 5, 2012
»www.forbes.com/sites/tim ··· gnating/

Some excerpts:

"Comcast recently announced that video streamed to the XBox from its own on-demand video service would be exempt from the bandwidth caps that apply to Comcast Internet service. Some open Internet advocates worry that the policy will give its own streaming video product an unfair advantage against third-party online video services like Netflix and Hulu. But Larry Downes argues »news.cnet.com/8301-1023_ ··· ..again/ it's another example of network neutrality activists making much ado about nothing. Reihan Salam wants to know what I think »www.nationalreview.com/a ··· an-salam .

The controversy over the XBox On Demand illustrates a point I made in my 2008 paper for Cato on network neutrality: a network neutrality regime that carves out an exception for cable television service doesn’t make much sense. After all, the most important high-bandwidth Internet application in the coming decade is likely to be online video, and this application competes directly with the cable incumbents’ premium television services. So if broadband incumbents were going to adopt an anti-competitive strategy, it would most likely be focused on undermining online video services that compete with the broadband providers’ own proprietary video offerings.

Yet none of the leading network neutrality proposals, including the one the FCC adopted in 2010, covered the incumbents’ legacy video services. Network providers are prohibited from discriminating among Internet services like Netflix and Hulu, but they are free to reserve as much bandwidth as they want to their own proprietary video services.
:
[In 2008,] Comcast had just started upgrading its network to DOCSIS 3.0, which was allowing it to offer speeds as fast as 50 Mbps in selected markets. That same year, Comcast announced a 250 GB bandwidth cap, which at the time was seen as extremely generous. Comcast’s major telephone competitors, Verizon and AT&T, were in the midst of upgrading their copper infrastructure with much faster fiber optic cables. If you’d asked me at the time, I would have predicted that by 2012 we’d see competition between DOCSIS 3.0 and FiOS spurring both carriers to offer customers in 2012 dramatically faster speeds than they’d offered in 2008.

So far, the results have been disappointing. I’m a Comcast customer in Philadelphia, and my broadband connection gives me typical download speeds of less than 10 Mbps—not much different than I would have gotten in 2008. Verizon reached about 18 million households with its FiOS project and then stopped building, leaving cities like Baltimore and Boston with antiquated copper infrastructure, indefiniely. AT&T has shown no interest in upgrading U-Verse to an all-fiber network like FiOS. And in December, Verizon and Comcast effectively declared a truce in which Verizon would focus on wireless services and Verizon Wireless stores would begin hawking Comcast Internet services.

In short, the pace of progress in the broadband market seems to have stalled. The nation’s leading broadband providers appear to have calculated that pouring money into faster (wired) Internet access isn’t a good investment, and the major telephone incumbents—Verizon and AT&T—have effectively ceded the speed crown to cable incumbents like Comcast and focused on upgrading their wireless networks. Little surprise, then, that Comcast hasn’t raised its its 250 GB bandwidth cap in almost 4 years.

So I think open Internet activists are right to be concerned about the anti-competitive potential of Comcast exempting its own services from its bandwidth cap. The longer the cap remains stuck at 250 GB, the less it looks like a congestion-management technique and the more it looks like an effort to starve online video services of the bandwidth they need to compete directly with Comcast’s own video services. Larry Downes points to Comcast’s page »customer.comcast.com/hel ··· ive-use/ stating that high-quality Netflix streams are about 2.3 GB per hour, implying that the 250 GB bandwidth cap gives you around 100 hours of video. Even this is just 3 hours of television per day, which is less than many households consume. But it also ignores the fact that Blu-Ray quality 1080p video requires closer to 10 GB per hour, meaning that Comcast’s bandwidth cap only allows you to watch about an hour of Blu Ray-quality video per month. As average video quality continues to increase, a 250 GB bandwidth cap is going to look more and more stingy."
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

GTFan

Member

'Are broadband markets stagnating'?

Uh, yeah. This is what happens when government is asleep at the wheel while monopolies/duopolies run the show.

And then, to top it all off, do everything in their power (up to and including bribing your local representatives) to prevent local munis from providing better service.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

A blog item on the CNET site today about the Xbox VoD app controversy:

Commentary: Comcast has some Xplaining to do
Comcast's shifting explanations for its Xbox deal raise questions about the justification for its bandwidth caps and the different ways it charges consumers for video
By Matt Wood, Policy Director for Free Press
CNET - April 5, 2012
»news.cnet.com/8301-1023_ ··· g-to-do/

Besides the article, the reader comments after it are very interesting too.

I particularly like one of comments, where the poster points out that Comcast's latest excuse ("similar to traditional cable television service that is delivered to the set-top box, this content doesn't count toward our data usage threshold"), doesn't really make sense either.

If it's just a Cable TV service (with the Xbox acting just like another cable box) as Comcast now says, and "it has nothing to do with your internet service then I should be able to cancel my internet service and it still work. Obviously that's not the case."