Topic 'Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits' in forum 'Charter Internet/TV' - dslreports.com

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 02:56:02 EDT

anon posted : You pay $50.......a MONTH?
Oh, You must be a long time valued customer; which is why they charge you $20 more (not including tax) a month than me.

Isn't it swell that while many businesses competing for your CONTINUED patronage offer rewards, bonuses and specials; ISP, cable. satellite, and cell phone companies, (just to mention a few) reward their customers with mandatory price increases, smooshing virtual bun kissing and a accidental over billing. (Those dumb computers can never seem to add numbers correctly)

I was packing up a couple of "Dish" receivers yesterday(into the return boxes Dish sent me) and each box contained a flyer(small poster) exclaiming, " What do we have to do to get you back?"
....hmmmmm?
Cancelling them was more of a hassle than..........

Who's fault is it?
All them darn persistent consumers that made it very well known that, This is what we want...and.... This is how much$ we want it!

Supply and demand equals mo$

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 14:35:33 EDT

pinky321 posted :

said by nunya:

The Sherman act isn't just about monopolies, it's about using your prevalent place in the market to stifle competition. That's exactly what the cable companies, AT&T, and Verizon are doing. They want to keep that captive customer base tuning in to their video services. Think of it as video "cock-blocking".

Not Verizon as Verizon FiOS has no cap and video service.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:41:42 EDT

NormanS posted :

said by msmisfit:

Well some of us are limited to one alternative, AT&T DSL...

Which is also capped; and their traditional ADSL service has a 150 GB cap. So not exactly useful competition.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:11:04 EDT

msmisfit posted : Well some of us are limited to one alternative, AT&T DSL... no thanks. :)

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 11:53:50 EDT

wingrider01 posted :

said by PFH:

They will be forced to raise their bandwidth caps and soon. I've been beta testing several cheap devices ....

Nonsense. Charter has no incentive whatsoever to raise or eliminate caps in light of newer bandwidth-consumptive gadgetry. They have zero competition forcing them to do so. FTTH? Puny installed base. DSL? Please, don't make me laugh. Any Charter customer serious about streamed video knows they have nowhere else to go.

You say you need a higher cap? Then, customer, let me introduce you to our nifty business-class pricing tier. End of story.

No competition? In this area there are two other providers that can be chosen for broadband access at the residential level, three if you want to add hughes net

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 10:42:50 EDT

PFH posted : They will be forced to raise their bandwidth caps and soon. I've been beta testing several cheap devices ....

Nonsense. Charter has no incentive whatsoever to raise or eliminate caps in light of newer bandwidth-consumptive gadgetry. They have zero competition forcing them to do so. FTTH? Puny installed base. DSL? Please, don't make me laugh. Any Charter customer serious about streamed video knows they have nowhere else to go.

You say you need a higher cap? Then, customer, let me introduce you to our nifty business-class pricing tier. End of story.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 06:22:36 EDT

cork1958 posted :

said by nunya:

I don't think it will be as funny as your think. I'm pretty sure this is the route Netflix and Google will take when they finally sue.

I'd have to think if Netflix was going to do anything, they'd have gotten the ball rolling already? If Google were to jump on that ship, money definitely would not be an issue. So, what do you think they're waiting for? Christmas, maybe!! :D

said by NormanS:

said by CoolPirate :

Okay, 30MB connection allows for 250GBs per month. Charter bitches if you go over your limit and threatens cancellation of service. If i used the full 30-megs of allotted download speed (without regard to upload use) continuously, then I reach my "limit" of use in 2 hours and 22 minutes. Why hasn't Charter been sued for this practice where they advertise the HIGH speeds of their service, but then threaten you when you use the service even remotely to its potential?

I bought a box of cereal the other day. To my horror, upon opening the box, it was only three-quarters full! Damn them! I want the full potential of the box packed in! Scumbags!!!

With the fast speed they advertise, offer, and sell, you can literally use the allowable amount of service for the month in a little over two hours! Yet, they are willing and happy to take your money for the service, so long as you don't use much of it. Any comments, people?

They are selling speed, not quantity. Just as cereal is sold by weight, not volume.

Right on, Norman!!
--
The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 23:43:35 EDT

NormanS posted :

said by CoolPirate :

I bought a box of cereal the other day. To my horror, upon opening the box, it was only three-quarters full! Damn them! I want the full potential of the box packed in! Scumbags!!!

They are selling speed, not quantity. Just as cereal is sold by weight, not volume.
--
Norman
~Oh Lord, why have you come
~To Konnyu, with the Lion and the Drum

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 21:20:29 EDT

whoaru99 posted :

said by nunya:

I don't think it will be as funny as your think. I'm pretty sure this is the route Netflix and Google will take when they finally sue.

If they thought it was a viable option what are they waiting for?

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:09:06 EDT

wingrider01 posted :

said by Anon3528672 :

They will be forced to raise their bandwidth caps and soon. I've been beta testing several cheap devices that have yet to come out in stores, they all have vudu, netflix, but most importantly all of them but one have free cloud DVR functions built in which requires a constant upload of data when watching local channels, this is required for features such as pause/rewind/etc and there is no way to turn this feature off.

I guess their strategy is if a greater number of people are using more bandwidth, providers will be forced to increase them. I think the idea of bandwidth caps are for the birds personally, there is no magical bandwidth mine where bandwidth is a scarcity, as someone said, there is no bandwidth crunch. They're fighting a losing war and once these devices are out in stores, that 250gb cap? out the window, the one I was testing was capable of 3 times that and I had to turn it off before I too passed my cap. It will be interesting to watch all hell break loose once it's in stores and one of them already is :)

don;t hold your breath waiting for the caps to increase - the more likely senario is for the end user to be more attentive of what they are doing

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:49:20 EDT

anon posted : They will be forced to raise their bandwidth caps and soon. I've been beta testing several cheap devices that have yet to come out in stores, they all have vudu, netflix, but most importantly all of them but one have free cloud DVR functions built in which requires a constant upload of data when watching local channels, this is required for features such as pause/rewind/etc and there is no way to turn this feature off.

I guess their strategy is if a greater number of people are using more bandwidth, providers will be forced to increase them. I think the idea of bandwidth caps are for the birds personally, there is no magical bandwidth mine where bandwidth is a scarcity, as someone said, there is no bandwidth crunch. They're fighting a losing war and once these devices are out in stores, that 250gb cap? out the window, the one I was testing was capable of 3 times that and I had to turn it off before I too passed my cap. It will be interesting to watch all hell break loose once it's in stores and one of them already is :)

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 16:45:00 EDT

megarock posted : As many large transfers as I do in and outbound it shocked me to find out I was under the 150 gb threshold. Since being forced to 30 I pretty much use it as I see fit and haven't even heard a peep out of Charter. I don't meter or monitor it either - seems if you're going to charge for metering you're going to have to provide the meter and as far as I know they do not have one and none are in the works.

As far as them coming to my house - plenty of times. The reason for that is they will never admit when it is a mainline issue. Each time the issue was the main line it took no less than four home visits before they would even consider calling a line tech even though each and every tech who came out found nothing at all wrong to the tap. Not once. So instead of rolling a line tech the issue goes on for weeks, one visit after another and usually after the fourth or fifth visit they find the issue outside, fix it and we're good. If they would only listen to their customers or even the techs they send out it would save them so much in labor costs.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:12:32 EDT

nunya posted : I don't think it will be as funny as your think. I'm pretty sure this is the route Netflix and Google will take when they finally sue.
--
If someone refers to herself / himself as a "guru", they probably aren't.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 04:55:24 EDT

cork1958 posted : I'm sure any decent lawyer would do it for free provided they thought they could win and provided they get their cut if you were to win.

So, give it a shot. Call up a lawyer and see what your chances are. Make sure to record that call so we can hear how loud that lawyer laughs at you!! :p
--
The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 23:02:37 EDT

nunya posted :

said by anhisr:

what legal grounds could you use to sue. "They have to let me use it all the time" I do not see a judge going for it.

If I had the money, I would sue any ISP with caps who also offers video services under the Sherman Anti-trust Act.
I would argue that:
#1) the "bandwidth crunch" isn't real. It isn't, BTW.
Once that's been established,
#2) the real reason bandwidth caps are in place is to keep subscribers from using alternative video services such as Netflix, Vudu, Amazon, Google TV, Apple TV, Roku, etc...

We all know that this is what BW caps are really all about.

The Sherman act isn't just about monopolies, it's about using your prevalent place in the market to stifle competition. That's exactly what the cable companies, AT&T, and Verizon are doing. They want to keep that captive customer base tuning in to their video services. Think of it as video "cock-blocking".
--
If someone refers to herself / himself as a "guru", they probably aren't.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 00:32:35 EDT

iwinrar posted : You have to go over a good ammount and they will prob call you like they did me one month when i was getting all my online backups back. I never even got a call when I used a TB in a month. That came mostly from redownloading all my steam games.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sat, 24 Nov 2012 05:37:37 EDT

cork1958 posted :

said by guest :

Hi, how does charter inform users of over usage? I have the 30mbps package, and I think I will exceed the 250gb limit this month, but I an unsure if I am in trouble. I dont have a charter username or email from them, so how would they tell me I going over their limit? I rather know and stop myself from losing my service honestly then not knowing any warnings.

As I'm sure has already been stated some where here in this topic, you have to go over 3 consecutive months and then will only receive a warning in the mail. Charter HAS NOT been enforcing them as of yet though.
--
The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:18:52 EDT

whoaru99 posted : I think they'll send you a letter if you make the $hit list.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:11:38 EDT

anon posted : Hi, how does charter inform users of over usage? I have the 30mbps package, and I think I will exceed the 250gb limit this month, but I an unsure if I am in trouble. I dont have a charter username or email from them, so how would they tell me I going over their limit? I rather know and stop myself from losing my service honestly then not knowing any warnings.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 10:44:23 EDT

wingrider01 posted :

said by cork1958:

I've had Charter internet since shortly after it first became available here and that's been more than 10 years. With St. Louis being their headquarters, how did I get it before you? That's more of rhetorical question than a direct one. :p

Only ever did a few of the promo hopping things myself and have had Charter people in my house 1 time, since getting it.

Did you have to pay a $100 install fee originally? Actually, I think it was more than that, but it was a ridiculous amount for what they did!

was not charter when I got it, charter bought out the company that original was designated to the location of the city that I live in, paid nothing becasue the city goverment subsidized a minority company

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:19:53 EDT

whoaru99 posted : Doesn't matter if you didn't sign anything either, because the customer agreement says by using the service you agree to the terms.

I know collectively we're capable of covering lots of angles, but probably none the corporate lawyers haven't already considered.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 12:46:32 EDT

cork1958 posted : I've had Charter internet since shortly after it first became available here and that's been more than 10 years. With St. Louis being their headquarters, how did I get it before you? That's more of rhetorical question than a direct one. :p

Only ever did a few of the promo hopping things myself and have had Charter people in my house 1 time, since getting it.

Did you have to pay a $100 install fee originally? Actually, I think it was more than that, but it was a ridiculous amount for what they did!
--
The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:59:15 EDT

wingrider01 posted : had charter internet installed when it first came available, probalby 10 or more years ago - never signed anything physically, they wired to the dmark of my house, tested the connection there and never stepped inside my house - was at work when it was installed. I do not take advantage of any of their "promos" or contractual discounts, rarely contact them for anything, if I need a repair they come to the dmark of my house and can use the test point there, not letting them touch my inhouse infrastructure

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:39:19 EDT

iwinrar posted : Get a business line. Problem solved. Next

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:07:44 EDT

anon posted : So I know the first reply said you can't legally use 30mbit for 19 hours straight. I can and do use the full 30mbit for up to 24 hours at a time and legally too, I do video editing and raw video being transferred from another location is a HUGE amount of data. I've had 2 minutes of raw HD video clock in at 10gb. Two minutes!

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 21:12:36 EDT

whoaru99 posted :

said by grayem:

You accepted the caps when you signed up.

Nope, there were no caps when we signed up, they just added them on at some point.

Doesn't matter. The agreement you agreed to says it can be changed.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:14:59 EDT

compuguybna posted : What I find interesting about this thread is that you have an ANON user posting at >> CoolPirate <<.

He's complainin about Charter caps because he's bitching about exceeding Charter caps (250GB) because he's downloading illegal software?????

anyways, how is being a software pirate "cool"?

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 18:09:01 EDT

grayem posted :

You accepted the caps when you signed up.

Nope, there were no caps when we signed up, they just added them on at some point.

Luckily, I have never gotten a letter and I used to try to be considerate about my streaming with Netflix, keeping the res low. Now that they are forcing the minimum account at 30Mbps instead of 5, 10, 12, 15, 18, or whatever, I have no sympathy, I stream everything full HD. I cant find anyway to actually use 30 Mbps, so I have no idea why I have to pay $50 for it.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:37:08 EDT

kherr posted : He brought up the subject, not me.
I never said that he said he was going to sue.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:13:54 EDT

whoaru99 posted :

said by CoolPirate :

Why hasn't Charter been sued for this practice where they advertise the HIGH speeds of their service, but then threaten you when you use the service even remotely to its potential? ...

Any comments, people?

said by cork1958:

OP didn't say they were suing or even thinking of it. Just wondered why no one has tried it.

Why has nobody sued?

Most likely because they know they'd lose. You accepted the caps when you signed up. Here's a line from the first paragraph of the Customer Agreement...

said by From Charter's Customer Agreement :

...By using the Service, Customer agrees to be bound by the terms of this Agreement and the Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") as each may be amended from time to time.

The AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) is where the caps are defined.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:33:11 EDT

anhisr posted : what legal grounds could you use to sue. "They have to let me use it all the time" I do not see a judge going for it.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:23:37 EDT

cork1958 posted :

said by kherr:

Typical response,"Call the lawyers and sue". If you do not agree with their terms, no one is forcing you to use the service.

OP didn't say they were suing or even thinking of it. Just wondered why no one has tried it.

Another person with the "no one is forcing you to use their service" line which is along the same exact line as what you just said about typical response!

I think OP is just mentioning the fact of how ridiculous the caps are in today's almost all electronic age.

Personally,
I think it would be cool for some one to try and sue, or severely threaten to do that, just to see if it woke Charter up. :o
--
The Firefox alternative.
»www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:14:53 EDT

DaSneaky1D posted : Oh, I know. I was just poking fun at the OP saying that they're using their full connection all the time.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 20:50:55 EDT

pinky321 posted : AT&T has cap too!

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 15:09:58 EDT

kherr posted : Typical response,"Call the lawyers and sue". If you do not agree with their terms, no one is forcing you to use the service.

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:24:21 EDT

DaSneaky1D posted :

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFUz2HMqJO4

Re: [HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:19:59 EDT

anon posted : A) It's 30 Mbps not 30 MBps so it would take 19 hours not 2 hours.

B) Charter will only cut you off after 3 consecutive months of going over the cap. And that's only IF they even bother to enforce it in the first place. If your area is not congested they won't even bother you.

C) Charter won't be sued. Nothing illegal about it. Comcast, Cox, at&t all have caps. Satellite has caps, mobile data has caps.

D) There is nothing that would allow you to use 30 Mbps constantly for 19 hours straight. Not legally. Even 2 HD Netflix streams going on at the same time would be under 9.5 Mbps

E) If you need a higher cap you can either upgrade to Ultra which has a 500 GB cap or a business tier which doesn't have any cap.

F) Yeah Charter should have a higher caps since the current one has been in place for 3 years. Average usage has gone up in 3 years so the cap should go up too. That's just logical.

[HSI] Charter Monthly Bandwidth Limits

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 11:58:49 EDT

anon posted : Okay, 30MB connection allows for 250GBs per month. Charter bitches if you go over your limit and threatens cancellation of service. If i used the full 30-megs of allotted download speed (without regard to upload use) continuously, then I reach my "limit" of use in 2 hours and 22 minutes. Why hasn't Charter been sued for this practice where they advertise the HIGH speeds of their service, but then threaten you when you use the service even remotely to its potential? With the fast speed they advertise, offer, and sell, you can literally use the allowable amount of service for the month in a little over two hours! Yet, they are willing and happy to take your money for the service, so long as you don't use much of it. Any comments, people?