Comcast XFINITY → Re: My experience with Comcast bandwidth suspensio

That's what I thought. I couldn't have been the first. I flat out asked them (by the way their phone person was very courteous and I have zero problems with her) what I am paying for and she rattled off the 5 ips and increased bandwidth plus other items that all equate to a business type account including the name. I really never bothered to scan the fine print of their agreement and am sort of shocked to see that it is basically the same one as the consumer agreement which is subject to change on a daily or hourly basis at their sole discretion etc etc. blah blah...

But my question still stands. Is this legal? The restraint of trade implications are very real given the business reliance more and more on direct downloads of relatively big files. Is there some enterprising lawyer out there who might agree that by restraining business use (forget the false advertising or the corporate double talk which is mere childs play compared to the posible damages from lost business. I am not even slightly exaggeration when I say that the big software distributors are pushing huge dowonloads of their trials and full versions. A business who tried to cap its downloads against an invisible number (I have no idea what it is actually but I know its way under 60 gigs which has been mentioned) could actually do itself serious harm. Losing the only viable intenet connctions for even a small period could put some out of business which is not the reality we faced a few years ago. If you doubt what I am saying please go to the IBM developers web page. I believe there is about a terra-byte of trials and betas which are usually important to various software related businesses. (wonder what would happen if one downloaded a tribute off comcast... other than taking about a year it would be funny to read the letter)

Small business has just as much right a large corporate customers to the ever more vital online access etc... Can you hear the inspirational music in the background..?? Okay I'll be quiet..

If there is an enterprising lawyer out there who thinks there is something here I will be glad to take up a collection.

Also lets be real here. 2 , 3 or 4 mbps is like not going to break the bank on band with. The technology in the NEAR future coming from DSL and wireless and Fiber to the neighborhood will make theses speeds seem like caffeinated dialup. At one office I work with they are regularly downloading ISOs at gigabit speed and think nothing of it. 8 minutes for a cd is not unusual.

Last and I will stop I promise is this: It does seem sort of opportunistic that Comcast just started all this concurrent to the RIAA stuff. My point is that it is okay now to invade peoples privacy and assume INCORRECTLY OR NOT that they are doing "wrong" things and ride the current fear wave by bullying users into increasing their profit margin.

said by jsbthree:

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Small business has just as much right a large corporate customers to the ever more vital online access etc... Can you hear the inspirational music in the background..?? Okay I'll be quiet..

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If it's a business and it is critical* to have reliability on downloads, I'd advise a T-1 or fractured T-1. Cable Internet is a roll of the dice on reliability for a heavy business user.

*I mean really critical, not just convienent

Ha, on that you are correct. But still it should be clear one way or another. The old maxium about business being able to deal with everything but uncertainty holds true here. By the way I've had some very bad expeeriences with T1s.

said by jsbthree:

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But my question still stands. Is this legal? The restraint of trade implications are very real given the business reliance more and more on direct downloads of relatively big files.

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Sadly, I don't see how this is illegal. Ethical? Assuredly not. Deceptive? Perhaps, though it was listed in the TOS/AUP... doens't mean it isn't slimy. Technically, they provided you with everything you needed to see, in order to determine if their service met your business standards (keyword: technically), so I can't say its illegal, per se.

Just because the standard for business class service is higher than Comcast's offerings doens't mean its wrong. They're wrong FOR offering it as a corporate solution, though, if they are deluded enough to believe that a business won't use their service to the fullest.

I'm certainly no lawyer, but I don't think that you're approaching this from the right angle. It was all there in the contracts, figuratively speaking. Its how they present it that has the real issue. It certainly IS a solution for SOME businesses... just not ones that use the internet, it would seem =)

quote:

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(I have no idea what it is actually but I know its way under 60 gigs which has been mentioned)

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A: how do you know this and

B: no it is not