bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
1 edit | Speakeasy "we don't cap" bandwidth cap. They are now capping
FYI:
Looks like Speakeasy is clamping down (severely) on bandwidth usage. I just got off the phone and discovered that Speakeasy is looking at a 100 gig/month "no cap" cap. They were *very* reluctant to admit it, but it looks like a new policy recently "re-implemented."
Very strange. I contacted Covad, and they indicated that even though Speakeasy resells Covad DSL, Covad has no caps.
I was doing a lot of HD video watching via the PS3, streaming a lot of Netflix and Hulu, and generally moving all my media access to the web.
I'm very confused -- and I asked if this means I should move on to another DSL service. There was a *long* pause -- and then the speakeasy tech (who knew nothing about HD or streaming or Netflix streaming) indicated only that Speakeasy is attempting to monitor their usage in a different way from now on.
So I'm switching to Covad -- at least for a year. We'll see.
I've been with Speakeasy for eight years. Very troubling. |
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bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
| Re: Speakeasy "we don't cap" bandwidth cap. Are they serious?
BTW -- I'm not opposed to caps in theory.
But if Comcast is capping at 250 gigs -- which seems more than reasonable -- I'm confused as to why Speakeasy would cap so much lower -- especially since I'm paying so much $$$ for basic Speakeasy service.
Is this the end of Speakeasy DSL?
Seems like it. |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| reply to bobbytuck
There has been mentions in this forum about a non-written cap and being listed as 'reasonable usage'.
Not all that surprised they would cap - I think it will be standard practice in less than 2 years for the vast majority of ISP's.
They could be implementing it to see how many folks go over and see form there if they want/need to change their cap.
I know I don't come close to the current 'cap' so I am not too worried about it.
--
Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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disco
Tonic
Premium
join:2002-01-19
Seattle, WA
clubs: | reply to bobbytuck
What service do you have with them? I haven't heard a thing and used over 750GB last month. Now I am getting worried. Perhaps this is only for their residential tiers? I think my ADSL2 account is considered a business one. |
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bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
4 edits | 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? |
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disco
Tonic
Premium
join:2002-01-19
Seattle, WA
clubs:
| reply to bobbytuck
Yeah, that's pretty ambiguous. You would think with the economy the way it is and with home users flocking to cheaper cable/fiber services, Speakeasy would want to keep every customer they can. Certainly threatening users and imposing these "caps" without any warning isn't going to do it. If I hear a word about my usage, I will definitely jump ship immediately. Right now I pay $180/month for 15/1 ADSL2. Comcast offers 50/10 for $130 or 30/5 for $70. The only reason I'm with speakeasy is for the reliability & so that I didn't have to get yelled at about my bandwidth usage. If they really are imposing a 100gb/month cap, there's no reason for me to stick with them.
A fraction of the speed and less than 1/2 the bandwidth for more than double the price? I think not. |
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kamm
join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
 ·T-Mobile US
| reply to bobbytuck
Re: Speakeasy "we don't cap" bandwidth cap. They are now capping
This is NONSENSE. They never capped us nor anyone I ever knew/referred to them.
Secondly anyone seriously thinks "caps will be standard in 2 years" needs to get his head checked - mark my words: CAPS WILL DIE VERY-VERY SOON, especially when the only interested people are the cable corps because they are not satisfied with their 1500-2000% profit markup on bandwidth.
FYI: TWC made billions in this business, it's just greed, nothing else so no, caps are not normal, they are ABnormal and THE&Y WON'T BE STANDARD EVER.
--
[BQUOTE=[user=bicker]]Waaaa waaaa waaaa. You just want what you want and don't care to factor in what is right or true. Your perspectives are un-American, and deserve far more ridicule than I'm prepared to pile on them.
[/BQUOTE] |
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bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
3 edits | reply to bobbytuck
Well, the whole thing is defintely peculiar. I'm now receiving follow-up calls from a Speakeasy tech who's letting me know that I will be monitored on a week to week basis and that while there's no caps, "we'll just take it one week at a time."
It's very annoying -- and very peculiar because my usage is after hours and not particularly heavy -- especially in light of folks who are saying they download quite a bit more than 160gigs a month and have never gotten a call.
What I'm curious about if there might be a technical reason for Speakeasy to zero in on me. Would my nearness to Chicago have anything to do with a desire to conserve all bandwidth on Speakeasy's part?
I'm not following the logic here. Could I be on a node where there might be an issue and instead of fixing the issue they're forcing customers to cut drastically down on bandwidth? Is this a business decision to transition from functioning as an ISP to functioning as a VOIP provider? I assume bandwidth is bandwidth -- but I'm wondering if this is not the case.
What's particularly galling is that I'm doing no torrents whatsoever. I've made a conscious effort to switch to streaming and HD downloads -- doing what I assumed one is supposed to do. So this whole thing has me scratching my head. It's quite unpleasant -- almost as though they're afraid to put the bandwidth cap in their TOS but are not afraid to confront a customer privately. |
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kamm
join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
·T-Mobile US
| said by bobbytuck  :I'm not following the logic here. Could I be on a node where there might be an issue and instead of fixing the issue they're forcing customers to cut drastically down on bandwidth? Is this a business decision to transition from functioning as an ISP to functioning as a VOIP provider? I assume bandwidth is bandwidth -- but I'm wondering if this is not the case. We had an issue few years back when I had to push them a bit to admit the backhaul we were running through at the time was overloaded - then I requested a transfer and 24 hours later we were on another backhaul, running fine without any problem.
So the answer is yes, you can be easily restricted by your backhaul's utilization problem(s).
--
[BQUOTE=[user=bicker]]Waaaa waaaa waaaa. You just want what you want and don't care to factor in what is right or true. Your perspectives are un-American, and deserve far more ridicule than I'm prepared to pile on them.
[/BQUOTE] |
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bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
1 edit | reply to bobbytuck
So I cancelled Speakeasy.
I expected the rep to say something -- or at least figure out a way to work it through so that I'd stay on -- but he seemed not to care.
"I don't blame you," he said, when I explained why I was about to cancel.
"I don't see anything about this in the TOS," he said. "It's expensive for a 100 gigs a month. Makes sense to cancel. You're paying more than a $1 gig."
So that was that.
How bizarre. |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | Not all that strange - they seem to be wanting to do less residential and more business and voip. |
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bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
1 edit | reply to bobbytuck
Agreed -- but why not play it straight? Why not simply tell the users that this is the case -- and ask that the user either buy a higher tier of bandwidth or ask the user to move on?
What's bizarre isn't the shift away from residential. What's bizarre is the sneaky, uninformed way that they're doing it. Why not publicize the caps and put everybody -- myself included on notice? Let folks know, okay, 100 gigs is the new cap.
If you don't want to pay $130/mo for 100 gigs, then you can do the math and move on. |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| I can only guess that they don't want a sudden mass exodus that might cause people who would not have left prior to the changes, to leave with everyone else.
Don't know if a tiny minority use more than 100 gigs and for that reason they see an announcement scaring other folks away. |
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cmarrero
join:2002-01-29
Newark, NJ
 ·Optimum Online
| reply to bobbytuck
WOW!
This will suck if it is true I just got and 32" LCD and a Popcorn Hour unit. I been watching shows on the popcorn hour via playon media server and Hulu.
Guess I will need to ask SE because if that is the case I may be forced to move to OOL Business. |
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cmarrero
join:2002-01-29
Newark, NJ
·Optimum Online
| reply to bobbytuck
I open a ticket with SE per SE Rep:
We have made a decision not to cap, we prefer to manage our networks and if necessary, will ask individuals to modify their usage if it negatively affects Speakeasy's core equipment, overall network performance, or other users' services.
Thanks!
John Zimmerman
Business Support Representative
Speakeasy
Direct > 800 556 5829 ? Fax > 206 728 1500
Email > johnzimm@speakeasy.net ? Web > www.speakeasy.net
Voice ? Data ? Managed Services |
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bobbytuck
join:2009-04-07
Chicago, IL
| reply to bobbytuck
The problem is that SE will ask you to use less than 30 gigs a week. That's the no-cap cap.
I'm not sure I follow this. If there's no cap, then why is SE concerned?
At any rate, I gave up. They were calling me every other day with "courtesy check-ins."
It was annoying as hell. I'd come home at 5pm and find a call on my voicemail with a "check-in" from a SE rep who was updating me on my bandwidth usage for the week.
Enough. I didn't need that -- especially when -- as I say -- above I was streaming legit, legal video from Netflix and Hulu -- and downloading various Ubuntu distros for my work. |
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