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Comcast Usage Meter Keeps Expanding
So what happens if you cross the 250 GB limit?

Last week we noted that after a slow start and staggered launch in the Northwest, Comcast had quickly ramped up deployment of their usage meter, expanding its availability to users across 25 states. Today, Comcast told us that deployment continued with the launch of the meter in the Bay Area. "It may take a day or two to roll out to every customer, but as soon as it is available customers will receive an email notification with a link and instructions on where to view their usage meter in the account information area of .net," Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas tells Broadband Reports.

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After years (see our story from 2003) of our users complaining about Comcast kicking people off the network for "excessive usage" without actually defining excessive -- Comcast implemented a 250 GB cap for all subscribers in October of 2008. In December of 2009 Comcast finally released their usage meter, which allows users to track their consumption via the Comcast portal. Though Comcast hired an independent firm to test the meter's accuracy, Comcast says they have no plans to implement metered billing.

In addition to the cap, Comcast last year deployed a new network management system that temporarily de-prioritizes traffic for very heavy users on congested nodes. The changes arose after Comcast's run in with the FCC and Florida's Attorney General about the carrier's tendency to be unclear (or in a few cases outright lie) about the imposed limitations of their network -- and their now defunct practice of using packet forgery to throttle upstream P2P bandwidth for all users, 24/7.

One thing we're not seeing in the broad coverage of the meter's expansion today is what happens if you cross it. While it's true that only a minor number of Comcast users are ever going to breach it, users in our forums who have gone over usually get one warning, and subsequent warnings may result in an account suspension of up to a year. However, some users say they've crossed the cap and not received a call -- so your mileage may vary.