Comcast to Place Limits on Broadband Usage

[rockymtnhigh]

The Associated Press is reporting that Comcast has announced a monthly cap on bandwidth for residential users at 250GB per month.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Updated: 6:10 a.m.
Text size: increase text sizedecrease text size
Comcast to set official limit on Internet use to deter bandwidth hogs

By Associated Press
6:10 AM CDT, August 29, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) _ Comcast Corp., the nation's second-largest Internet service provider, Thursday said it would set an official limit on the amount of data subscribers can download and upload each month.

On Oct. 1, the cable company will update its user agreement to say that users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of traffic per month, the company announced on its Web site.

Comcast has already reserved the right to cut off subscribers who use too much bandwidth each month, without specifying exactly what constitutes excessive use.

"We've listened to feedback from our customers who asked that we provide a specific threshold for data usage and this would help them understand the amount of usage that would qualify as excessive," the company said in a statement on its Web site.

Customers who go over the limit are contacted by the company and asked to curb their usage.

"We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily," the company said.

snip...

For the full story see:
Comcast to set official limit on Internet use to deter bandwidth hogs -- chicagotribune.com

[jgantert]

Thank goodness for FiOS!!!

I guess no Roku box for Comcast customers!

[Andrewwski]

Pretty ridiculous, although I don't see many people that would use up 250 gb.

[capman]

just think hd digital downloads. You'd use up 250 in no time. (depending on how many you download)

[HCI]

Pretty ridiculous, although I don't see many people that would use up 250 gb.

But they will no doubt complain about having a limit non the less.

[grohgreg]

Comcast was in the news about this last year too, when they started capping individual customers on a worst case basis. The ensuing hue and cry (about no specific limits in the subscriber agreement) is what pushed the issue public, but Comcast continued to throttle major abusers anyway. This AP news article is little more than confirmation that Comcast lawyers have officially updated the Subscriber Agreement to actually specify usage limits (effective 01 Oct). I believe the amended agreement may contain more specifics about protocol filtering as well.

//greg//

[rockymtnhigh]

I realized, after I posted this,that it was also being discussed in the Computers and Gadget section...