IT Professionals

Comcast Coming Clean?

Posted by on Sep 1, 2008 | 3 Comments

Hearing news that Comcast has finally opted to be straight forward with their customers regarding actual bandwidth usage caps demonstrates a reality check on the part of the US ISP. Users such as myself honestly did not mind Comcast setting up limits, so long as we understood clearly what those limits entailed.

For me, having Comcast set forth usage limits enables me as a consumer to better decided which ISP package makes sense for my needs. In my case, clearly FiOS will be where I am headed as I am simply not seeing clear value for moving up to Comcast business class.  While each area is understandably different, the location I live in presents absolultely nothing even close the promised speed or consistancy seen on TV. A few extra seconds of “PowerBoost” only to taper down due to an obviously overloaded network is simply not going to meet with my needs, despite being just fine for most people I suppose.

For $70, I can get 20 up and down for bandwidth speeds plus research has demonstrated to me that FiOS is generally providing stable speeds as it has not been overbuilt to the point I have see with cable in my area. So Comcast is limiting their users? Fair enough, I am sure it will happen to FiOS as well…eventually. But Comcast needs to couple these limits with less emphasis on marketing lingo such as “PowerBoost” which has been proven on numerous occasions to be more about short speed bursts than anything of real value. In the end, I believe cable Internet companies will need to triple their expansion efforts as living in two completely sides of my home state indicates to me that their bandwidth lag goes far beyond issues with one or two regional routers. Am I wrong?

  • http://www.bytehead.org/blog/ Bryan Price

    The day after Comcast anounced this, the Florida’s Attorney General fined Comcast $150,000 for cutting three people off by stating that they had exceeded bandwidth limitations, but without telling anybody what those limitations are, either before OR after.

    In other words, Comcast had no choice but to announce what the cap is. And the language they use (If a customer uses > 250 GB AND is one of the top users…, he/she MAY be contacted.) makes my head explode.

  • mike

    I think these limits are B.S. and this is from someone who probably will never reach their imposed limits. My problem is that THEY offer a product and a customer pays for it. At no time is there discussion about limits at least when we signed up with them.

    If their network is overloaded then they had better start beefing it up again because demand is only going to increase as the years go on and it’s not necessarily because specific users are downloading large amounts of data.

    It’s ridiculous to think a company can limit its customers in this way because of the shortfall of their system. Here’s a thought–build for the future instead of just dropping cable now to meet the demands of today.

    This is why there needs to be more competition in the marketplace instead of these damn monopolies which are in place. Everyone complains of Microsoft and their hold on the market–what about the ISPs or Utility companies? When was the last time we ever had a choice in those areas?

    In my area it’s really either Comcast or Verizon with satellite a distant 3rd….who else can we use when there are NO other ISPs available….hmm…sure seems like a monopoly to me and forces customers to sit back and take it.

    Oh well…thankfully, our Internet needs are basic in terms of bandwidth…still..not very customer friendly…

    Peace!

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