Over at The Consumerist, filed under Leaks, is news that the download limit is 200 GB, but it really only applies where the network isn’t optimal (their exact wording). Places where the network hardware is old, or there is too much traffic, will enforce the limits. In other places, the limit will not apply.

The examples are the San Francisco Bay Area, where it will apply, and Philadelphia, where apparently either new hardware is in place, or everyone is busy watching terrestrial broadcast television.

There is apparently a system ready to be put into effect that will pop up on a computer screen with a message stating the limit has been reached, and would the customer like to upgrade their plan. The powers that be are waiting for another ISP to put caps in place, so that Comcast will not be the first to do it - or - until someone gets a foolproof way to deploy it without angering customers - whichever happens first.

CEO Brian Roberts is said to have seen a demo and given his thumbs up…

If the plan goes into effect, it sure won’t be a Comcastic day for the customers!

Apparently no one has told these dim bulbs that the product that is offered is too expensive to begin with, and that the long term solution had better be a repair or replacement of that old and underpowered equipment, so that the needs of the users can be accommodated - or else put the caps in place and reduce the pricing. The people who run this company seem to forget they are in the sales business, and that one of the first tenets of sales is how customer dissatisfaction will become public knowledge 15 times more often than customer happiness.

The original idea of one-size-fits-all pricing was supposed to lure almost everyone to get on the internet, and to provide money to build it out so that everyone would have quality service.

Newsflash to cable providers : It has not happened yet!

Memory in the cable business is apparently very short. This company simply doesn’t remember what happened to Adelphia, and is not aware that Verizon is pulling fiber optic cable as fast and furiously as it possibly can. While that is happening Verizon is signing up as many as it can to prevailing pricing plans for life, with no ups, no extras. Who’s zoomin’ who here? (Obviously, Verizon knows it is getting more than enough money at current pricing to handle traffic for quite some time.)

If the White Spaces Coalition has its way, there will be yet another way for the public to connect to the internet at speeds above 56kbps. This will mean more competition to a service that is no deal to begin with, and wants to make the situation for the customer worse.

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Tags: comcast, internet service provider, download limits, unlimited accounts, verizon, competition, white spaces coalition, the consumerist