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Solve : Comcast to intro bandwidth use tracker in January? |
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Answer» Comcast will soon provide its subscribers with a tool to MONITOR how close they are to the 250GB cap imposed by the Internet service provider at the end of August. The online bandwidth meter will be available on January 5th, according to an ANONYMOUS tip, and will have a three-hour delay as opposed to real-time monitoring. The meter will retain up to three months of usage records and will allow users to monitor multiple MAC addresses. LinkI have comcast and it's (almost) the only service available in the entire Southern Maryland area, unless you use wireless. Everyone has it, however no one understands just what the bandwidth issue really is and what it will mean to us. Can you give me a little more information? Thank you, SheilaThe bandwidth "issue" according to Comcast is that they're getting stressed with users using more with more multimedia and especially P2P applications. So they're limiting all of the users to a monthly quota to help reduce overall usage. What this means to you and the Internet? COULD be a lot actually, could definately reduce INNOVATION on the Internet with new programs such as Internet TV, online movie sites, and other bandwidth intensive sites. Could lead to higher costs to the consumer and/or loss of Internet if they exceed their limits. Could be the start of lower and lower bandwidth limits causing users to have to pay higher costs so they can be in a bracket of bandwidth. All assumptions of course because I can't see into the future. However, the Internet was *not* created for this type of structured bandwidth usage payment planning. I understand the ISP's concern but I strongly believe this issue could be resolved by limiting the abusers and not all consumers. This is the information that Comcast sent me. (below) I would really like to know if what they say about it being over the amount most would need, is correct, or just some "Don't worry" thing they are trying to sell me. We are online 24 hours a day. There are 2 of us, one in the day, one at night. Will this make a difference. Is this enough for just about anyone? I use forums, download photos, watch small clips like the ones on youtube, use e-mail, I did watch my first movie last week, I ebay a lot, use online shopping, and other short visits, like my finance links, and that's about it. However I am on for at least 18 hours a day myself, and my husband the rest. This is what they say about it. (not all of it) but most. Tell me what you think. Thank you, Sheila In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may DEGRADE the online experience of other customers. 250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it's very likely that your monthly data usage doesn't even come close to that amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following: * Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email); * Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or * Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie). And online gamers should know that even the heaviest multi- or single-player gaming activity would not typically come close to this threshold over the course of a month. I forgot to mention that I have had a lot of problems with parts of comcast not working or something. Pages freeze up sometimes, or take forever to finish downloading. They did notify us that this may happen for a while, while they are upgrading. They have not upgraded my e-mail yet, and they have done everyone elses I know, but I do have tons and tons of e-mail saved. In the process of trying to save it now. That's about it. Let me know what you think of the above information from Comcast, and what I wrote here too. Thanks you, Sheila |
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