RSSComcast will cut back some customers' speeds after FCC order
By Ed Oswald | Published August 21, 2008, 12:26 PM
Just one day after the Federal Communications Commission released its official opinion and order regarding the cable provider's throttling practices, Comcast has changed its ways.
Called Fair Share, the service's new protocol will slow down the connection speeds of Comcast's most bandwidth-heavy users for periods of up to 20 minutes. It will be application-agnostic, and will be triggered by the customer's overall use of bandwidth.
While at first it may sound like the move goes totally against the FCC's order to stop throttling, in reality it matches with the agency's position on the cable company's rights to manage its network within reason.
FCC commissioners gave Comcast 30 days to detail its previous practices and how they were planning to change them. From the look of Wednesday's announcement, at least one of those requirements has been satisfied.
"Comcast could cap the average users' capacity and then charge the most aggressive users overage fees," the FCC said in its ruling (PDF available here). "Or Comcast could throttle back the connection speeds of high capacity users."
It seems the agency was more concerned about discriminatory practices when choosing what to throttle: Comcast was indeed found to be interfering with the traffic of specific applications, most notably BitTorrent.
"Subscribers should be able to go where they want, when they want, and generally use the Internet in any legal means," FCC spokesperson Robert Kenny told BetaNews. "When providers engage in practices truly designed to manage congestion, not cripple a potential competitive threat, they should not be afraid to disclose their practices to consumers."
Whether or not to apply the caps will be decided in real-time, the company's online services chief Mitch Bowling told Bloomberg News. But Comcast's spokespeople were quick to clear up that the moves were not a reaction to the ruling itself.
Comcast spokesperson Charlie Douglas told BetaNews that the company had already been working with BitTorrent and others on protocol agnostic bandwidth management since at least March of this year, so viewing Fair Share as a reaction to the FCC's order would be inaccurate. He added that Fair Share itself had been in testing for almost three months in two markets in Chambersburg, Pa. and Warrington, Va.
In addition to the caps, heavy users could also be susceptible to additional charges, although the company has not decided whether or not to implement such a plan. Time Warner is already testing such an option in its Beaumont, Texas market.
Those who brought the original complaint to the FCC's attention lauded the decision as validation that the agency does have the authority to protect the 'open Internet.'
"This order marks a major milestone in Internet policy," Free Press policy director Ben Scott said. "For years, the FCC declared that it would take action against any Internet service provider caught violating the online rights guaranteed by the agency. Today, the commission has delivered on that promise."
This goes to all Comcast costumers, the only way to get back at comcast is by creating a union, and at the moment a union member is cancel or speed reduced all member cancel at the same time. just imagine hundreds or even thousands of members gone...
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|Just a side note, I am NOT a comcast user but live in a shared residential home. there are three computers here, one user plays Final fantasy every day when not working or sleeping for quite some time, one plays world or warcraft every day when not sleeping or working, and the third has a net monitor on a horse website that shows streaming real time video of up to 20 horses per page - just the last I am quite sure would exceed the 2g a month, but for arguement's sake, lets not include it as most people dont do that type of thing.
There are a LOT of online game players out there who spend a lot of time playing their favorite online game(s). I am QUITE sure that just a single pc over a month of "normal" play (for most game players) would be at least quadruple of the 2g limit.
My point is that throttling sucks. period. if they are so worried about net usage, then sell tiers of access, their 2 g for the current price or a bit lower, a 10 g for a higher price, and a truly unlimited for a much higher price. They can use the extra revenue to both line their pockets as well as upgrade their equipment.
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|It's amazing to me that some of you assume that a person chooses Comcast over other options and then complains. There are parts of the country, neighborhoods like mine, where cable is the only option unless I want to go back to dial-up. In my area, Comcast has a monopoly. This isn't true just a mile up the road. There are some nice advantages to living out in the country, but choice in internet providers isn't one of them. Please don't assume that everyone who chooses to use Comcast does so willingly and out of stupidity. Though some of you can't imagine it, there are parts of my state where dial-up is the *only* option. There is no cable, no DSL, no Fios. If Comcast brings high-speed access to those areas, people will go for it, just like I did.
I'm not happy about this ruling because I work from home and do voice conferencing through Skype. That's got to take up some serious bandwidth. On a practical level, what can a person in my situation do? Bribe a local technician with brownies? Form a picket line outside a Comcast building? Start calling AT&T every hour to ask when they'll get DSL out here? Or maybe sneak into an office building and use their t1?
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|*laughing*
I am sorry, but even if that is the case...
Internet access is a choice. Have it, or not.
It's not a right.
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|And this is when you buy a motorola sb5100 or 5101, modify it, load hacked firmware onto it, and get 30+ mbit down and 4mbit up. Oh well comcast, there are always people willing to take you on. :)
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|...and then get blacklisted and can't get internet access *anywhere*.
Good luck with that!
*laughing*
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|I just hope that the cable companies are forced to disclose that usage is monitored and additional fees can be applied on their advertising.
I'm waiting for Fios. Since I have underground wires - can't get it - YET. I hope.
http://afewtips.com
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|While you guys are complaining just think about all of those (like me) that only have satellite broadband available to them. I mean seriously download over say around 300MB in a 24 hours and your connection will be slower than a turd after an all you can eat nacho buffet for the next 24 hours.
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|I don't know what satellite internet service you use, but Hughes (the biggest USA provider) indicates in their terms of service that downloading under 50MB of data can potentially cause your internet connection to get throttled to 56K dial up speeds.
Hughes doesn't provide specific details as far as how much you have to download before you get throttled. The terms of service simply state that if you download too much data at one time your download speeds will slow to a crawl.
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|This is exactly what we don't want of the internet. Now its called Comcast. If congestion is the issue, then sell a lower bandwidth to your customers.
Comcast is advertising about X mbps,and if you actually use that, you get throttled. Ha Ha thats so funny! I am using only what was advertised and what I am paying for - nothing more!
It's not a matter of being a bandwidth hog, it's a matter of getting what you pay for - Just because you're content to pay X/month for high speeds a fraction of the time doesn't mean that people such as myself are content to not make full use of the resource we pay for.
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|You are confusing bandwidth and throughput.
Bandwidth is the amount of data.
Throughput is the speed.
They can cap your bandwidth @ 2GB and your throughput at 6mbps.
You'll get 6mbps, most of the time (the advertising says "up to".
I am using only what was advertised and what I am paying for - nothing more!
They never advertised unlimited bandwidth. :)
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|Wrong.
Bandwidth is the max speed (e.g. 6mbps).
Throughput is what you are actually getting (e.g. 20KBps).
They do advertise a bandwidth, which is 'up to' some speed.
Comcast never advertised a cap on usage. They just kill my connection.
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|Does anyone know of a meter that I can use to see my usage?
I have 2 laptops one for me and one for my wife. 3 media center pc's with netflix installed, and 1 media server. On my pc's I use vpn for work in the evenings, netflix on 3 media pc's, but I also have webguide 4 to stream from my media center to my pc at work.
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|some firewalls have a bandwidth chart in them so you can see how much your internet connection is being utilized. I use pfSense and can get a nice graph history to see when and by how much I utilized my connection.
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|'round these parts, the "average" user is one who gets a bundle deal, and rarely turns their PCs on - I'm sure the same is bringing down the average for comcast as well.
By far, their averages do not constitute the users who want and pay extra for high-speed internet for the purpose of having high-speed access to large files - in fact, I put a bandwidth monitor on the browser of the family PC and the browser alone used more than 1G just on page data (no downloads aside from embedded streams.)
Anyone even seen any recent game demos that weigh in under 1G lately?
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|Look, anyone dumb enough to subscribe to the overpriced and underserved cable as their ISP deserves this.
And what is funny is that so many will continue to pay almost 3 times what others do and simply choose to complain about the service!
"Gee,it hurts as I keep hitting my hand with this hammer! Somebody do something!"
Darwin is alive and well...
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|2 gb/month. I know more than a few people who run messengers, online games and other stuff 24/7. I bet that would add up to at least 1gb by itself.
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|Since when did the FCC "protect the open...anything?" I mean seriously, these are not the good guys. This is like spy vs spy, Only we get screwed either way. It's not a good thing when the FCC begins consolidating more power over the internet...but then again, although we have a choice in our ISP...they will all do this if someone does not keep them in check...it's a catch 22.
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|Check out what the pinheads consider Excessive Use!!
What is excessive use?
Excessive use means data usage that is not characteristic of a typical residential user of the service as determined by Comcast. Based on Comcast's current policies, here are a few examples of activities any one of which represents excessive use in one month:
Sending 20,000 high-resolution photos,
Sending 40 million emails;
Downloading 50,000 songs; or
Viewing 8,000 movie trailers.
What idiots!NO ONE could possibly do this in a month, especially on THEIR network! FIOS maybe.
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|OBVIOUSLY this is what they're talking about. SOME people HAVE dl that much or more, and they're sick of it!
I've not had the misfortune of having them as my service provider, but I can say that there are many-a-cable-providers that are just as sh**ty.
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|Sending 40 million emails;
NO ONE could possibly do this in a month,
Ever heard of SPAM?
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|People who are paying for unlimited internet have the right to download as much as they want. It doesn't matter if they download 100 trillion songs or videos in one month somehow. If Comcast isn't going to offer truly unlimited internet service like Verizon and Qwest do for both DSL and fiber optics then they need to stop falsely advertising unlimited internet like they falsely advertise having a true fiber optic network.
If Comcast has to implement some sort of bandwith throttling to provide high speed internet to all of its customers then obviously fiber to the curb isn't nearly as good as fiber to the home.
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|This is just as bad as Hughes satellite internet service.
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|Comcast considers 2GB per month as "normal or typical use".
http://www.comcast.com/C...FaqDetails.ashx?Id=4566
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|"What is normal or typical use?
Data usage changes over time as Comcast's customers use the Internet and the services and applications available for it. Currently, the median data usage by Comcast High-Speed Internet customers is approximately 2GB each month. This reflects typical residential use of the service for purposes such as sending and receiving e-mail, surfing the Internet, and watching streaming video. "
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|haha! Honestly?
Good luck installing Linux, guys!
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|no more downloading and redownloading of programs either...
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|Well, let's see...no more downloading a new distro or two in the same month that I do Windows Updates and download a newer JavaVM and antivirus updates, and program updates, on my desktop, my laptop and my wife's laptop...and I'll have to blacklist anyone who also sends me links to videos and pictures or music. I read the US is in last place among developed countries for internet speed...Now, instead of improving our internet speeds to that of those countries in the top ten, maybe we'll move to last place, minus a little more. Who needs program updates, anyway, my backup program was working just fine two days ago, before I downloaded the update...
On a side note, I wonder if that 2 gig includes owned machines sending spam? If so, perhaps we'll see a slight reduction in spam?
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|Damn Small Linux may make a comeback?
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|Sorry but I used more than that today.
Actually, I used 2GB just doing work from home and most of it was nonactive work.
Non-work usage was closer to 6GB.
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|*laughs*
Well, there you have it.
FCC fixed it for you, see? Now, instead of just P2P throttling, you have non-discriminatory throttling of *anything* without warning.
Happy now, guys? Great job!
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|Comcast has way oversold its access in my neighborhood (college campus), so that makes me even less likely to pay their insane prices.
It would have been nice if the FCC had specified that Comcast must clearly declare its capping policies instead of letting it get away with throttling on a whim. Some kind of warning to lighten up would be user-friendly as well.
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|Just as long as they've ****ed you over :)
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|LOL.
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|Heh
Comcast was happy to leave it at P2P. Everyone cried to the FCC, and now it's protocol agnostic.
Nothing wrong with complaining, but getting the FCC involved only made things worse. ...as per usual when government starts regulating an industry.
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|Will Comcast also "throttle back" the amount they bill for the "Unlimited" service during the time the user is restricted?
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|Of course they will... [smiles]
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|oh yes comcast will defenently do that, and if be reimburse you mean additional hidden fee than you will be very pleased.
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|They'll probably just charge you a throttling fee for each time they have to do it.
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|Unlimited in terms of what, exactly?
Speed? Bandwidth? Connection times? All of the above? And then some?
Didn't read the ToS or the fine print, didja?
Sucker.
I am so tired of people who hear the word "unlimited", assume it applies to "everything", and then sit here whining about it when reality catches up with them.
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|You forgot the processing fee for the throttling fee.
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|Conversely - I'm tired of false advertising and the strategies they use to hide the fact they present only blatant lies. Saying something is unlimited and then only clarifying it once you are able to access a ToS is bloody ridiculous.
There is no excuse for them to not be up front about their practices - before you become a victi... er, customer. It's just too bad there isn't honest competition for in home access these days, as shoddy advertising practices around ISPs would then become a thing of the past, or the shoddy companies would.
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|And the Universal Throttling Fee that is added as well.
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|Well guess that means I will listen to music off my mp3 player after I dl it to my device and not play any games over xbox live arcade... sucks. but thats the breaks I guess. They get us used to high speed internet and then take it away from us. Well at least it will only be 20 minutes at a time.
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|Does streaming content over your own network count as bandwidth usage? Because that would totally suck if I had to give up using my network to stream tv programming from my Media Center PC
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|False advertising?
Prove it.
Saying something is unlimited and then only clarifying it once you are able to access a ToS is bloody ridiculous.
Actually watch one of those commercials one of these days. See the fine print at the bottom?
BTW: The ToS is available to anyone...prior to signing up. In fact, one should never sign up until *After* reading hte ToS, otherwise, how would you know what you were getting? A ToS is basically a, "This is what we will do and what we expect you to do".
There is no excuse for them to not be up front about their practices
Again...the ToS is available to anyone...prior to signing up. Don't want to read it? Fine, just don't whine when they enforce it.
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|Yup, we'll provide you with great speed but you better not use it!
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