Comcast Capping Internet Usage

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber

September 3, 2008

Ouch. The latest news is bad news– another ISP bows down to the capping spree.

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.

“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.

Hm, I’d like to know about those customers, because I have been hearing the exact opposite, and overwhelmingly so, from the public. We want to pay for service, not time spent and especially not bandwidth used. Anything can eat up bandwidth– spam, popups, emails you get from other people… it’s hard to control.

I will say that Comcast is allowing users 250GB bandwidth per month. That’s a sizable amount, and the average computer user would be OK. But I don’t like the concept behind it, because the amount of bandwidth you personally use is not always in your control. We’ll see how this develops.