ComCasts Dirty Secret

[GhostShip]

When is an unlimited service not unlimited ?

http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/2007/04/comcast_silentl.html

Cable giant Comcast continues its practice of cutting off service -- often without warning -- when high-speed Internet customers exceed an unstated download limit. But while Comcast tries to stay mum about these terminations, its customers are making more and more noise to try to force the company to explain what its policies really are.

Earlier this year I wrote about a Comcast customer in Illinois (see "Comcast Has Its Limits") who was threatened with termination because of one month in which his main sin had been to download his MSDN subscription from Microsoft. Comcast never responded to that story, but ever since I've been hearing from others with similar experiences. But, in many cases, rather than being threatened they were simply cut off before they could even try to use less bandwidth.

wrote a reader from Massachusetts. "I use my webcam a lot to communicate with friends and family and have downloaded software and free music from the net. I received a phone call from a Comcast abuse department rep saying that they have been monitoring my bandwidth usage and would like me to 'limit my downloading', which I politely asked what is the cap or limit? The rep told me that there is no limit, to which I argued back that there had to be -- otherwise I would not be getting this phone call. He in turn explained that if I didn't stop, my service will be cut off for a year and this would be my first and only warning. Sure enough, within a few weeks my service was cut off. It's deceitful how they advertise their service with 'unlimited downloads' and 'faster than DSL.

With Comcast, in other words, it's not so much the amount of bandwidth you use as where you live. If you happen to reside in a city where Comcast has invested in its network infrastructure, you can download your MSDN subscriptions and hang out on YouTube all you want. But if Comcast has chosen not to make not make that investment where you live, it's cheaper for them to just cut off the top tier of bandwidth no matter how innocent their usage might be.

When a customer signs up for an unlimited service thats what they should receive, failing that any limits imposed must be clear and open so users can keep to their allotment, simply deleting users from the internet to hide the fact that comcast do not in reality offer what the folks paid for is the dirtiest trick I've see so far.

[Josh]

Yes there have been a lot of stories on this. I haven't hit the cap yet and a few months I have gone to at least 350GB. So yea, I will let you know if I ever do get cut off. lol

[GhostShip]

As the article mentions Josh it really depends on where you are, if your in an area of high infrastructural investment then they dont atually care, should you live in an area that they dont feel worthy of upgrading the old equipment its very likely you wouldnt be here to tell us.