Comments on: It’s Official, Comcast to Have 250GB Data Cap Starting Oct 1st

By: Comcast’s Unlimited Usage Really Means 250GB p/mo

Comcast’s Unlimited Usage Really Means 250GB p/mo — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:06:58 +0000

[...] mentioned back in late 2008 how Comcast announced it was going to amend its Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and [...]

By: Comcast Plans National Data Caps After “Short” Local Test

Comcast Plans National Data Caps After “Short” Local Test — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:14:45 +0000

[...] to establish a specific monthly data usage threshold of 250 GB/month for residential customers last October, but had not begun testing out a formal data usage meter for them to monitor until [...]

By: ISPs Push for Data Caps While Profits Soar, Costs Decline

ISPs Push for Data Caps While Profits Soar, Costs Decline — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:29:36 +0000

[...] then announced a systemwide data cap last August, but at 250GB customers could still download 312 800MB XVID [...]

By: manakazero

manakazero — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Wow Comcast just opened a great marketing opportunity for its competitors. Want truly unlimited internet service? Don’t choose Comcast!

By: soulxtc

soulxtc — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

@man
Never thought of it that way….I wonder what the trade off will beI mean people it will affect vs potential customers lost….it may only affect say 10000 heavy users at most(?) but may turn off hundreds of thousands if not millions when they’re making a final choice between ISPs.

By: open_universe

open_universe — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

IMHO Comcast will backpedal soon enough. If you have a NetFlix account and a family of four who watch movies I can easily see that cap being hit. And yes watch for savvy competitors to pounce on this marketing misstep BUT ONLY the heavy hitters with the $$$$ to build enough infrastructure to support all that traffic.

By: Wonx2150

Wonx2150 — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

250gb a month isn’t bad. I guess its a step down from unlimited but living in Australia we would dream about that kinda thing…… I’m on 10gb a month (5 day 5 night) and that costs 40 bucks a month (not including general phone or line rental) and that’s only 256kb. Unlimited here is like 100+ a month and then you still often don’t include line rental..

By: iamyour41

iamyour41 — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

I can see Verizon Fios ripping this apart. They can easily support the traffic use on their networks. Also I think it will piss off a lot of legal download websites. It will make downloading movies from Netflix or using Napster or any legal large media streaming websites less appealing knowing that you only have so much you can use your internet. Also I think that Comcast will lower their caps over time because they know that they have a strangle hold on most of the internet in their area. There are no good second options. Once internet goes completely wireless things will be different. It would be nice if Fios was offered in all of the states as widely as cable. I would switch immediately.

By: soulxtc

soulxtc — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

@Wonx2150
OMG sorry to hear that….YUCK

I pay $45 p/mo for 1.8 MB/s DL + 380 kB/S UL with NO cap……..

By: Gamer8585

Gamer8585 — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

250GB/month isn’t all that bad for most people. That is usually an entire harddrive worth of stuff. Seriously if you use more than 250GB a month you really need to slow down. Now such a cap may have to be raised in the future (since the amount of data people expect to consume will continually rise) but there should be a simple script made to adjust for the inflation annually (a common sense kind of thing so you know Comcast is neurologically incapable of it…).

While this is the most reasonable compromise for Comcast and their customers at this time it will only help if they are reinvesting their profits into their network. Bandwidth expectations are only going to rise so they better get their network prepared to handle it. If they can’t then a FiOS start up (or an existing FiOS company) will come in a scoop all their customers up.

Anyway at least its better than Time Warners piece of shit cap (5GB/mo. for the low end service and 40GB/mo. for the high end service IIRC) .