Get it while you can

[pickenpieces]

Comcast to limit customers broadband usage

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, said on Thursday it will cap customers Internet usage starting October 1, in a bid to ensure the best service for the vast majority of its subscribers.

Comcast said it was setting a monthly data usage threshold of 250 gigabytes per account for all residential high-speed Internet customers, or the equivalent of 50 million e-mails or 124 standard-definition movies.

If a customer exceeds more than 250 GB and is one of the heaviest data users who consume the most data on our high-speed Internet service, he or she may receive a call from Comcasts Customer Security Assurance (CSA) group to notify them of excessive use, according to the companys updated Frequently Asked Questions on Excessive Use.

Customers who top 250 GB in a month twice in a six-month timeframe could have service terminated for a year.

Comcast said up to 99 percent of its 14 million Internet subscribers would not be affected by the new threshold, which it said would help ensure the quality of Internet delivery is not degraded by a minority of heavy users.

U.S. Internet subscribers are typically not aware of any limit on their Internet usage once they sign up to pay a flat monthly fee to their service provider.

http://news.yahoo.com/story//nm/20080829/w...ast_internet_dc

I hear this is a trend and other ISP providers may follow.

[pickenpieces]

I would think there would be some kind of legal battle over it? When and if it actually happens.

Its gonna happen. There are some ISPs that already limit usage.

250gigs is a bunch of usage though, so Im not too worried. But for the ultra-download/upload geek, they need to watch out! Surfing web pages wont add up too fast, its the major torrentors that may find restriction. Also the article just says residential, so bypass that with a business account.

[Jarlaxle 56]

This is just a bid to try and "stop" piracy.

Rogers and Bell already throttle BitTorrent traffic here in Canada anyway.

SHOULD be illegal, isn't illegal.

I'm not holding my breath for the governments to do anything either. Simply because of the fact that, in the government's eyes...

Huge Corporation >> You

They don't give a shit about ordinary people's needs, they'd rather please the big business who can contribute campaign donations and hire hordes of lobbyists.

[metal box]

This doesn't seem to be on the level. But... 250 gigs seems like a HUGE amount. But I never download anything. I have no idea what my random internet surfing adds up to... maybe it's not a big amount as it seems.

[beatbo]

it's alot.....

how big is your hard drive? 160?

have a prtable external? how big-250? 500?

that gives you some idea,,,,