>Comcast is cutting off customers who use too much bandwidth. Only, they >won't tell you how much is too much, nor will they tell you how to monitor >your bandwidth use. >www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/06/AR2007090602545.html
It is disingenuous for Comcast to claim that bits per month usage is a problem for other customers. It is the distribution of bits over time that causes the problem. A constant trickle of bits all month long will add up to a high bits per month, but will not significantly impact other customers. On the other hand if you transfer a lot of bits in a short period of time it will suck up capacity in a way that can deny it to other customers. The Comcast spokesperson said downloading 1000 songs per day would be excessive. So about 1000 x 4MB = 4 GB/day would get you into trouble. So lets say you want to run a web cam: 640 x 480 = 300K/frame x 12 frames/minute = 3.6 MB/minute x 1440 minutes/day = 5.3 GB/day. That makes you an abuser. If you backup your computer over the internet and then have a drive crash so you have to retrieve your backed up data, that will make you an abuser. Being a serious Netflix customer could put you in peril too. Tivo and AppleTV could cause problems as will the new iPod with WiFi. I think this takes us back to the network neutrality issue. This is a back door way of achieving the same result. As customers start to use the cool Internet services that are starting to be advertised, Comcast will label them abusers and demand more money. This is just an excuse to raise prices in an unjustified way. Bandwith is cheap and getting cleaper. The companies that make the equipment to cram more bits into existing wires are having a tough time because the telecommunications providers are not buying their stuff. They say they have "too much" bandwith already. So which is it? This is oligopoly logic. It would not happen if the US had competition in telecommunications. This shows that it is once again time to enforce the anti-trust laws. Split Comcast and the others up. P.S. Anyone advertising "unlimited" bandwith is prima facie guilty of consumer fraud. Comcast management ought to be thrown into a dark deep dungeon for an unlimited period of time. ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
