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

YLWFVR

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

99silverz, can you confirm this claim



Broadband subscriber finds out the hard way that the “unlimited usage for a flat, monthly fee” sentence printed in his Comcast brochure should really read “limited usage for a flat, monthly fee.”

I mentioned back in late 2008 how Comcast announced it was going to amend its Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and establish a specific monthly data cap of 250GB p/mo for all its residential customers.

The plan was partly in response to a ruling by the FCC ordering it to halt a previous scheme at managing network traffic that involved throttling BitTorrent traffic.

From its Acceptable Use Policy (AUP):

The Service is for personal and non-commercial residential use only. Therefore, Comcast reserves the right to suspend or terminate Service accounts where data consumption is not characteristic of a typical residential user of the Service as determined by the company in its sole discretion. Comcast has established a monthly data consumption threshold per Comcast High-Speed Internet account of 250 Gigabytes (“GB”). Use of the Service in excess of 250GB per month is excessive use and is a violation of the Policy.

That’s fine and dandy if customers are being told beforehand, but apparently Comcast has been trying to have it both ways, telling customers they have unlimited usage while quietly limiting it to 250GB p/mo.

One customer, in a letter to the Consumerist, tells of a back and forth conversation he had with a Comcast employee who insisted that he read “unlimited access” and not “usage.”



He writes:

I was told I used more data than they allow (250GB). I do not argue that I used over 250GB, in fact I went quite a bit over. Though I did want to ask for proof that affected their network, I figured it wasn’t the nicest way to start the interaction. I informed them that I used this because it was sold as “Unlimited usage for a flat, monthly rate.” He then told me it said “access.”

The employee responded by blaming it on a local franchise of the company that had “overstepped its bounds.”

That may be so, but it makes you wonder just how many people, at least in this location (Charleston,SC) have been enticed to sign up with Comcast under the premise they offered unlimited monthly usage.

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/88277/comcasts-unlimited-usage-really-means-250gb-pmo/
 
The 250 GB cap is for all -residential- customers.. Even if you have paid extra for their Blast service.. I know this first hand (they called me when I went way over).

I think it's total crap though as so many customers use no where near 250 that my occasional 750-1,000 GB months are of no consequence to their ability to deliver service..
 
Verizon now limits their broadband usage to
something like 5,000,000 kilobytes ( i think
thats what they call it) per month.

I joined before the limit went into effect & my
account is "unlimited" !

And yes I have gone beyond this limit with no
problems & no costs :icon_smil
 
How can I tell how much I use monthly?

Some routers keep a log of your bandwidth over an x amount of time. Just browse through your routers setup page and see if you have one. I got rid of Comcast a few months ago because of the frequent drops in service in my area. A few years ago, I used to go far beyond 250GB/month, but now that I have most of the stuff I want, I dont even come anywhere close. Heres a log from my router:

Date Download Upload Total
Mar 2010 | 1.49 GB | 0.14 GB | 1.62 GB
Feb 2010 | 19.50 GB | 2.00 GB | 21.50 GB
Jan 2010 | 13.11 GB | 2.65 GB | 15.76 GB
Dec 2009 | 21.16 GB | 4.74 GB | 25.91 GB
Nov 2009 | 24.51 GB | 8.39 GB | 32.90 GB
Oct 2009 | 4.16 GB | 0.35 GB | 4.51 GB
 
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How can I tell how much I use monthly?

From your router (if it supports it) or by installing a bandwidth counter on your main box. The problem is if you have many machines on your network then you'll need to proxy traffic to get an accurate number.

Comcast said they'll be releasing some tools in the future for customers to track usage.

At this point Comcast can't even tell until you're over your quota. Pretty weak.

Basically they run a report at end-of-month and investigate accounts over 250 GB.. I asked if they could instead call me when I'm at 200 and they said it wasn't possible, at least not yet..
 
same thing happened to my buddy. He got a call from comcast about his "excessive" downloading. When the guy asked him what he was downloading, he told all kinds of animal porn, gay porn, and any other messed up kind he could think of. :gr_jest:
 
Looks like no log on my Linksys befw11s4. Guess I'm under 250 as well.
Never had a connection issue with Comcast.
 
It's true. I don't know their reasoning. I would assume if your passing the 250gb limit your either A: Doing something you shouldnt be doing or B: Need to get out more. Either way thats just my opinion. Don't know who made the guidelines.
 
A friend of mine gets notices in the mail and phone calls quite frequently from Comcast about his bandwidth usage, and most of them have threatened disconnection. This has been going on for nearly 2 years and they havent kicked him off yet. I think the cap is in place to hamper bandwidth hogs. When I had Comcast, I noticed my bandwidth would suffer during peak hours, but late at night it was pretty damn fast.
 
kind of off topic, but My digital cable is shitty, I have Comcast, and the package is good and everything, but almost every day I have to unplug it and let it get its new signal or whatever and hope it works later, kinda sucks when theres something on you want to watch. The internet works great, and the phone always works. My sister lives right down the street from me and never has a problem with their comcast, but they have the super-duper HD with everything package and I have the regular basic digital. Can you just get internet only from Comcast?
 
kind of off topic, but My digital cable is shitty, I have Comcast, and the package is good and everything, but almost every day I have to unplug it and let it get its new signal or whatever and hope it works later, kinda sucks when theres something on you want to watch. The internet works great, and the phone always works. My sister lives right down the street from me and never has a problem with their comcast, but they have the super-duper HD with everything package and I have the regular basic digital. Can you just get internet only from Comcast?

You can get just internet only. $50+ for 6Mb service when its not bundled with anything.:banghead:
 
It's true. I don't know their reasoning. I would assume if your passing the 250gb limit your either A: Doing something you shouldnt be doing or B: Need to get out more. Either way thats just my opinion. Don't know who made the guidelines.

Well, I have to somewhat disagree, they know exactly what they are doing with the cap and will probably drop it more in the future. The biggest reason they will use the cap is to control content competition. Ie, Netflix,Dishnetwork,DTV,Hulu and all other upcoming content providers.
My Dishnet box burns a fair amount of bandwidth getting HD content online and its direct competition to Comcast.

Phil
 
Well, I have to somewhat disagree, they know exactly what they are doing with the cap and will probably drop it more in the future. The biggest reason they will use the cap is to control content competition. Ie, Netflix,Dishnetwork,DTV,Hulu and all other upcoming content providers.
My Dishnet box burns a fair amount of bandwidth getting HD content online and its direct competition to Comcast.

Phil

The 250gb cap has nothing to do with the TV service, internet only through the cable modem.
 
You can get just internet only. $50+ for 6Mb service when its not bundled with anything.:banghead:

Thats not bad, The worst part is the customer support has been good, it just seem to be the equipment, or the system thats the problem
 
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