Comcast Considering 250GB Cap, Overage Fees

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Considering-250GB-Cap-Overage-Fees-94185


Comcast Considering 250GB Cap, Overage Fees
Insider provides details of new 'protocol agnostic' solution
04:15PM Tuesday May 06 2008 by Karl
tags: business · exclusive · bandwidth · cable · Comcast
A Comcast insider tells me the company is considering implementing  
very clear monthly caps, and may begin charging overage fees for  
customers who cross them. While still in the early stages of  
development, the plan -- as it stands now -- would work like this: all  
users get a 250GB per month cap. Users would get one free "slip up" in  
a twelve month period, after which users would pay a $15 charge for  
each 10 GB over the cap they travel. According to the source, the plan  
has "a lot of momentum behind it," and initial testing is slated to  
begin in a month or two.


"The intent appears to be to go after the people who consistently  
download far more than the typical user without hurting those who may  
have a really big month infrequently," says an insider familiar with  
the project, who prefers to remain anonymous. "As far as I am aware,  
uploads are not affected, at least not initially." According to this  
source, the new system should only impact some 14,000 customers out of  
Comcast's 14.1 million users (i.e. the top 0.1%).

As a few of you may have noticed, Comcast received a public relations  
beating and is being investigated by the FCC for their use of Sandvine  
gear to throttle upstream P2P traffic. This practice of using forged  
TCP packets to "break" BitTorrent connections was discovered first in  
our forums in May of last year, some five months before the Associated  
Press story made national headlines.



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