Comcast (Xfinity) will activate 1 Terabyte data limit plan beginning November 1st

[1advancing]

Such limits are ridiculous, considering some may have IP cameras installed, but even without that watching Youtube or other HD content will quickly add up.

 

[Larebear]

I think it's ridiculous too. I'm at about 1.5TB's right now and there's still 11 days left in the month. I'll have to pay the extra $50 a month so that I can continue to do the 24/7 monitoring of my 91 year old mother.

 

[fenderman]

Such limits are ridiculous, considering some may have IP cameras installed, but even without that watching Youtube or other HD content will quickly add up.

IP cameras only use internet bandwidth when viewing remotely...and even then very little unless you are streaming high res content from multiple cams 24/7...bandwidth caps are reasonable considering 1 percent of users hog it....they should pay extra..

 

[1advancing]

IP cameras only use internet bandwidth when viewing remotely...and even then very little unless you are streaming high res content from multiple cams 24/7...bandwidth caps are reasonable considering 1 percent of users hog it....they should pay extra..

Most client's want to see good quality and not the substream, and many would be challenged to remember how to change the streams to go back and forth. And higher quality would be essential especially if viewing remotely from another computer.We are in 2016, with such high speeds nobody wants to see low quality video not in entertainment movies and not in surveillance video.
Have no idea where you got the 1 percent from, or if you are serious about that. So many people download now days or stream or do other things.
If the limit was 20 or 50TB maybe I would understand, but 1 or 2tb is really ridiculous, especially considering that Comcast is not very inexpensive already. Not to mention that they already limited upload speeds which is even more ridiculous, why someone that has 100mbps package only gets 10-5mbps upload. Where if you get Consolidated ISP their packages are 50/50.

 

[fenderman]

Most client's want to see good quality and not the substream, and many would be challenged to remember how to change the streams to go back and forth. And higher quality would be essential especially if viewing remotely from another computer.We are in 2016, with such high speeds nobody wants to see low quality video not in entertainment movies and not in surveillance video.
Have no idea where you got the 1 percent from, or if you are serious about that. So many people download now days or stream or do other things.
If the limit was 20 or 50TB maybe I would understand, but 1 or 2tb is really ridiculous, especially considering that Comcast is not very inexpensive already. Not to mention that they already limited upload speeds which is even more ridiculous, why someone that has 100mbps package only gets 10-5mbps upload. Where if you get Consolidated ISP their packages are 50/50.

Even a high quality stream would be nothing...most folks dont sit there remotely viewing from another computer 24/7...if you use software like blue iris your can easily lower the bitrate was well and have an excellent remote image with very little bandwidth use.
You need to stream crap-loads of video 24/7 to use that kind of bandwidth...streaming your cameras at high res to another location 24/7 is not average/normal use...
The 1 percent number comes from comcast...
The problem is not the data caps the problem is that these providers have a monopoly in most areas...
Regardless, you have to have a VERY unusual setup to use 20TB a month....its not normal by any stretch of the imagination..folks who run torrents and servers out of their home should have to pay extra...
Last month, I used a total of 2.8gb of data on my phone...I stream remote cameras often...that was the TOTAL for all my usage...i dont see a problem..
I will admit that i dont stream netflix to my handset or play crap like pokemon go..

 

[nayr]

folks who run torrents and servers out of their home should have to pay extra

I agree with everything but the above statement; If you cant provide me with 100Mbit internet 24/7/365 then dont sell me 100Mbit internet.. Ive worked for many ISP's and they all oversold the shit out of it and even then the pipes were rarely saturated; and its not like bits cost money to transfer when everyone has peering agreements.

Its not just those running torrent and servers, its anyone getting the majority of there HD content via the internet.. or anyone whom telecommutes and/or has offsite backups, lots of justifications for heavy bandwidth use.. they take subsidies to provide americans with modern internet so we can grow our economy.. capping us is fucked and preventing new and modern digital media companies from unseating the old barons of media.. If you can charge grandma $60 a month for a few MB of data every month, then I can transfer as much data as I can for the same price.. otherwise give me and grandma a pay as you go plan so things are really fair.

data caps are nothing more than trying to prevent a mass exodus off cable television.. IMHO we should federalize the last mile and be ran as a public utility, since they are using our roads, evesements, and rightaways to rake in massive profits that we let them use to buy out competitors, then collude with whoever is left standing so they cement there monopolistic dreams even harder.

the old defunct Ma Bell that was broken up would have loved how things have became.. its so much better than the old monopoly they used to strangle us with

 

[bp2008]

I do agree that 1 terabyte is a little on the low side (that is just 3 Mbps continuous for 1 month). But it is a lot better than the 250 GB or less that many folks have to live with.

ISPs oversell their product, sometimes by dramatic amounts, counting on the fact that most of their customers' internet connections will be idle or nearly idle almost all the time. When they do business this way, it hurts a lot when one customer is using 50 times more data than the other customers paying the same amount.

 

[fenderman]

I agree with everything but the above statement; If you cant provide me with 100Mbit internet 24/7/365 then dont sell me 100Mbit internet.. Ive worked for many ISP's and they all oversold the shit out of it and even then the pipes were rarely saturated; and its not like bits cost money to transfer when everyone has peering agreements.

Its not just those running torrent and servers, its anyone getting the majority of there HD content via the internet.. or anyone whom telecommutes and/or has offsite backups, lots of justifications for heavy bandwidth use.. they take subsidies to provide americans with modern internet so we can grow our economy.. capping us is fucked and preventing new and modern digital media companies from unseating the old barons of media.. If you can charge grandma $60 a month for a few MB of data every month, then I can transfer as much data as I can for the same price.. otherwise give me and grandma a pay as you go plan so things are really fair.

data caps are nothing more than trying to prevent a mass exodus off cable television.. IMHO we should federalize the last mile and be ran as a public utility, since they are using our roads, evesements, and rightaways to rake in massive profits that we let them use to buy out competitors, then collude with whoever is left standing so they cement there monopolistic dreams even harder.

the old defunct Ma Bell that was broken up would have loved how things have became.. its so much better than the old monopoly they used to strangle us with

eh, it should all be pay as you go...the idea of buying data blocks that expire is silly...you should pay for the amount you actually use...if you are transferring large amounts of data as a result of working from home, then you need a business line...

 

[nayr]

yeah but most employees are not willing to reimburse a $100-150/mo internet connection; especially when worker A in location A gets faster access with unlimited data for $60/mo.. takes both my employer and my wife's employer to cover my business line.. and fucking residental is twice as fast at half the price... oah and I HAVE to rent the modem, cant own a business modem w/static IP's

a large part of our economy is now wrapped up in cloud services and infrastructure; data caps hurt everyone but the Cable company.. and pay as you go would add a layer of hidden taxes to everything, oh that new smart thermometer will cost you an extra $5/mo.. etc.. that would just throw a big wrench into advancement of technology.

4k is not going to happen OTA anytime soon; it will have to come in over the internet or just die off until the technology catches up.. like VR in the 90's and early aughties...

 

[fenderman]

yeah but most employees are not willing to reimburse a $100-150/mo internet connection; especially when worker A in location A gets faster access with unlimited data for $60/mo.. takes both my employer and my wife's employer to cover my business line.. and fucking residental is faster at half the price.

a large part of our economy is now wrapped up in cloud services and infrastructure; data caps hurt everyone but the Cable company.. and pay as you go would add a layer of hidden taxes to everything, oh that new smart thermometer will cost you an extra $5/mo.. etc.. that would just throw a big wrench into advancement of technology.

4k is not going to happen OTA anytime soon; it will have to come in over the internet or just die off until the technology catches up.. like VR in the 90's and early aughties.

The solution is to allow competition so that pricing can come in down overall, then an extra 50 dollars for more data will be no problem...for example, I live in an area that has both fios and optimum available...I pay at half that of my friends who live a few towns over that is only serviced by comcast...same for my business accounts, we pay way less than those who are serviced by comcast only..

 

[nayr]

definitely need competition; and thats why we as a society should own the infrastructure.. at least the last mile providing access to millions of potential users/clients/customers/employees

we have video game streaming services now, and youtube, netflix, slingtv, hbogo, dropbox, crashplan, etc.. none of this would of happened if the speeds of our internet had not been slowly progressing for the last 25 years.. now capping it off at the knees is just a bullshit move because they have to show growth and profit non-stop or else there stock prices plunge because everyone is waiting for the first signs of pending death of the current distribution systems..

what happened to print news paper and the record album is coming to broadcast television, and the movie theaters next... and they know it.

 

[fenderman]

definitely need competition; and thats why we as a society should own the infrastructure.. at least the last mile providing access to millions of potential users/clients/customers/employees

Government heavy regulation/ownership of any business is a terrible idea. If the company laid the lines it belongs to them...the solution is promote businesses to invest in new infrastructure to complete with the cable offerings...

 

[nayr]

the govt owns my water, gas, sewer and heavily regulates my electric company..

there is a limit to the number of pipes and lines that can run through our community property.. I cannot go run a fiber down my street and up to the switching office a few blocks away.. or I would have by now.

If they want to run a line, they can write off the cost.. then hand it over to the local municipality and pay for use on it like everyone else.. if they own the property the lines run across in its entirety; then its there property and they can do with as they wish.. but if my taxes pay for the roads, and they are owned by society as a whole.. then the wires/pipes that run within that road also the property of our society.

 

[PSPCommOp]

There has been a good amount of articles written showing the ridiculous amount of profit cable companies make on providing internet. I'd love to see companies show just how they justify charging extra for the data.

I agree wholeheartedly with nayr, it's nothing more then keeping people from cutting the cord.


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[fenderman]

There has been a good amount of articles written showing the ridiculous amount of profit cable companies make on providing internet. I'd love to see companies show just how they justify charging extra for the data.

I agree wholeheartedly with nayr, it's nothing more then keeping people from cutting the cord.


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They dont have to justify anything, its a corporation - their objective is profit, that is a good thing...all they need is competition, its basic economics...the government getting involved providing internet service would be a disaster as is and always will be with every industry they get involved in....

 

[nayr]

if the last mile is a public utility; then any company can come in and provide me with connectivity to the internet.. I can have one fiber-optic internet line to my house, and a dozen companies can compete to terminate me in the local switching office.. with fiber technology and throughput is there, run one trunk into my neighborhood and you have enough optical spectrum to offer up like radio spectrum to more companies than we have for cellular service.. but if we let one company own the last mile you'll never get any real competition..

they have it so locked down that a small community cannot even consider doing a cooperative municipality to compete with the entrenched cable company; all these small towns across the country that are drying up could be saved if they had connectivity like the big cities do; then they can create online stores out of there garages, telework for big giant international corporations with zero physical presence in town, etc..

Many countries have federalized the last mile; and there countries have some of the fastest and cheapest internet in the world.. it dont have to be a big boondogle and we have examples to follow instead of plowing our own way... we've been subdizing the shit out of them for decades to roll out high speed internet throughout the country and they have squandered it all while our prices have doubled and there profits have skyrocketed; thats the fucking boondogle.

 

[PSPCommOp]

if the last mile is a public utility; then any company can come in and provide me with connectivity to the internet.. I can have one fiber-optic internet line to my house, and a dozen companies can compete to terminate me in the local switching office.. with fiber technology and throughput is there, run one trunk into my neighborhood and you have enough optical spectrum to offer up like radio spectrum to more companies than we have for cellular service.. but if we let one company own the last mile you'll never get any real competition..

they have it so locked down that a small community cannot even consider doing a cooperative municipality to compete with the entrenched cable company; all these small towns across the country that are drying up could be saved if they had connectivity like the big cities do; then they can create online stores out of there garages, telework for big giant international corporations with zero physical presence in town, etc..

Many countries have federalized the last mile; and there countries have some of the fastest and cheapest internet in the world.. it dont have to be a big boondogle and we have examples to follow instead of plowing our own way... we've been subdizing the shit out of them for decades to roll out high speed internet throughout the country and they have squandered it all while our prices have doubled; thats the fucking boondogle.

We can't have this , we have lobbyists instead

And Fenderman I agree to a point however adding to what nayr said, internet connectivity has no true competition when the top dog, namely Comcast or TWC keep gobbling up the smaller providers. Most areas only have 1-2 options and it's either pay thru the nose or save money and get shitty bandwidth.


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[nayr]

I live in Denver; because thats where the internet was 10+ years ago.. when I had 8Mbit internet in Wichita; I got 50Mbit internet here for less money along with a tech job at an internet startup for 4x the salary.. Internet startups in Wichita? HAHAH, with what internet? My parents were not offered any broadband at all until 2009, and what they have now is pathetic still.

I have my career because I worked my ass off to afford my $150/mo 128k ISDN connection as a teenager, and that was with employee discount because I worked at my ISP.. having decent internet can help alot of people.

 

[bp2008]

Several towns in the USA do have internet as a public utility, but they are few and far between.

 

[PSPCommOp]

I live in Denver; because thats where the internet was 10+ years ago.. when I had 8Mbit internet in Wichita; I got 50Mbit internet here for less money along with a tech job at an internet startup for 4x the salary.. Internet startups in Wichita? HAHAH, with what internet? My parents were not offered any broadband at all until 2009, and what they have now is pathetic still.

I have my career because I worked my ass off to afford my $150/mo 128k ISDN connection as a teenager, and that was with employee discount because I worked at my ISP.. having decent internet can help alot of people.

Decent internet that's affordable can help a lot of people. Where I live there's Comcast or Verizon. Verizon's max bandwidth is 5-8 Mbps, but I've yet to see a bandwidth test break 4-5. I pay for the Comcast triple play so it's all lumped together and I normally break 150mbps. Some friends and family in the area can only get Verizon and they complain constantly when their daughters and sons are home from college that it slows to a crawl at certain times of day.


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