Comcast cool with FCC ruling, will just slow all of your traffic now

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 22nd 2008 at 6:00PM

First off, you've got to be kidding us. Okay, now that we've got that out, get a load of this. After the FCC told Comcast earlier this month that its data discrimination tactics weren't kosher, the provider has decided to react by simply slowing all internet traffic on its heaviest users. More specifically, Mitch Bowling, Comcast's senior vice president and general manager of online services, stated in a recent interview that the top internet speeds for "targeted customers will be reduced for periods lasting 10 minutes to 20 minutes, keeping service to other users flowing." Right now, this may not affect you one iota, but what's to happen when your kid spends his summer sucking down content on the VUDU / Hulu / etc.? We can think of quite a few reasons to legitimately use a huge chunk of bandwidth, and having Big Provider keep watch and determine when enough is enough frightens us just a wee bit.

[Via CrunchGear, image courtesy of Kansas]

Filed under: Industry, Regulatory, Cable, Internet

Tags: bittorrent, comcast, data discrimination, data meddling, DataDiscrimination, DataMeddling, fcc, internet, net neutrality, NetNeutrality, network neutrality, NetworkNeutrality, p2p, traffic

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Harley3k @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:09PM

That is some serious B.S. if you ask me.
I'm glad I have FIOS internet, and currently they don't care much that I rent my HD Movies using my AppleTV instead of renting from them.

If this stands though, I wonder how long my scenario will be feasible.

Neutral

scott @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:12PM

It should be spelled Internet, not internet with a lowercase "i."

Having that said, I am glad I don't have Comcast. This sounds like rolling blackouts for the "I"nternet.

Neutral

flamezheath @ Aug 24th 2008 5:20PM

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2004/08/64596

Lowest Ranked

Brian @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:49PM

This is a great move on Comcast's part. I don't want one penny of mine to go to subsidize heavy users. Usage should be metered.

Highest Ranked

Michael @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:43PM

brian you are an idiot

Highest Ranked

SpekOpz @ Aug 23rd 2008 12:29AM

Brian are you retarded?

Highest Ranked

Jason @ Aug 23rd 2008 2:47PM

Moron.

Neutral

genaldar @ Aug 24th 2008 3:42AM

When I signed up with Comcast it was for unlimited internet at 6mbps. If they don't provide that it is breach of contract. And since I'm paying for it, you wouldn't be subsidizing me at all. It just keeps them from overselling their bandwidth (which sadly is SOP in the industry currently).

Neutral

ed @ Aug 28th 2008 8:51PM

I agree, you are a retard

Highest Ranked

Eric @ Aug 22nd 2008 6:58PM

I too currently have Fios for internet. My opinion is I'd be willing to give up the internet for a couple months if Verizon started doing this practice. People should do a revolt and give up the service for a could months to make a statement. I know it'll never happen but if people want this to stop, the best place to hit them is in there profit. If enough people were willing to give up a little convience for a couple months, I'd be willing to bet they'd think twice about this.

Anyway, that's my two cents on this crapola!

Eric

Highly Ranked

MadMike @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:26PM

Good thing I got rid of Comcast as fast as humanly possible when FiOS entered my area.

Highly Ranked

Money Mike @ Aug 22nd 2008 7:41PM

Boy, am I happy I have FIOS. I can download and upload at full speed all day long if I want. With Cablevision, I always had to curb my uploading to make sure I didn't do it at too high of a speed for too many hours, just so I wouldn't get capped again.

Highest Ranked

gr689 @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:25PM

once FIOS hits this area, Comcast, you can kiss my ass goodbye. You SOBS

Highest Ranked

Craig WB @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:42PM

This is why having all your computing in the cloud will never work.

Neutral

Jason A Howie @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:41PM

Good point.

Highest Ranked

Tom @ Aug 22nd 2008 8:53PM

This my friends is just one of the many reasons physical media will be around for a bit longer than the digital download set might have you think. If you're holding out on Blu-ray because you hate Sony or if you're waiting for 1080p VOD, AppleTV 1080p or any variation of those, you may want to pull up a chair for ten years or so because until fat pipes are ubiquitous (there are still people on 56k if you can believe it or not) digital downloading will be the niche and physical media will remain the standard.

Highly Ranked

Andy @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:07PM

So. What happens when they rate limit someone down to no bandwidth, they have a heart attack, attempt to use their voip fone to call 911, and the call wont go through or theres not enough bandwidth available?

Highly Ranked

Dave @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:29PM

Come on Andy, don't be ridiculous! That's MUCH too logical a scenario to use. After all, they're just paying money for internet access, how dare they actually try to utilize what they paid for?

I also agree with gr689. I live in a small town, so Comcast is the only option here, and they make damn sure we know it. Once FiOS comes around here, I am pulling out faster than if a hooker told me she had AIDS.

Neutral

InternetUser @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:40PM

Comcast is my ISP. I am a heavy internet user and occasionally I use torrents. If your connection is encrypted properly, then it never mattered whether they were targeting P2P or not because they can't tell the difference... They recently called me and said I used over 600GB in the month of July, and that if I don't cut it down, they will cut off internet for a year... They also happened to mention that I was in the top .1% of users in my area (Central New Jersey).

Neutral

Jason A Howie @ Aug 22nd 2008 9:45PM

Depending where you are FiOS is out. I'd threaten a switch.

All of this in the end is going to boil down into a class action suit that hopefully would fall to the side of consumers. Whether a customer uses 1GB or 600GB they are both told unlimited data and shown the same speeds.

Highly Ranked

glenn s @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:58PM

You used 600GB in a month (20gb per day) and you only "occasionally" use torrents? Interesting. This must be some new definition of the word 'occasionally' with which I was previously unaware. Seriously, whatever you are doing, you are downloading the equivalent of 4 or 5 DVD's per day. I'm not saying that Comcast is justified (they're not), and this is just a guess, but I doubt that you have the moral high ground either.

Neutral

scott @ Aug 23rd 2008 8:46AM

Internetuser-

Does Comcast offer a business class of service? With BHN I have what they call Virtual Office Ultimate. I get 20/2 with a static IP and "better" support with quicker scheduling, should they have to come out. I run a legit business, but anybody can get a business account at home. BHN doesn't block or throttle like this.

You will pay probably double what you are paying now for a business class connection at home but you should be paying double anyway if you have 600GB of traffic a month. What is the other option, raise the price for everybody by $5-$10 a month to cover the bandwidth for .1% of users?

Comcast really needs to get these people off this residential tier and onto a special residential tier with unlimited usage to this extreme or a business account. Comcast is wrong to throttle the speeds like this, but they do have a legitimate concern. Pissing off all their customers is not the answer to fixing it. Even if they meter it and say, $45 base up to $100 max but no cap on what you are doing. Most customers would stay at $45 but be aware that if you start heavy file sharing, you'll be charged for usage like other utilities (the other essentials, water and electric)

Neutral

doc b @ Aug 23rd 2008 3:51PM

There is comcast business internet. Without the voice package it's about $100/month for 16/2 service, though I routinely get 20/2.

Doc B

Neutral

Fancy Shmancy @ Aug 22nd 2008 10:51PM

Who's glad they didn't sign up for comcast cable? This guy.

Neutral

whatchaget @ Aug 22nd 2008 11:09PM

This is what you get when cry baby tech-kiddies go running to the socialist left wing of the governent screaming for them to DO SOMETHING.

Always remember kiddies, sometimes the devil you know is not nearly as bad as the devil you don't.

Lesson learned?

Neutral

genaldar @ Aug 24th 2008 3:54AM

How dare the government try to regulate an industry that is prone to abuses and relies on monopoly status? Or enforce existing agreements (they sell a certain speed they should be bound to provide it, if they want a cap on your traffice they have to spell it out). They should stay out of everyones business (unless of course you disagree with what someone else is doing, then they should step right in huh?). Seriously please keep your right wing propaganda out of all conversations that aren't overtly political.

Oh and by the way, for a government to be socialist it has to OWN more than half of businesses in a society. Regulation has nothing to do with socialism, its just government oversight. Which is what eliminated child labor (you're welcome), created the 40 hour work week (you're welcome again), created laws preventing harrassment (you're welcome), prevents retribution against whistle blowers (you're welcome), created the weekend (you're welcome), created safe working environments (you're welcome), prevents wholesale dumping of toxic materials in your drinking water (you're welcome) etc.

Neutral

Nathan @ Aug 23rd 2008 2:42AM

The slowing of service is not based on history, but rather current use. From Ars Techinca :

"according to spokesperson Charlie Douglas. A user's history has nothing to do with it...it identifies the heaviest current users of the system based on their last few minutes of use"

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080821-comcast-to-slow-down-heaviest-net-users-to-dsl-speeds.html

Neutral

GhostDoggy @ Aug 23rd 2008 9:39AM

The government will never force broadband providers to step away from the practice of over-subscribing broadband core networks commonly used by cowsumers. Its just not going to happen, and the cable industry is by far from being the only perpetrator as the telephone companies have been doing this for years.

I know, I work for one of the evil empires, and it is very common to see these cowsumer networks with 1000% over-subscriptions. The game is all about aggregating traffic and boiling it down to the smallest size long-haul pipe to minimize operating costs and maximize margin.

Its easy to see how the FCC can ignore this method of so called network management, but I can say it is not limited to Comcast, nor the cable industry.

Highly Ranked

Jim Mallory @ Aug 23rd 2008 10:20AM

Actually if you read the article this doesn't sound that bad (compared to other alternatives).

1. You are only slowed down to "DSL" speeds which I will take to mean at between 768K and 1554K per second. Plenty of bandwidth to make that emergency 911 VoIP call and keep your torrent going.

2. You are only being rate limited at 10 - 20 minutes then you are back at full speed for a period of time and, if necessary, throttled again. It isn't like you will be kicked off for the rest of the day.

3. The Bloomberg article implies that Comcast hasn't made any decisions on metered pricing or caps. If this "fair share" system avoids caps (and compared to some outfits, the 250GB cap that Comcast is thinking about seems downright generous) it may be an acceptable compromise to avoid caps and/or metered pricing.

4. Once big operators like Comcast impose some kind of cap or metered pricing, the rest of the operators will follow as not following would cause them to take on all of the heavy bandwidth users which will increases their costs and lower the service quality of those with more "mainstream" usage.

Neutral

dreamscape86 @ Aug 23rd 2008 7:17PM

They may claim you're only slowed to DSL speeds, but lately if I've tried to stream HD video, I can often find myself dropping to 1 or 2 kbps completely out of the blue, not 100. Not to mention that sometimes the "throttling" doesn't cut across all active connections equally. Sometimes I'll be downloading a file with 3 or 4 connections at once, and three of them will drop off completely while the other one slows to a crawl.

Neutral

genaldar @ Aug 24th 2008 4:03AM

Hate to break it to ya, but the metering is much worse than that. Months ago, before they admitted they had done anything, if I was downloading a torrent no one could hear me on my house phone (provided by vonage). Comcast's "solution" was that I should get their phone service instead ($45 versus the $15 I paid for vonage). But they wouldn't even admit they were doing anything. Even though as soon as I stopped downloading the torrent my speed was fine. And before anyone says it was using up all my bandwidth (when we signed up for RR we signed up for unlimited at 8mbs, when Comcast took over they changed it to 6mbps, without providing a new contract and they also never hit 6 while RR always hit at least 8) it would be coming down at dial up speeds (5 - 6k). Oh and if I was getting several files they would share that 5 or 6k.

Of course if you signed up for 8mbps with no limit (like my old housemates "still" have) or 6mbps with no limit (like I have now in my apartment) then they should provide it. If they want caps they can't introduce them after the fact (legally our agreement was already made, any changes have to be approved by both parties). If they want to introduce them for new customers thats their business. But

Neutral

mlody11 @ Aug 23rd 2008 10:33AM

Happened to me yesterday... I was wondering why the f did the connection drop to 100kbps. God damn comcrap... I wish verzion would be here but because of the wonderful nature of our monopoly loving government, we only have ATT which is probably in bed with comcrap.

FYI, I am not a 600GB "heavy user." I have downloaded, if im lucky, 70GB over 30 days but 30 of those were in the past week...

I personally think Comcrap is getting hit over the head with other services and can't charge outrageous prices as they did before and can't take the heat. It first started with Satellite (directv, dish, etc.) and now its FOIS and U-Verse for both internet and TV. The result is an increase in speeds for networks that can't support it. The only way to compete with high prices is to increase speeds and HDTV channels, but because the networks can't support it they are having troubles. So what now?... slap the consumer for their problems because its "their" fault.

Neutral

dreadmuppet @ Aug 23rd 2008 11:27AM

Switch to Comcast now and enjoy speeds up to 16 Mbps! Unless of course you do download data at this rate in which case you will enjoy a much lower speed.*

Lower speed ranges from 3.1 KBps to 1.59 MBps.

Neutral

Jason @ Aug 23rd 2008 2:48PM

I pray everyday for FIOS to come to my town. Every.... freakin..... day. God I can't stand Comcast.

Neutral

joe1234 @ Aug 23rd 2008 6:56PM

I actually agree with this, and think they don't go far Enough!! I would limit these inconsiderate, arrogant think they built the network bastards to 56 Kbps that's right dial up, For at least one freaking month. Seriously I don't pay $50 a month for a Cable Connection, that's shared, just for a couple of bastards who download like this is 2030, to ruin the internet for me. I have time Warner Cable Internet in El Paso, TX and barely use bandwidth, but I've noticed that now pages that used to load in 10 seconds are now loading in 30 to 45 Seconds. I wonder why, could some idiot who thinks unlimited really means unlimited, have moved to my area, or just recently gotten Cable internet. How I wish Time Warner started doing something like this in My Area.

Neutral

genaldar @ Aug 24th 2008 4:10AM

You're joking right? If they sell "unlimited" then they should provide unlimited. Why is it if I can't live up to my promises (lets say an individual misses a mortgage payment) its their own damn fault. But when business fails to live up to its promises (unlimited internet, writing bad mortgages, etc.) thats acceptable? In this case they oversell the bandwidth they have, at least 2 or 3 times over, but rather than increasing their bandwitdth capabilites (what responsible companies might do, in a land where companies are responsible) they throttle bandwidth. To use a bad analogy its like overbooking a flight and then asking someone to leave half of themself on the ground. It's unacceptable by any standard. And to think they got part of the billions and billions of dollars given to providers in the 1990s by the government solely to improve their networks. Instead they pocketed the money and are now complaining that the users are taking advantage of them.

Neutral

Achilles @ Aug 23rd 2008 6:58PM

Time to go to FIOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Comcast can kiss my a$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Neutral

Garst @ Aug 24th 2008 3:05PM

I wonder how long it's going to take before the FTC hit Comcast with a fine for current AND past practices. Before when Comcast was capping download limits without any discloser, it was committing fraud. Now, Comcast is flaunting its fraudulent practices by saying "you'll enjoy speeds way faster than DSL" and "zillions of high-def shows and movies." If you go to its website there's a disclaimer that "actual speeds vary and are not guaranteed," or if you're cut down to DSL speed, then they are lying if you don't get speeds faster than DSL. I won't get into whether or not you enjoy anything, because that is completely subjective and is also dependant on if there is content that you want on the internet. As far as the number of high definition show and movies go, the number is greatly exaggerated. I'm sure if you pressured Comcast for a definitive number, it could give you one that is still withing a number a person could count to.

Neutral

joe1234 @ Aug 25th 2008 3:15AM

No Genaldar, I'm not kidding, You were talking to me right! I don't know maybe you're really young, or you're lucky enough to have never had Dial-up!! Some people like you think that when a Cable company says unlimited in their commercials, they Mean Unlimited Bandwidth. That's not what unlimited means, that what they want you to think unlimited means.

I'm going to tell you what unlimited really means. Waaaaay back when, when dial up was the only economically feasible option for most people,like 1992 or so, Internet companies used to charge people per hour of internet usage. That's right they used to charge per hour!!! I still remember getting the AOL CDs that said, "40 Hours for only $30 per month" or something similar to that. Eventually Broadband companies, yes they existed back them, decided to use this against dial up companies like AOL. This was way before AOL And Time Warner merged. Broadband companies like Time Warner cable and others knew that the could sell what was then a luxury product with Unlimited Usage. Meaning they didn't charge people per hour. That's about the time that the Unlimited commercials came out, they May have sounded something like this, "Hey, did you know that here at Time warner Cable We don't charge per Hour like Dial-up companies!! That's right, you get Unlimited usage, Plus lightning fast speeds up to 1 Megabit, All of this for only X dollars per month, so call now and get Time Warner Cable Broadband internet access!!!" Where X Is a number higher than 50 Dollars. This was when the internet, was mostly still text based, the wasn't a youtube, there were actually few internet videos to begin with and most of the videos were adult in nature, hmmm, wait that's still true. Most porno sites were mostly pictures, and the ones that had videos, had few user, mostly people with Broadband. There wasn't even a Google, or a Yahoo yet, or Ebay, or Amazon, or Myspace, or Facebook, you get the picture!!!

Eventually the Cable Companies kept saying unlimited, and stopped saying Usage, knowing some people would Eventually, think that Unlimited means Unlimited Bandwidth.

Also I forgot to say some other things, Sometimes when I download, My speeds range from About 100 to 400 KB/s. I mean that's not Fair, The Theoretical maximum of Roadrunner here in El Paso is about 8 Megabits that's about 800 KB/s or more, and I rarely get that. I would leave time Warner and get DSL If I could, but AT & T has been saying for Years that they are going to get DSL to my area of the City and They still haven't done it. Pretty much only the rich Areas of town, which here in El Paso Means anyone making more that 40 Thousand Dollars a Year, and Downtown have internet Access. OK I'm exaggerating a little there about the Coverage, but It Wouldn't surprise me if only a Maximum of 40 % of the City was covered by DSL. I know El Paso, Texas is still stuck in the Stone Age of broadband internet access!!! This may make some of you think El Paso is small, but it's not it has about 600,000 people. The real problem here is Poverty, many of the People here are first generation Mexicans, both legal an illegal, who work for a while and go back to Mexico, or stay and have children who study mostly at UTEP and leave this Boring City. Few Second generation Mexicans, like me, stay to live here.

Neutral

scott @ Aug 25th 2008 9:40PM

joe1234-

I am having difficulty following your point, ideas, and thought process. Sorry.

Review: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (single player) Sesame Street gives gaming the thumbs up LucasArts classics could wind up on iPhone ... 'wink wink, nod nod'	Enthusiast posts source code for 13 Atari classics...legally? New threat targets DirectShow component via Internet Explorer Nice Translator add-on for Firefox makes short work of foreign text
Removing duplicates from your iPhoto library Manage your iPhone's clipboard with Snippets Shoot steady iPhone video with Zgrip iPhone PRO	MannKind: Speculation on inhaled insulin Oil, the stock market and economic inconsistency Russian casinos go bust -- gamblers head elsewhere
New Halo Wars Achievements reveal new maps (again) Ben Heck molds Jasper Xbox 360 into new and improved laptop Jump for joy: N+ is XBLM Deal of the Week	VIDEO: Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M completes Goodwood hillclimb in 59 seconds Speed Reading: Cheeseball NASCAR romance novel covers we can't help but love Porsche enhances humans to set Guinness World Record for 48-hour distance run
Boot Disk: Master of Magic LucasArts to offer downloadable games via Steam Wednesday Say2Play & Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA2 Grand Prize Winners Announced	Sahel Kazemi Recently Purchased Gun, Police Tell Relative Steve McNair's Tragic End Shouldn't Tarnish His Legacy Vikings' Winfield Frustrated by Contract