Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users, But Won't Define What A "Heavy User" Is

[DeSwiss]

Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users
Customers complain bandwidth limits are secret

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.Com
August 24, 2007

Comcast has warned broadband Internet customers across the country to curb their downloading or wind up on the curb. The company has a bandwidth limitation that, if broken, can result in a 12-month suspension of service. The problem, according to customer complaints, is that the telecom giant refuses to reveal how much downloading is too much.

The company, which a few years ago advertised the service as “unlimited” has an “acceptable use policy” which enforces the invisible download limit. The 23-part policy, states that it is a breach of contract to generate “levels of traffic sufficient to impede others' ability to send or retrieve information.” But nowhere does it detail what levels of traffic will impede others.

Michael, of Speedway, Ind., uses Comcast Internet to transfer large work files while his son uses it for school research. In 2004 he received letters threatening to disconnect his Internet if he doesn't restrict his bandwidth.

“Unfortunately, neither the letter, the AUP, the Comcast websites, nor any printed Comcast materials specify what those bandwidth usage limitations are,” Michael wrote to ConsumerAffairs.Com. “Essentially, what they are doing is drawing an invisible line, then threatening to disconnect anyone who crosses it.

Read more: http://consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/08/comcast_ban.html?imw=Y

*** - Shhhsh. You hear that sound? That's the sound of lawyers sharpening their teeth.

[SeattleGirl]

1. WTF?

Let me get this straight. You can break the law or rule or whatever, but YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO KNOW WHAT THE RULE IS????


:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Karenina]

2. Pay attention kids...

YOU ARE BEING LOCKED DOWN.

[SeattleGirl]

7. That was my thought, too.

Bet anything that they are going to go after people who are downloading stuff the Administration likes..

[Bitwit1234]

10. That sounds like the bush administration

but then Comcast is part of it. And did you know that they censured emails from one of the small business. The guy sent out some emails that were negative to bush and the administration. Comcast didn't sent them. When the guy found out, they told him they did not think he would want to send out email that was negative to the administration. THEY DID NOT THINK HE WOULD WANT TO SEND THEM. What in the hell were they doing, the guy has a right to send emails to anyone he wants, as long as they were threatening. Look at all the spam we get and can't stop it.

[onenote]

12. link?

[demnan]

24. I doubt that is true

If you click on the website in my link below and then on the website click "Contact Us" you will see my email address at Comcast. You wouldn't believe the traffic of impeachment email I send and receive every day. I've never had a problem.

I'm not an excessive downloader of music, etc.

[DeSwiss]

15. Yep. You got it.

"Acceptable use" is what they say it is and just cause your paying them for the use of their cable network, you have no right to know how much of it you can use.

Oh yeah, up is down, in is out and black is white. Simple, see?

[regnaD kciN]

18. Welcome to NewAmerica...

You can break the law or rule or whatever, but YOU AREN'T ALLOWED TO KNOW WHAT THE RULE IS????

If you keep your nose clean, why do you need to worry? Only people with anti-NewAmerica leanings (and thus already potential criminals) will seek to know the exact limits.

Behave, be careful, trust your leaders, watch what you say, watch what you do, and you'll be fine in NewAmerica. Otherwise...

:eyes:

[SeattleGirl]

21. Yeah, if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about.

Except my right to privacy.....:mad:

This shit really pisses me off, you know?

[Deja Q]

3. For Comcast's boasting of being faster than DSL,

at least DSL lines are dedicated per user. Comcast cable is shared to everyone on the same segment! Which could be everybody in one apartment complex, or everybody within a certain block radius - which could mean multiple apartment buildings as well. (their commercial with the turtles tries to mix geekspeak with normalblab, but cannot cater to neither audience as one doesn't want to know technical details and the other knows Comcast is fudgin' things pretty thick.)

And then Comcast charges more $ if you have a LAN and want all your computers on it. Oh boy... the day they detect a router being at the far end of their hub is the day they'd start demanding questions. Assuming they can't block any address whose OUI indicates the device is a router... but I'm sure there is a way to suss out that information and they'd probably have every right too.

[DeSwiss]

20. Comcast SUCKS!!! n/t

[Gabi Hayes]

4. you're driving down the road, and see a speed limit sign.

and that's all it says:

"Speed Limit"

[DeSwiss]

19. They use to have that kind of sign....

...on the old Bluegrass Parkway which was a toll highway in Kentucky. Way, way back in the olden days when I was a kid. This was before interstate highways where everywhere. The sign read: "Resume Safe Speed"

And I understand that there are signs similar to this in North Dakota and places like Wyoming where you can travel for hundreds of miles and never see another soul.....

[Rex]

5. Comcast is a POS company.

Almost as bad as AT&T.

[skids]

6. Nope, no lawyers...

....see here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=402x35

[DeSwiss]

14. Its my understanding....

...that no document is considered LEGAL that requires one to give up their constitutional rights.

The lawyers would love for Comcast to try and defend their right to suspend the Constitution for their own financial benefit.

[burrowowl]

8. And do they check your content to decide

whether or not you have crossed the LINE?

[GOPS Worst Fear]

9. So That's Why I haven't had internet service in two days?

They either think I am a threat to their business OR (and I think this is true)They just have piss poor service. I just moved from Arizona to Tennessee and I had Cox cable in AZ. Comcast couldn't pack Cox's Lunch!
That's my take and I am sticking to it!

[DeSwiss]

17. Welcome To Tennessee!!! :-)

But I wish I lived somewhere's else though. :( One day. One day.....

Anyhow, I started out with Bellsouth DSL, which was bought-out by AT&T. My contract for service ended this month but there are no acceptable alternatives where I live.

And I absolutely loathe AT&T!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad:

[Ahpook]

22. Not sure what part of Tn you moved in, but..

i live in East Tn and used Comcast when i moved here and had nothing but trouble. A new company called Knology moved in and i tell you they are top shelf.

Rarely an outage and if there is one they are on top of it within the day. Comcast would give us a schedule of next Wednesday between 9am and 7pm.

Hell we had a tornado run through here a few years ago that ripped the powerlines and the cable lines off the house. Knology were out here before the electric company to fix the shit.

Two thumbs up:D

[The Vinyl Ripper]

11. Sounds like porn..

There are certain acts and certain locations where if you depict those acts or sell porn in those locations you can be charged.

But no one will provide a list of acts or locations..

Read it right here in GD.

[FormerDittoHead]

13. I can tell you - 300Gb/mo will trip the alarm... (my cautionary tale)

Yes, that's a BOATLOAD of bandwidth - over 10 gigs a day. Way more than most people would EVER use...

OK, I installed a wireless modem withOUT security options... I know my neighbors, none of them use the internet like that, I figured I didn't have to worry....

BUT... I live 1 1/2 blocks from my public high school and 2 blocks from the library! That was close enough!

Turned out, the abuse dept said, worst case, the school and library's network(s) could have connected with my wireless router to share the bandwidth!

They shut me down for 4 days with no explaination. (why the backlog?)

Verizon in installing fiber optic in our town... It only took 30 years for competition to kick in! Gotta love that free market!

[LeftyMom]

16. A local outfit here does fiber faster and for less $ than comcast's cable

and their customer service is said to be much better. As soon as they lay fiber on my street I'm dropping Comcast like a bad habit.

[TheFarseer]

23. When I lived in Houston

sometimes I would queue up a bunch of downloads and let them go overnight and my cable company would shut off the internet. It happened a few times. I had to call in and get them to turn it back on and they told me I was shut off for excessive downloading.

[ComerPerro]

25. I can understand them having a limit, but not revealing the limit is sleazy

[The Vinyl Ripper]

26. I use most of my bandwidth, all day and all night..

I have a distributed webcrawler client running and it uses almost all of my bandwidth whenever I'm not actually online and uses a big chunk of it when I am online.

My DSL carrier has never given me a problem..

[thunder rising]

27. Those must be huge files ... 'cause WOW is not considered a target

World of Warcraft starts out by downloading about 4G of program material. Then continuously updates (50M is not unreasonable). Then the game itself is constantly streaming.

There is always a bandwidth limit.

Did you consider that his neighbors are the ones complaining? Network bandwidth is a lot like water rights. Just because the river runs by your property does not give you all the water all the time.

[DeSwiss]

28. According to the article....

...some of the neighbors has been cutoff as well. To me it looks like they've underestimated capacities that they'd need and have begun to impose these "unknown acceptable limits" as a shot across the bow to teach all the others to stay in-line. Of course they'd never do this if there was true competition....

Excerpt the from article:

Carriero received a phone call from Comcast in December 2006 warning him that if he didn't cut back on his usage, they were going to cut his service. When he contacted customer service to see what he could do, they had no idea what he was talking about and even suggested it was a prank call. One month later, he woke up to no Internet. When he called Comcast, they informed him he would be without service for 12 months.

For the next few months, he, his wife and his six children were without Internet until DSL came into their neighborhood. Comcast told Carreiro he was downloading 200-300 gigabytes per month. He said he and his family download a lot of data but could never have used that much. So when he got his new service, he began tracking his use using two independent data logs.

“We haven't broken 50 Gigs a month yet and we tried,” Carreiro wrote in an e-mail. “I've even built a server for family photos to be shared and still we're not breaking 50 Gigs.” Carreiro said he has spoken to hundreds of people in 15 states in the past five months who have had their Internet privileges revoked by Comcast. But Comcast spokesperson, Charlie Douglas, said only .001 percent of Comcast's customers ever horde too much bandwidth.

Carreiro, whose neighbors have also lost their Internet, doesn't agree. “If it's so low, why do I have a couple of people right down the street who have had their Internet taken away?” Carreiro asked.