Comcast limits bandwidth, yet doesn't provide you with tools to monitor your usage. Bumpy road ahead.
This is an addendum to that story about the "new" Comcast bandwidth limits. First, these limits aren't really new, they're just finally disclosed to the public. People have been being cut off for exceeding for awhile but Comcast steadfastly refused to tell those people exactly what the hidden limit was.
It's been reported in a few different places, that despite imposing bandwidth limitations, Comcast won't be providing it's customers with a way to check how much bandwidth they've used. Instead they suggest buying a program to monitor your usage. I'd imagine in the future more consumer grade routers will have to come with bandwidth monitors, because more and more ISPs seem to be moving towards "charge more, give less" bandwidth capping business model.
Even the electric company and water department give you a meter. Most of us don't look at those meters, but the option is there for you to see how much you've used. Then again, the electric company doesn't tell you that you can only use your lights for x amount of hours a month and then we'll cut you off. Your bill just varies depending on how much you use it.
The closest tech equivalent that I can think of would be cell phones. You get x amount of minutes and then charged more, etc. However, the cell phone companies give you ways to see how many of those minutes they used. They have to do that. I imagine, that like Comcast, they didn't really want you to be able to look at your usage. If you couldn't then they could charge you more on their say so. I'm assuming there was some sort of intervention of some sort that forced their hand on customers being able to check their usage. Probably by the FCC.
That'll happen to Comcast. People that have been cut off in the past have talked about lawsuits, among the other bad word of mouth this has gotten Comcast. All it will take is them cutting off somebody with enough clout or money, or even just some lawyers getting greedy and coming up with a class action suit. Just you wait and see.
Also, Comcast aren't doing charges for bandwidth overages. Instead, it's go over the limit twice and they cut off your service. You can't attempt to get a new internet account with them for a year. Terrible enough as it is, but in many areas they're a monopoly with no other high-speed competition. You can thank exclusive contracts that cable companies have with municipalties for that wonderful sort of screwing of the consumer. Without competition these companies can charge what they want, and if you don't like it you don't really have anywhere else to go except back to an antenna for TV and dialup for internet.
This is an addendum to that story about the "new" Comcast bandwidth limits. First, these limits aren't really new, they're just finally disclosed to the public. People have been being cut off for exceeding for awhile but Comcast steadfastly refused to tell those people exactly what the hidden limit was.
It's been reported in a few different places, that despite imposing bandwidth limitations, Comcast won't be providing it's customers with a way to check how much bandwidth they've used. Instead they suggest buying a program to monitor your usage. I'd imagine in the future more consumer grade routers will have to come with bandwidth monitors, because more and more ISPs seem to be moving towards "charge more, give less" bandwidth capping business model.
Even the electric company and water department give you a meter. Most of us don't look at those meters, but the option is there for you to see how much you've used. Then again, the electric company doesn't tell you that you can only use your lights for x amount of hours a month and then we'll cut you off. Your bill just varies depending on how much you use it.
The closest tech equivalent that I can think of would be cell phones. You get x amount of minutes and then charged more, etc. However, the cell phone companies give you ways to see how many of those minutes they used. They have to do that. I imagine, that like Comcast, they didn't really want you to be able to look at your usage. If you couldn't then they could charge you more on their say so. I'm assuming there was some sort of intervention of some sort that forced their hand on customers being able to check their usage. Probably by the FCC.
That'll happen to Comcast. People that have been cut off in the past have talked about lawsuits, among the other bad word of mouth this has gotten Comcast. All it will take is them cutting off somebody with enough clout or money, or even just some lawyers getting greedy and coming up with a class action suit. Just you wait and see.
Also, Comcast aren't doing charges for bandwidth overages. Instead, it's go over the limit twice and they cut off your service. You can't attempt to get a new internet account with them for a year. Terrible enough as it is, but in many areas they're a monopoly with no other high-speed competition. You can thank exclusive contracts that cable companies have with municipalties for that wonderful sort of screwing of the consumer. Without competition these companies can charge what they want, and if you don't like it you don't really have anywhere else to go except back to an antenna for TV and dialup for internet.
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