Comcast News
My home Internet service is provided by Comcast who also provides our CATV. Even so, I rarely ever log into my Comcast account online. But earlier this week I read news about some changes in service so I logged in to check and sure enough, there was email waiting for me from Comcast.
The first bit of news was that our unlimited Internet service will begin to be limited to 250Gb of data per month. Comcast says that’s more than generous when you figure it equates to:
- Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);
- Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or
- Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).
It seems like a lot of bandwidth, but how am I supposed to keep track of how much I have used?
That little nugget wasn’t the only bad news. There was this:
As of October 25, 2008, the complimentary Comcast Newsgroups service, powered by Giganews, will be discontinued. This feature provided customers access to 2 gigabytes of newsgroup information on a monthly basis. After this date, these customers will no longer be able to access the Comcast Newsgroups service through Comcast.
After telling me that my bandwidth was going to get a limit, and my access to Usenet would be terminated, Comcast sent me yet another email offering to give me faster service for just $10 more a month.
Gee, I can’t wait to pay extra so I can exceed the bandwidth limit even faster.
I’m trying to figure out why so many people are complaining about having to pay for bandwidth.
No matter who the company is….there is almost universal condemnation of companies that have a limit on bandwidth at a fixed price.
Why is this unjust?
mew
mike/wa4d
4 Oct 08 at 6:38 pm
I’m not certain that it is “unjust” but I have two beefs about it:
1. I was sold the service as high-speed unlimited Internet.
2. I have no way of monitoring my usage. There is no “bandwidth” meter on my Net connection. The new rules say that if I go over the only way I will know about it is when they cut off my service for using too much bandwidth.
That seems silly in the extreme. It would be much less draconian if as I approach the 250Gb limit, I receive an email warning and then if I go over, I pay some surcharge.
Simply terminating my service for going over a limit I have no way of monitoring is not my idea of being treated like a valuable customer.
73 de Jeff
Jeff, KE9V
4 Oct 08 at 6:56 pm
Interesting that they don’t have a usage meter. I have an EVDO Rev A card. Utility software app tells me to the byte what I’ve used.
Still I don’t fault the Cable companies for changing their rates. They remain the best game in town and fastest connectivity for most people.
mew
mike/wa4d
4 Oct 08 at 8:28 pm