Comcast to Customers: Don't Hog Bandwidth, Or Else...
The Washington Post is reporting the Comcast is resorting to cutting off customers who the ISP believes are using too much bandwidth. Sounds like Comcast has oversold its capacity. At least airlines offer you a free ticket when they kick you off a flight because they overbooked.
The rapid growth of online videos, music and games has created a new Internet sin: using it too much.Comcast has punished some transgressors by cutting off their Internet service, arguing that excessive downloaders hog Internet capacity and slow down the network for other customers. The company declines to reveal its download limits.
Why not disclose the limits? Comcast has a strange answer for that one.
Again, for the Washington Post:
Companies have argued that if strict limits were disclosed, customers would use as much capacity as possible without tipping the scale, causing networks to slow to a crawl.
That is a ridiculous assumption. People aren't going on line to use bandwidth anymore than they use their PCs to use CPU cycles. We're on line to get something done and we're not there to max out bandwidth usage. HughesNet tells customers of its satellite service exactly what the limits are. It doesn't seem to have adversely affected their business. This is another case of a business taking an adversarial position with customers. It's easy to see where this will end.
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