Behind the scenes on the Comcast bandwidth limit
by Mike Schramm 
Oct 3rd 2008 at 7:00PM
Our friends at BigDownload have a long but interesting feature up about that Comcast bandwidth limit and how it might affect PC gamers like us. Even though they chat with a lot of people higher up in both the ISP and gaming industry, the bottom line hasn't really changed: most people won't be affected by the limit, and if you are, there are things you can do about it. As we determined last time, at max, even if you run WoW 24/7 the entire month, you're still using only about 5gb, nowhere near enough to trip Comcast's limit. And even if there's a big patch download that comes through, it'll still be a very, very small percentage of people that come anywhere near it. While Comcast may change things in the future, there are a few voices already speaking out against bandwidth caps, including the Entertainment Consumers Association.And if you do get suspended out of the blue? Best option is to just use another ISP -- even if Comcast isn't willing to support people who use tons of bandwidth, there will likely be another company that does. And if high-level broadband does become really widespread, it would be a bad business decision for Comcast as well to suspend large numbers of their userbase -- while there's always the chance that they could start charging a premium for more bandwidth, smaller companies will likely step up to fill any spaces that Comcast tries to screw over.
In short, right now, this isn't a problem. While in the future, Comcast may try to bring the bandwidth cap lower and lower, at this point, it doesn't effect enough people out there to worry, and even if you are affected, there are likely steps you can take to get around it, including going with another ISP if that's an option.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
paper Oct 3rd 2008 7:12PM
The problem is that in a lot of areas you CAN'T just switch to another company. That's the problem with Comcast making such a big decision: there are a lot of people that honestly can't go with another company in protest of the changes.
Baluki Oct 3rd 2008 7:41PM
Yea, my options are Comcast or dial-up. Hooray for telecom deregulation!
xenothaulus Oct 3rd 2008 8:32PM
That's exactly what I face: I have 3 "choices" in my area: Comcast cable internet, Verizon DSL, or like 50 dial-up ISPs. Comcast is the fastest, and only a little more expensive than Verizon (not to mention the fact that I have no phoneline). I haven't yet nor will I hit their cap (probably) but it's still bullshit.
Mats Oct 3rd 2008 7:12PM
Yes, after all, I only use my internet for WoW, what other use does it have? Podcasts? Youtube? Steam? Reading news?.. never heard of these, only thing internet was made for was WoW. So this argument that wow "only uses" 5gigs is so good that I don't care about such silly limits any more.
Mike Feb 11th 2009 6:22PM
If you have been using Comcast for the past five years and has not received a notice about bandwidth you have nothing to worry about. Comcast are just making official the caps that have been in place for years.
There will also be one "get out of jail free card" each year
vlad Oct 3rd 2008 8:10PM
you are correct. its well known in the circles of people that tend to download a bit more than average.
Alchemistmerlin Oct 3rd 2008 9:27PM
See I shouldn't have to resort to a "get out of jail free card"
"We're cutting off your service" means "We don't want you as a customer, have a nice day, here's the number for Verizon Fios"
Tezza Oct 3rd 2008 7:28PM
consider yourselves lucky, if i had a choice id go for Comcast's cap, here in australia my cap is 12gigs - alot more than the 250 comcast is offering.
angellusEU Oct 3rd 2008 8:21PM
indeed, im in the UK and my ISP is BT internet.which is the internet portion of probably the largest British telecoms firm in the country. im on the highest package and my download limit is 30GB which is decent although im sure there are some companies who offer more, but to the people complaining about "only"250GB a month? gief!
Hydden Oct 3rd 2008 9:51PM
Australia also: I pay about $40 (US) for 30GB/month (10GB on-peak, and 20GB off-peak i.e. between 2am and 12noon)
Veji Oct 3rd 2008 7:53PM
Its ok, FIOS is comming at an alarming rate. Can you say "Buh-bye Comcast!" I knew you could...
vlad Oct 3rd 2008 8:30PM
fios will only make comcast more competitive. comcast has had a fiber optic trunk and feeders for decades. only at the tap does it switch to copper.
one thing verizon never advertizes is that once thier magical fiber optics get to your house they then run it through all your existing copper in your house. its not like they rewire your residence with fiber.
also in markets where fios has entered comcast matches bandwidth.
everyone complains about them and even though i have my issues with them, they really are a great service, at least in my area. if your going to cry how expensive $42.95 is each month perhaps you should find better ways to allocate your funds.
i have had some form of broadband for 11 years (june 1997 i got my first dsl line) and to me its something that is not an issue to pay. nor is a 250gb cap.
you would have to download 8gb's of data every single day for 30 days. even with my large amounts of audio, video, "trial" software, ip phone and my super awesome 1080p HD streaming movie service i subscribe to I dont even get close to the cap.
i check my routers bandwidth monitor and im at roughly 118gb a month. i watch about 10-15 movies a month. not bad.
if you approach the cap, your up to someting and deserve to be capped so your not choking the network for the rest of us.
people tend to think they are the only comcast customer. like its their right to do whatever they want on a private network. its comcasts network. they can regulate as they see fit.
whatever the speed im not super interested in fios. verizons support and service was always terrible in my area.
Tasty Oct 3rd 2008 7:58PM
Mines 10gb, NZ, and we pay through the nose for it.
Bring your Entertainment Consumers Association here and see what they think >.>.
I mean honestly, WoW+Youtube+1/2 patches = down to 56k.
Evi Oct 3rd 2008 8:02PM
"And if you do get suspended out of the blue? Best option is to just use another ISP"
Oh, if only that were an option! I went from living in a market in which Comcast had a complete stranglehold to an area where I can't get anything but AT&T/Bell South DSL. I went with a terrible local ISP because AT&T doesn't have any more sockets for DSL at my apartment complex, and has no interest in accommodating us. I couldn't get any other cable/DSL/or even satellite service because of some deal AT&T has with the locals. I'm so tired of these monopolies, I could scream! I would love to have a choice of ISP!
Oh, and as for FIOS... Verizon has stated they have no interest in setting up here in the south and I don't know of anyone else who is. I welcome advice or suggestions. As is, I'm stuck in a beautiful apartment which exists in a black hole of internet service, unloved and unwanted...
Charlie Taylor Oct 3rd 2008 8:14PM
I've got a nifty little tool that will tell me my traffic totals, only problem is that it only keeps track for as long as my computer has been on. So far with an uptime of 2 days (had to install a hard drive) I've totaled 2.7GB, so aprox 1.35GB a day. Given some leeway with large downloads I'd say I average about 60GB a month. That's in downloads alone. What I want to know is if Comcast is saying 250BG TOTAL bandwidth, uploads and downloads. In that case I might be screwed in the future because as a photographer I find myself increasingly uploading full-res photos for clients to my FTP server.
tdog Oct 3rd 2008 8:23PM
Seriously, these articles are ridiculous. The fact that people are panicking about 250GB... you're taking the internet for granted.
Shadowmane Oct 4th 2008 3:44AM
Also to put it in perspective:
250GB a month = 8.333GB a day
8.333GB a day = 347.2MB an hour
347.2MB an hour = 5.78MB a minute
5.78MB a minute = 96.3KB a second
So unless you plan on being downloading at 96.3KBps for every second of every minute of every hour of every day for the month, you will not be able to hit the cap. Realisticly 99.9% of people will never hit the cap. Only people running several computer networks, or people pirating vast amounts of information will hit this cap.
While I don't condone what Comcast is doing, but as mentioned before, in many areas, cable ISPs run a virtual monopoly. You either go along with their limits, or you don't get high-speed. Period.
This sort of decision is a very slippery slope in the end.
Heaven on Wheels Oct 3rd 2008 8:26PM
Comcast is a terrible company anyways. They refuse to expand their network in my area even though they have exclusive rights to the area which keeps other companies out. So yea Comcast is a bunch of jerks!
Araydan Oct 3rd 2008 9:05PM
I work for a local ISP that recently implemented a bandwidth cap to our customers. We set a hard cap of 100G for our customers, and a small fee for each G over that they go per month.
Personally I have mixed feelings on the cap. I can see the good and bad sides of it. Regardless, i think many ISP's will be adopting this policy going forward, for better or for worse.
vlad Oct 4th 2008 10:50AM
for starters, you are clueless.
having worked for a major cable provider in the past i can tell you, you need to blame your county executives for the lack of service in your area. comcast makes a bid for the franchise in your area. your county officials put the specifications in the franchise agreement of..
1. what services they want their residents to have.
2. which citizens will have access to the network.
3. how long will residents have to wait if they call comcast.
4. how long do they wait for service calls.
5. future expansion
obviously these are just a small few details from what is a contract that is litterally the size of a phonebook. things like expanding into new territory are all determined in the contract your county has negotiated on.
a few factors that also play into it is that comcast is not going to spend $250,000 to run service to a trailer park 8 miles away from its node to get $100 a month (if they even pay their bills) from daft hillbillies that are just going to bitch and complain and call them a "terrible company anyways" and jerks.
another thing that sounds fishy is that there a few exclusive areas. lots of places have competing services. is your county of a high enough income level to warrant another provider spending tens of millions of dollars to set up shop? obviously not. blame your partents for living in a county with a lower middle class base.
:)