Comcast's 250GB limit?

Wednesday, May 07, 2008 by Dave Winer.

DSLreports piece says Comcast may impose a 250GB monthly limit for customers. If you go over, you pay $15 per 10GB.  

Since I got shut down last month for being in the top 1/10th of 1 percent of their customers, without notice, I'm in a pretty good position to evaluate this plan from a customer's perspective. 

Comments... 

1. They're stating publicly that they have a limit and what the limit is. This is better than having an unstated limit that's a moving target over time and geography. 

2. They will provide a site where they tell us how much we've used. 

2. It gives other ISPs something to compete against. They can offer plans with a 350GB limit or a 1TB limit.  

3. It's not fair to customers to change the terms after they sign up. People always argue it from Comcast's perspective, never from the customer's. They may have a right to do it, but it still isn't fair. 

4. How much bandwidth does a product like Slingbox use? Probably not a product Comcast loves very much, btw. 

5. There's a weird connection between this and DMCA notices. Makes me wonder what their real motivation is. Remember Comcast is in the TV business, and video on the Internet is a big bandwidth user. 

6. Do you think Comcast should lease their cable to competitors if they're not going to provide plain vanilla internet access? 

7. I want neutral Internet service, so I can build whatever I want to out of it. I don't mind if there's a meter, but I don't like the deal changing after I sign on, makes me wonder what's coming next.