CableONE - New Policy

[dR.Jester]

Well first let me start off by saying, I have been a CableONE customer for over 5 years now. Have had service with them since they first offered Cable service here in Bartlesville, OK. Internet speeds have always been fantastic and downtime was of rare occurrence.

Currently I pay $59 for 5Mbps downstream. Its fast and reliable.

One policy they've had in place for years now is that if you upload a certain amount, say 200MB, your internet speeds will be throttled back. If at 5Mbps, speeds will be throttled down to 2.5Mbps for a set amount of time, which I believe is at 3 hours.

Now, lets talk about what they put in place this past week. If you download over 2GB within a period of one-hour, your downstream will be throttled down to half. So if Im crusing at 5Mbps and grab 2GB worth of DATA, my downsteam will automatically be dropped down to 2.5Mbps. After this happens, it will stay that way for approximately one-hour.

In my opinion, if I'm paying $59 a month for 5Mbps, there should not be any bullshit policys attached to my internet service.

All of this information was confirmed by CableONE Support earlier.

Anyway, this is a really bad move on their part. I guess my only other option now is to say to hell with them and switch to AT&T DSL which is currently priced at $35 and downstream is 6Mbps!

 

[KenF]

Unfortunately, you do have to give up some things when you live in that part of the country. You are about as far as can be from the major east coast and west coast wire centers, and as a result, your traffic must be routed to Dallas (or Chicago, if you are unlucky) before it heads off to the east or west coast.

Without a major in-state backbone or gateway node, bandwidth is more expensive and harder to come by. Cable One's measures may seem draconian, but they've only got so much bandwidth to support so many customers, and it's not easy or inexpensive for them to expand their capacity in that state. It's not like, say, Chicago, New York, Virginia, or San Francisco, where you've got wire centers everywhere, and bandwidth is practically free by comparison (per capita).

I would probably switch to AT&T DSL if the 6Mbps plan is available at your location. AT&T has the advantage of their own network, including several OC3s to Dallas in OK.


Verizon FiOS @ $55/mo

 

[pigster]

In my opinion, if I'm paying $59 a month for 5Mbps, there should not be any bullshit policys attached to my internet service.

Why? ISP's are going to set out various terms of service, it's up to you as a consumer to accept or decline those services. It sucks if they're the only game in town, but you don't have a constitutional right to unlimited download speed

 

[svet-am]

In my opinion, if I'm paying $59 a month for 5Mbps, there should not be any bullshit policys attached to my internet service.

All of this information was confirmed by CableONE Support earlier.

Anyway, this is a really bad move on their part. I guess my only other option now is to say to hell with them and switch to AT&T DSL which is currently priced at $35 and downstream is 6Mbps!

My mother is on CableONE internet in Biloxi, Mississippi's market and I have to say that of all of the ISPs I've experienced (CableONE, Cox, Comcast, Verizon), they are THE BEST in terms of quality of service and quality of support. Before you get pissed at CableONE for what really amounts to a non-issue (when are you really going to exceed this limit unless you're downloading torrents).

The only legitimate usage cases that I can think of where someone could violate this ToS are if they're downloading several Linux ISOs or updating every game STEAM has in their account from scratch.

Before you jump ship, make sure you're not jumping ship to a less desirable situation.

 

[w1retap]

wow.. I'd drop that service and switch to something that didn't have that type bs. Throttling like that is totally unacceptable in my opinion. I know if my ISP did it, I'd drop them like a bad cell phone connection. The biggest voice is where the consumer's money goes.

I have got to say, the US is really slacking in terms of communications technology. I think we are ranked 23rd or something among other countries around the world. European countries have 100Mbit/100Mbit home connections, and some of my friends in Japan just got 1Gbit/1Gbit fiber for the same price I'm paying for my 6mbit/1mbit service. The US seriously needs a huge overhaul in servers, routing, cabling, etc. The companies need to cut back for a little while and stop profiteering so they can upgrade our networks. I know in my neighborhood alone just the quality of my cable lines suck. There is 60v of backfeeding electricity into my cable lines which causes the internet to drop packets and the HD cable to macroblock and drop out every few minutes. The problem is coming from the lines outside, not inside the house. The other companies available in the area are even worse.

 

[rise2mcr]

wow.. I'd drop that service and switch to something that didn't have that type bs. Throttling like that is totally unacceptable in my opinion. I know if my ISP did it, I'd drop them like a bad cell phone connection. The biggest voice is where the consumer's money goes.

I have got to say, the US is really slacking in terms of communications technology. I think we are ranked 23rd or something among other countries around the world. European countries have 100Mbit/100Mbit home connections, and some of my friends in Japan just got 1Gbit/1Gbit fiber for the same price I'm paying for my 6mbit/1mbit service. The US seriously needs a huge overhaul in servers, routing, cabling, etc. The companies need to cut back for a little while and stop profiteering so they can upgrade our networks. I know in my neighborhood alone just the quality of my cable lines suck. There is 60v of backfeeding electricity into my cable lines which causes the internet to drop packets and the HD cable to macroblock and drop out every few minutes. The problem is coming from the lines outside, not inside the house. The other companies available in the area are even worse.

Yes i agree. the US does need a huge overhaul in its communications. compared to, lets say japan, these prices are outrageous!

 

[YARDofSTUF]

How often are you gonna be downloading 2GB in an hour, wouldnt bother me at all as long as their service was kept up well.

 

[slowbiznatch]

Yes i agree. the US does need a huge overhaul in its communications. compared to, lets say japan, these prices are outrageous!

The communications infrastructure in the United States is much, much larger than Japan and other smaller European companies. Upgrading the infrastructure just in the state of New York or California would be similar to what other countries have done. Spreading that infrastructure out across the nation to states like Oklahoma and Mississippi is a huge task.

Things will get better (they've been getting better year by year), we're just a lot bigger than them and it will take much longer.

 

[svet-am]

The communications infrastructure in the United States is much, much larger than Japan and other smaller European companies. Upgrading the infrastructure just in the state of New York or California would be similar to what other countries have done. Spreading that infrastructure out across the nation to states like Oklahoma and Mississippi is a huge task.

Things will get better (they've been getting better year by year), we're just a lot bigger than them and it will take much longer.

Thank you. At least someone here understands that you have to compare apples to apples.

 

[KenF]

The communications infrastructure in the United States is much, much larger than Japan and other smaller European companies. Upgrading the infrastructure just in the state of New York or California would be similar to what other countries have done. Spreading that infrastructure out across the nation to states like Oklahoma and Mississippi is a huge task.
2.631
Things will get better (they've been getting better year by year), we're just a lot bigger than them and it will take much longer.

Quite right.

Carriers have chosen to spread their investment across the country, and that's the reason we don't have fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) yet, although Verizon is working on that (FiOS). The real issue is justifying such large investments in other states with low population densities.

The top countries in broadband penetration are Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Japan. In terms of worldwide population density, Hong Kong and Singapore are near the top with almost 17,000 people per square mile. South Korea and Taiwan are much farther down the list at around 1400 and 1250 people per square mile. To put that in perspective, New York has less than 200 people per mile and a state like Oklahoma has less than 20 people per square mile.

An OC12 (622Mbps) runs up to $300,000 per month, plus $200,000+ in initial setup costs. That works out just fine if everyone lives in massive apartment buildings or condominiums (=17,000 people per square mile, of which over 8000 are potential customers). But there's no way to justify that in state like Oklahoma with 20 people per square mile, where most buildings contain 3-4 people and just one customer.


Verizon FiOS @ $55/mo

 

[w1retap]

Thank you. At least someone here understands that you have to compare apples to apples.

While the US is much larger, it isn't that hard to run the proper lines and have the proper amount of servers and backbones to handle the traffic load for the region. The telecom places just don't want to spend the money on doing it because they are already making enough money to satisfy them, and people aren't complaining enough because most internet users are nubs. It isn't quite apples to whatever. It is the same telecommunications methods, just on in a larger region. It can be done, and it actually needs to be done. The more pessimistic you are, the worse it is going to get.

 

[pigster]

While the US is much larger, it isn't that hard to run the proper lines and have the proper amount of servers and backbones to handle the traffic load for the region.

It's never been about technical difficulty, it's about economics. Providers are very reluctant to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to run fiber backbones to thinly populated areas that won't generate much revenue.

 

[dR.Jester]

Theres a lot of legitimate reasons when it comes to transferring a large amount of data. Say I purchase a digital download of a game, it surpasses the 2GB mark and now I have to wait even longer for the download to complete. Unacceptable.

Say I have an Xbox 360 hooked up and I purchase a digital download through MarketPlace for a TV show thats in high-def. That download is over 2GB, once I surpass that 2GB mark, the throttling kicks in.....oh fuck, well looks like I'll be waiting even longer now. Unacceptable.

and last but not least. If I fire up Usenet and happen to grab a large file and go over the 2GB limit because the download did nothing but haul ass, hour goes by.....gotta wait even longer because now I'm downloading at no more than 120-140KB/s and still have a ways to go. Unacceptable.

Local AT&T DSL has $35/mo. plan for 6Mbps downstream and friends who are on it have reported little to no issue since they've had it when it comes to transferring a large amount of data downstream. Acceptable

 

[LOCO LAPTOP]

Local AT&T DSL has $35/mo. plan for 6Mbps downstream and friends who are on it have reported little to no issue since they've had it when it comes to transferring a large amount of data downstream. Acceptable

And agree. I have Bellsouth, now AT&T and I been downloading like crazy the last few days with no slow downs and on top of that with VOIP. I just hope that AT&T doesn't do that BS.

 

[KenF]

And agree. I have Bellsouth, now AT&T and I been downloading like crazy the last few days with no slow downs and on top of that with VOIP. I just hope that AT&T doesn't do that BS.

AT&T has their own backbone and peering agreements with other backbone providers. They aren't like Cable One that has to buy bandwidth from someone else.

 

[w1retap]

It's never been about technical difficulty, it's about economics. Providers are very reluctant to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to run fiber backbones to thinly populated areas that won't generate much revenue.

That is exactly what I said.

 

[KenF]

That is exactly what I said.

What you didn't say was that running such wires to less populated areas would bankrupt most of the major providers.

Every year, it gets cheaper and cheaper to lay fiber, but it will still be many years before cable companies can afford to supply high-bandwidth consumer connections in states like Oklahoma and South Dakota.

FiOS covers just a small portion of the country and Verizon expects to spend $18+ billion on that venture just in the period from 2004-2010. Much of that is debt that Verizon intends to pay off based on the expectation of 7 million customers by 2010, which they hope to obtain by laying fiber in more densely populated areas.

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=104704&f_src=lightreading_default

 

[BigTy]

The backbone topic alone has been well covered. Lets look at the lines from the MTC back. First they gave to have the gateways to support that type of through put with redundatcy. Then the network would have to be able to carry that signal meanin it isnt maxed. That alone could cuase a local market to have to rebuild. Then if that local market is a QPK QAM 16,64,ect ect. That another system upgrade. Then what grade cable line being ran to the home RG-59 RG-6 so fort. This isnt a plug and play network setup here. I agree that throttling wouldn't be my choice but for the "average" user it is a non event.As long as the company is being honest and up front thats all ou can ask for. You have to right to make a choice to what service fits your needs. But bandwidth on a corp grade level is not cheap at all. Call your local AT&T business service ad price out a fiber T1 then look at what what the cable company would pay for an OC-48 or OC-192 per month for less that 3-4% of users who want to tax the service. The return is not there.

 

[dR.Jester]

Regular bandwidth before speed-throttle.

After receiving 2GB.

*edit*

http://cableone.net/internet/threshold_limits.htm