Comcast Says it Isn't Throttling Heavy Internet Users Anymore

DooKey

DooKey

[H]F Junkie
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Comcast has turned off their congestion management system and is no longer throttling those who go over their data cap. Of course by doing so this allows a user to not notice he's over the limit and keep streaming data at high speed for an additional cost of just $10 per 50GB. However, for the low price of just an additional $50 per month you can get their unlimited data plan. Don't you feel better now?

In 2008 Comcast was caught slowing down BitTorrent traffic and charged with breaking Net Neutrality laws. The FCC gave Comcast a cease-and-desist order and required the company to tell its customers how it manages traffic. As a result, Comcast revealed its congestion management system, which slows down all super-heavy internet users, instead of targeting specific online sites (via Ars Technica).
 
Because they want to fuck over their user base for more money through fees.
 
Heh, so what Comcast does (for me at least) is gives you 2 "warning" months where we can go over our limit and they won't charge us.

So basically, 2 out of the 12 months in the given year I go BALLS TO THE WALL and download like.. 10TB.... and then make sure I'm under for the others.
 
BSmith said:
But net netrality is a bad thing. I read it on the Internet.
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Cyraxx said:
Heh, so what Comcast does (for me at least) is gives you 2 "warning" months where we can go over our limit and they won't charge us.

So basically, 2 out of the 12 months in the given year I go BALLS TO THE WALL and download like.. 10TB.... and then make sure I'm under for the others.
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just make sure you dont go over a 3rd time... else those 2 "warnings" wont come back the next year
 
With virtually no constraints, the ISP you hate today may very well be your ISP tomorrow.

Lith1um

hehe. I was running an ISP service when the original net neutrality was brought to life. Done right it is a good thing and it needs to exist. Something is better than nothing as we are all going to discover shortly.
 
That's why I have a router with built in traffic management. When I get 1TB it shuts down the Internet (supposed to at least, I've never been over 400GB :p).
 
bigdogchris said:
That's why I have a router with built in traffic management. When I get 1TB it shuts down the Internet (supposed to at least, I've never been over 400GB :p).
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Routers with built in throttling might become more of a thing now. You could set up gradual rules like "enforce a throttle when you're within 100GB of your limit", "block certain kinds of traffic within 50GB", and so on.

That being said, no net neutrality makes that more difficult, as the router can't necessarily tell if the data is discounted or not.
 
Just go for Comcast Business. It's not really that much more expensive than their residential "xfinity" service. No monthly cap. No throttling (ever, under any circumstances). They never give half a shit what you download. If there are ever any problems, you call, call is answered immediately, van is at your house in <45 minutes every single time without ever scheduling an appointment.
 
We ran across a situation recently with a customer who had been given a free speed increase from Comcast. He couldn't figure out why he was using so much more data after the upgrade. It turns out all of his streaming devices started defaulting to higher quality playback. Being a full household of cord cutters, this added up quickly.

I've started to wonder if it's intentional manipulation on Comcast's end. Make people happy with "free" speed upgrades, then rope them into an unlimited plan now that they are using too much data.
 
Axehandler said:
just make sure you dont go over a 3rd time... else those 2 "warnings" wont come back the next year
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I saw that in the terms. And I was like.. 20GB from going over last month for the 3rd time, which thankfully was my 12th month and I didn't go over so it reset to 0 this month.


Though to be honest if they did get rid of my warnings I would probably just disconnect the internet when the contract was done and re-sign up with my spouse's name. We did that about a year ago, their renewal contracts sucked - but I found online much more reasonably priced ones. When I asked they said "Thats for new customers only"... So I cancelled and just resigned up under my name instead of my spouse's heh. Problem solved!
 
brucethemoose said:
Routers with built in throttling might become more of a thing now. You could set up gradual rules like "enforce a throttle when you're within 100GB of your limit", "block certain kinds of traffic within 50GB", and so on.

That being said, no net neutrality makes that more difficult, as the router can't necessarily tell if the data is discounted or not.
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Anything traversing the WAN interface is traffic for consumer measurement.
 
So basically they're saying it's a plain cash grab and everyone that defended this "traffic management" bs before is now a complete idiot out in the open.

Time to milk the suckers.
 
Cyraxx said:
Heh, so what Comcast does (for me at least) is gives you 2 "warning" months where we can go over our limit and they won't charge us.

So basically, 2 out of the 12 months in the given year I go BALLS TO THE WALL and download like.. 10TB.... and then make sure I'm under for the others.
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lol yep, same here. It's pretty annoying. I have 1gig down/40 up and you would think with the higher tiers I'd at least get 2 TB. :: eye roll ::
 
GotNoRice said:
Just go for Comcast Business. It's not really that much more expensive than their residential "xfinity" service. No monthly cap. No throttling (ever, under any circumstances). They never give half a shit what you download. If there are ever any problems, you call, call is answered immediately, van is at your house in <45 minutes every single time without ever scheduling an appointment.
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I wish I could do this but I have TV and security too.
 
I've seen Mass Effect Andromeda DL in about 15 minutes .... whoooosh

So one does need to be careful of going over the 1TB limit.

IMO making folks sign up for a 1 or two year contract needs to be outlawed
 
BSmith said:
But net netrality is a bad thing. I read it on the Internet.
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SMH - this would be unaffected by NN. NN is about preferential treatment of some data over other data. This... is "pay us more for all data".

Find your boogeyman somewhere else.

Lucky so far in that caps not yet instituted or enforced in my neck of the woods. Frontier FIOS keeping them close to honest.
 
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TwiceOver said:
I get unlimited 100/10 for $43/mo.
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Lucky you.

My only choice is Cox, and they charge $70/month for 50/5, with a 1TB cap.
TV is even worse. Over $100, for basic+extended cable.

New users get a large discount for the 1st year, they hose everyone else.

Have to call they every year and threaten to drop the service to get a better price.

2 years ago I dropped the phone service so they could see I was serious about dropping services.

This year (after 2 price increases in 2 months) :eek:, I called and told them to just cancel my TV service because I was switching to satellite.
The 2nd price increase was due to them dropping the "long term customer" discount they gave me last year. The rep on the phone commented that I had been a customer longer than he had been alive.:confused:

They gave me an even bigger discount this year, so guess I'll wait and see what happens next year :D
 
I liked it when they called people who used the service they bought "abusers". That was fairly telling.
 
I'm paying about 32 bucks for 155mb down unlimited (not sure what the upload is but I don't use it enough to care). The only reason they have been reasonable is because I have Xfinity, RCN and FIOS all in the same neighborhood. If there's competition they will keep the price down. If your neighborhood has only one, then yep your rates will get jacked.
 
This is just so they can move the definition of "unlimited" yet again so that they can change their overage fee structure yet again.

Comcast bigwigs internal convo: "Oh no see when we said unlimited in 2005, here's what unlimited meant. Then in 2015, what we defined unlimited changed. And of course because we're big ol corporation and can define words how we feel like, we can change it to what suits us again. Awesome huh?! But remember, the name of the game is overage charging! Can you believe they'll pay TENS OF DOLLARS for extra GBs?? HAHAHAHAHA chumps!"
 
Mediacom here, they're not that bad. Pay = 200 Mbps up, 30 down.

Nevermind.
 
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Always amazes me how people seem to complain so much more about the ISP bill than their cell phone bill.. almost everyone I knows has a much higher cell phone bill. Peoples' tolerances are interesting.
 
Fifliffl said:
Always amazes me how people seem to complain so much more about the ISP bill than their cell phone bill.. almost everyone I knows has a much higher cell phone bill. Peoples' tolerances are interesting.
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I'm cheap AF! I used to complain about both all the time but now pay $15/month for 2gb with unlimited talk/text for my cell service, then I have to call Comcast every time my deal is up. I have my own equipment and a cable card so I don't pay their stupid ass fees. I have to get the double play all the time otherwise just internet is usually $20-$30 more expensive for the blast package so I just get basic cable. Then I have an Obi to convert my Google Voice to home phone so I don't have to pay for having a home phone. Since they don't have E911 I pay $12/year for that. My only other option in my area is AT&T and the max I can get is 50mbps for $60/month and this is what I pay now for 100mbps with TV.
 
Comcast knows how to suck money out of you. I upgraded to super triple play. Cause after I got their cell phone service. I could go to super triple play without any added cost. But had to pay $60 for a tech to come out and put a new modem in. And there was no way around that.
 
Forced to pay $50 to get rid of 1TB/month (formerly 2TB/month, but not enforced) limit for Cox's Ultimate Plan, now without Net Neutrality, I'm just waiting for their super special we love you unlimited streaming package, so I can continue using Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu Plus the way I was before.
 
I will never pay for an internet service that throttles or has bandwidth caps what so ever. Maybe if there's a reasonable price increase for unlimited, but it better be very reasonable.

I'll happily suffer a slower speed to get my unlimited. I'm on a 40 down / 10 up service right now. I have no need for more at this time.
 
Montu said:
. However, for the low price of just an additional $50 per month you can get their unlimited data plan. Don't you feel better now?
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In the Chicago Metro Area market it's only $30 for unlimited. Didn't know they charged for that differently in other markets.
 
They had this ability before the NN legislation went down but they are laughing at all the people shifting blame off them.
 
THRESHIN said:
I will never pay for an internet service that throttles or has bandwidth caps what so ever. Maybe if there's a reasonable price increase for unlimited, but it better be very reasonable.

I'll happily suffer a slower speed to get my unlimited. I'm on a 40 down / 10 up service right now. I have no need for more at this time.
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Sometimes people don't have a choice especially those in rural communities.
 
I admit that I'm taking it up the ass by paying the extra $50 a month, but Comcast still slowed my connection as a heavy bandwidth user to around 50-60 Mbps after a certain point. In the past month or so I've been getting the full 150 Mbps all the time.
 
If you want an unlimited product at optimal speed you need to pay.

Scarcity, how does it work.
 
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