Comcast / Xfinity Throttling 720p Vids to 480p & Hotspots

[katanaD]

We will throttle you back to the stone age, if that's the last thing we do damnit!

long ago i got to experience.. hughs net, aka satellite internet. and let me tell you about throttling. when you hit your cap.. you were slowed to literally dial-up speeds. man it was painful, and expensive.

 

[TordanGow]

Ffs... NN was wrongly implemented. FCC doesn't have the power to make law.

Congress needs to pass a NN law. That's why it was removed from them.

Everyone seems to know so much that isn't so.

Oh, gee... it's a done deal then!

 

[exlink]

Gee...golly. This is TOTALLY something new and unheard of.

It's not like other major cell phone carriers haven't already been doing this...

For example, I've had T-Mobile since August 2017. I have the T-Mobile One Plus plan so I can stream content in 720p otherwise with the regular T-Mobile One plan you only stream at 480p. It's a $10/month up charge. Verizon does the same thing. They also both throttle you after you reach a certain data cap in their "unlimited" plans.

 

[{NG}Fidel]

Oh but Net Neutrality would be awful guise! WHAT ABOUT REGULATIONS AND HOW THEY ARE THE DEVIL, IT COULD NEVER PREVENT SOMETHING LIKE THIS.

 

[Aireoth]

Open to suggestions here on what we are supposed to be doing? you know, other than lie back and think of England?

the "Vote with your wallet" thing only works when you have that option, and when all the major carriers follow this path what's a poor consumer to do?

At least you understand the problem, lots of people (even in here) don't.

While it's a long conversation that's easier had in person than over the internet, it boils down to the limitations of capitalism and the free market in a world where both the cost of starting a competitor is too high and corporations are driven by little more than the next quarter.

The reality is some form of government intervention is required to put a check on the system, as competition cannot. Otherwise the result is a corporate dictatorship, as the saying goes (with a small alteration to highlight the impending problem) meet the new boss, same as the old king.

There maybe other solutions, but that is the simplest. Not sure how you shift the short term, profit (greed) driven cycle to a long term, quality of life, system.

 

[fwiler1]

Fuck it. I now want a 480p phone. No scaling causing artifacts for me.

 

[maxius]

duh you think they were just going to toss away all their traffic shaping hardware oh no baby hang on its going to get bumpy till the asshats in power are not

 

[MrRuckus]

For example, I've had T-Mobile since August 2017. I have the T-Mobile One Plus plan so I can stream content in 720p otherwise with the regular T-Mobile One plan you only stream at 480p. It's a $10/month up charge. Verizon does the same thing. They also both throttle you after you reach a certain data cap in their "unlimited" plans.

Depends on where you live. TMO says they will throttle IF there is congestion. There is no congestion where I live. I can hit over 100GB in a month and have only been throttled a handful of times that I noticed. A good VPN and I play whatever resolution I feel like. I dont live in a rural area either, or right on the skirts of a rural area. In recent months I have been able to pull over 100mbit on TMO cellular 70-80mbit pretty consistently. This is on an S9+ with the One Plus plan.

Its sad that I will sometimes stream on my phone to avoid our 1TB cap on Comcast cable. We are heavy users in my house with 2 adults, 2 kids. Tmobile has been great for the past 10 years or so I have had them. Haven't had a reason to drop them yet. As long as I keep seeing improvement (which I have) they will have my money.

 

[nysmo]

Tmobile has been great for the past 10 years or so I have had them. Haven't had a reason to drop them yet. As long as I keep seeing improvement (which I have) they will have my money.

I dunno man, Tmobile has always been anti NN and even popularized the whole zero-rating scheme to get around it. Why should you have to pay extra for HD? Data is data. You buy 100GB worth or whatever then you use it however you want. Acting like you should be thankful to share 10GB of that with your laptop or stream in "HD" is a joke and should not be rewarded.

 

[Shadowed]

What if you download the content instead of streaming? Netflix, Amazon, and Youtube all allow 720p downloads to local storage.

 

[Uvaman2]

So, streaming services raising prices due to getting ready for the end of NN?

 

[YeuEmMaiMai]

not sure what you're talking about. I'm on tmobile ONE and unlimited video streaming is at 480p on the phone. which I'm pretty sure is how it always was which was why they would call it unlimited... tethering doesn't quite work on my phone so i haven't confirmed what happens when hotspot to a tablet or laptop.

I get 1080p, might want to turn off binge on option off. I am on a family shared plan with unlimited 4g on my line for $20...been on this plan 10 plus years when 4g came out they changed my plan from unlimited 3g.. tethering will not work unless your plan has it. Nice thing is video steaming does not eat into the 5gb limit.

 

[atom]

And they wonder why so many young consumers have given the cable industry the finger. I can't wait for the day someone comes up with a way to give cell phone carriers the finger. Nationwide wifi phones?

 

[Nobu]

And they wonder why so many young consumers have given the cable industry the finger. I can't wait for the day someone comes up with a way to give cell phone carriers the finger. Nationwide wifi phones?

I'm using freedompop ($78/6mo, 2GB and unlimited talk/text) + google voice (free), works pretty well. You can do without google, but you have to use their voip software if you do. They offer a free plan too, but it only allows 500mb/mo iirc, and after that you get no data unless you pay for more.

If I could get away with the free plan and use only wifi I would, but there aren't a lot of open wifi hotspots where I live.

 

[Skylinestar]

480p ceased being standard a decade ago. If your data cap doesn't allow for at least 720, that is just bullshit money grabbing. Especially when you are talking about a product with a massive profit margin like bandwidth.

64kbps is the standard in my country once you reach your data cap. You can't even stream 144p Youtube.