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

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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This is an attempt to help you conserve data on your mobile plan from Comcast's Xfinity. It is 100% for your own good. I repeat, this is to help YOU. Of course if you want to pay for 720p, you can still get that too right now for free, but you will have to pay for it later this year.


Video resolution

To help you conserve data, we've established 480p as the standard resolution for streaming video through cellular data. This can help you save money if you pay By the Gig and take longer to reach the 20 GB threshold if you have the Unlimited data option.

Later this year, 720p video over cellular data will be available as a fee-based option with your service. In the meantime, you can request it on an interim basis at no charge. Learn more

This update only affects video streaming over cellular data. You can continue to stream HD-quality video over WiFi, including at millions of Xfinity WiFi hotspots.

Personal hotspots

If you have the Unlimited data option, your speeds on any device connected to a personal hotspot will not exceed 600 Kbps. At this speed, you'll conserve data so that it takes longer to reach the 20 GB threshold but you'll still be able to do many of the online activities you enjoy.

Want faster speeds when using a personal hotspot? The By the Gig data option will continue to deliver 4G speeds for all data traffic.
 
And so it begins. I would never, ever threaten Ajit Pai's life, or the life of any member of his family, but I would like to see him kidnapped and sold to a Klingon homosexual sex farm.


P.S. But that's just a personal fantasy of mine, it has nothing to do with me hating him. For years I've wanted the same thing for Wesley Crusher.

P.P.S. Of course, I'd want him found and released. Eventually.

P.P.P.S. You can say, "Net neutrality," in Klingon, but you can't say, "Not tonight, my butt hurts."

P.P.P.P.S. Have you ever noticed that when Ajit Pai is trying to look serious or stern he actually looks like a groundhog?

ajitpai.jpg


P.P.P.P.P.S. Groundhogs are closely related to weasels.
 
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I remember when AT&T had a radio ad that was promoting just how fast it's wireless data speed was, but om the standard plan it was offered with using a saturated bandwidth connection for all of about two-and-a-half minutes would consume the user entire monthly data allocation before hitting the cap and facing per gig surcharges.
 
As much as I want to blame nn... Pretty sure they allowed this stuff even with the old law.

That said I would think optin would be the way to go.

Also found it funny they mention to help not hit the limit for their unlimited plan... Something seriously wrong with that....
 
As much as I want to blame nn... Pretty sure they allowed this stuff even with the old law.

That said I would think optin would be the way to go.

Also found it funny they mention to help not hit the limit for their unlimited plan... Something seriously wrong with that....

That's their logic. They finally realize they need to limit the usage in order to make things look unlimited.
Basically, they all are nuts. They all need to a shrink right away.
 
Wait, isn't 5G supposed to allow everyone to have gig speed? Or is the advertising leaving out a few minor details?
 
This shouldn't surprise anyone. This is Comcast after all...however, throttling "unlimited" data and preventing hotspots unless you pony up are nothing new to the mobile industry.
 
So basically regardless how much data you pay for your capped to 480p resolution unless you pay another fee to use the data you already bought

Just in case you have an unlimited plan you will be throttled to a throughout ending up with 480p, unless you pay per gb and then also the fee to use your data at faster speeds per gb

Can't wait to see what other roundabout fees are possible now that data can be manipulated in any way possible
 
"take longer to reach the 20 GB threshold if you have the Unlimited data option." o_O

Also, how do they control what connects to the hotspot?

They don't... How they control it is by speed.... 600 Kbps. Now that isn't horrible they are telling you the speed of service, while slow, one can understand it being "unlimited" and all... until you hit the 20GB "limit" on their UNlimited plan...

This is where most of the anti-NN arguments break down for me... NN didn't work, wasn't business innovative friendly, not proper way to do it yada yada yada. OK where is proper regulation, in ANY size or form? One would think both sides of the isle could come together to regulate the use of the word "unlimited". They don't even do that... to me this is the lie of their arguments.

Common sense would tell me, we tore that down cause it wasn't the right solution, now here IS the right solution... wait I don't think I have heard anything other then we will let oligopolies do what they want... Where are all the anti government people tearing down anti-competitive deals? Crickets... they are too busy using SJW behavior complaining about SJWs.
 
For all you "NN" whiners, you do realize this has nothing to do with the recent FCC actions, right? The old "Net Neutrality" had nothing to do with carrier to end user, but from upstream providers' path to the carriers. Even under the Obama era rule (called Net Neutrality, but not real Net Neutrality) the cell data providers were still free to do this?
 
That's right, never bring it up, just roll over and spread em.

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?
 
All the more reason I love T-Mobile. unlimited 4g data and no video resolution drop to phone or tethered Dell Latitude 5175 tablet... use about 60 gig a mo...

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.
 
For all you "NN" whiners, you do realize this has nothing to do with the recent FCC actions, right? The old "Net Neutrality" had nothing to do with carrier to end user, but from upstream providers' path to the carriers. Even under the Obama era rule (called Net Neutrality, but not real Net Neutrality) the cell data providers were still free to do this?

Sadly the post with the FCC chairman's face blaming this on the repel of NN already has 12 likes. Even though the Net Neutrality rules do NOT apply in the case of cell data.

This is a perfect demonstration of America today.

Never underestimate the power of STUPID people in large groups.

Politicians know this this and take advantage of the easy to activate outrage mode of STUPID people.
 
Perfect example of the type of post made by a STUPID person.

Doesn't know Net Neutrality has nothing to do with cell data

Too damn STUPID to care

Even Wishes death to someone. Even posting his picture.

Pure STUPID.

I didn't think I was making death threats, I thought I was making jokes at the expense of a person I don't respect. But I could be wrong.

I don't want this thread to get swallowed whole by some angry, off-topic dick waving, so you win. I'm stupid. You were right the whole time. I'm dumber than shit and my opinions are ignorant, and I apologize.


P.S. Cell data was supposed to be included in net neutrality, but cellular companies were always working on ways to weasel around it. But now that the FCC has killed net neutrality, they're reclassifying cellular data as broadband.
 
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"take longer to reach the 20 GB threshold if you have the Unlimited data option." o_O

Also, how do they control what connects to the hotspot?
They're doing some kind of packet inspection, for instance when running my laptop to my hotspot via hacked app my web URLs would get hijacked and redirected to a hotspot subscription page. if I change the user agent in Chrome to mobile all the pages would begin working again, of course then I was being given mobile view web pages on a laptop which was a little funky
 
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I didn't think I was making death threats, I thought I was making jokes at the expense of a person I don't respect. But I could be wrong.

I don't want this thread to get swallowed whole by some angry, off-topic dick waving, so you win. I'm stupid. You were right the whole time. I'm dumber than shit and my opinions are ignorant, and I apologize.


P.S. Cell data was supposed to be included in net neutrality, but cellular companies were always working on ways to weasel around it. But now that the FCC has killed net neutrality, they're reclassifying cellular data as broadband.

Yes Some one WANTED cell data included BUT it was NOT. It was unaffected by the Net Neutrality repel. Mister Ajit Pai does not deserve for someone to post his picture and wish him kidnapped and sold to a Klingon homosexual sex farm.
 
Not new, at least for other networks. I think att has done this for a while now (note: it's not throttling, but rather sending an alternative stream that's encoded at a lower resolution, thereby requiring less bandwidth).
 
For all you "NN" whiners, you do realize this has nothing to do with the recent FCC actions, right? The old "Net Neutrality" had nothing to do with carrier to end user, but from upstream providers' path to the carriers. Even under the Obama era rule (called Net Neutrality, but not real Net Neutrality) the cell data providers were still free to do this?

Don't confuse them with the facts, this has to all be Trumps fault.
 
As much as I want to blame nn... Pretty sure they allowed this stuff even with the old law.

That said I would think optin would be the way to go.

Also found it funny they mention to help not hit the limit for their unlimited plan... Something seriously wrong with that....

As I recall, at the time, the FCC was primarily concerned with mobile carriers being upfront about this stuff. Not promising unlimited data then hiding the real limit under mountains of legalize designed to confuse the end user. As shitty as this is, Comcast would still be within those guidelines. They're being upfront about it and informing customers in fairly clear language. Under the old FCC there might have been a review of these practices, but I doubt it would have gone anywhere.
 
Perfect example of the type of post made by a STUPID person.

Doesn't know Net Neutrality has nothing to do with cell data

Too damn STUPID to care

Even Wishes death to someone. Even posting his picture.

Pure STUPID.

I see you are a bit new here, might want to review the rules, in particular this paragraph:

"You agree to not use the Service to submit or link to any Content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws."

It can get salty in here, but damn...
 
Out of curiosity how do they force 480p? Do they simply detect what data is transferring then throttle the bandwidth to the point that only 480 will go and your streaming service simply defaults to the best resolution given the speed?
 
Out of curiosity how do they force 480p? Do they simply detect what data is transferring then throttle the bandwidth to the point that only 480 will go and your streaming service simply defaults to the best resolution given the speed?

I'm sure someone can give a more technical explanation but as I understand it what they're doing is basically telling the streaming service that your connection is only capable of 480p. Netflix, Youtube, etc all know what kind of speeds they can pull from your internet connection and they use that to decide, on the fly, what video quality to serve you. If your connection cannot maintain a certain quality than the service will not serve that quality to you. ISPs can monitor the type of traffic going over their network so it is just a matter of making sure packets dealing with video streaming are limited to a certain speed, ensuring the throttled video quality.

This is also why VPNs can get around that kind of throttling as a good VPN will make it hard/impossible for the ISP to read the packet so they won't be able to automatically throttle it.
 
Oooohhh you can upgrade to 720p with some cash, wow!

*streams 4k HDR content over youtube on mobile connection in UK*

Even the increased limit is laughable.
 
For all you "NN" whiners, you do realize this has nothing to do with the recent FCC actions, right? The old "Net Neutrality" had nothing to do with carrier to end user, but from upstream providers' path to the carriers. Even under the Obama era rule (called Net Neutrality, but not real Net Neutrality) the cell data providers were still free to do this?
Exactly.. now you can expect the same manipulation of your landline connection thanks to NN rules being removed. How is this better again?
 
There's a similar thing in my country too.
https://pokde.net/tech/umobile-giler-unlimited-gx30-gx50-test/
https://www.soyacincau.com/2018/06/26/u-mobile-giler-unlimited-postpaid-prepaid-gx30-gx50/
Netflix and YouTube streaming are capped to standard resolution (480p)
According to the T&C, both plans will let you enjoy unlimited video and music streaming in standard definition. This means your video streaming is capped at a maximum of 480p resolution.

https://www.celcom.com.my/cs/Satell...BO_List/ListDetailsTemplate&pid=1439662449223
Upon full utilisation of Internet Quota, Internet usage will be throttled to 64kpbs and capped at 15GB.

https://www.malaysianwireless.com/2015/07/digi-smart-prepaid-plan-free-basic-internet/
The Telco said that its Smart Free Lite Internet at 64Kbps speed lets customers stay connected online 24/7 and is “perfectly suited” for popular services like Facebook Lite, Google, Twitter and light browsing at mobile-friendly websites.

I don't recall many mobile websites that are friendly to 64kbps.
 
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.
 
We will throttle you back to the stone age, if that's the last thing we do damnit!
 
Yes Some one WANTED cell data included BUT it was NOT. It was unaffected by the Net Neutrality repel. Mister Ajit Pai does not deserve for someone to post his picture and wish him kidnapped and sold to a Klingon homosexual sex farm.
What about getting him kidnapped to a Klingon Cuddle Dungeon?
 
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.
 
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.

The original way they went about NN was beyond their power. That is why Wheeler reclassified internet as Title II, something that the judges told the FCC they have the power to do. From there they would have the power to implement NN regulations.
 
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