Comcast, which has always been fighting tooth-and-nail with the heavy-hitting downloaders, may be implementing a monthly download cap of 250GB with overages for those that surpass the limit, according to an anonymous Comcast insider.
Along with the cap, Comcast would allow users one "slip up" month and after that users will be charged $15 for each 10GB downloaded over the cap. Uploads will reportedly not be affected
The Comcast insider says that the cap will only affect the top .1-percent of Comcast users, which is around 14,000. These 14,000 individuals are likely individuals that thrive on peer-to-peer networks for fire sharing, like BitTorrent and others.
Until there will be a better way to properly regulate these top tier users, this type of a cap will have to work. I'm still a little confused why Comcast wouldn't want to regulate uploads as well, which are just as bad, if not worse when using bitorrent.
And if you need reassurance, this cap will not affect the average consumer as one would have download content at roughly 96 kilobytes-per-second non-stop for the entire month to hit the cap, which is just something the average user just doesn't do.
phew! i'm still safe! i can still upload, share, and upload some more!
because all my friends have different services so they can download all they want. =)
plus my one free slip up month will be used when this years' summer blockbusters come out.
just kidding. point-one-percent eh? good attempt though...
Excuse me? This won't affect the average consumer? What happens when digital distribution matures and we're downloading HD movies instead of renting them from Netflix? Granted, the infrastructure (at least the 'last mile') will have to be overhalled before anything like that will be viable, but that just speaks to the issue at hand. All Comcast is doing is placing a band-aid on a gushing wound. They don't want to admit that they have to upgrade their infrastructure because *gasp* they might actually have to pay for that. Take away part of the rediculous profits they're making charging $50/month for a service that's worth $30? That's preposterous!
Do I think most users will be affected by this? No, not right now. But it's the motive behind the action, and in the case of Comcast, or any other ISP in the U.S. it's almost never a genuine attempt at customer service.
Alright, that felt good. /rant
Excuse me? This won't affect the average consumer? What happens when digital distribution matures and we're downloading HD movies instead of renting them from Netflix? Granted, the infrastructure (at least the 'last mile') will have to be overhalled before anything like that will be viable, but that just speaks to the issue at hand. All Comcast is doing is placing a band-aid on a gushing wound. They don't want to admit that they have to upgrade their infrastructure because *gasp* they might actually have to pay for that. Take away part of the rediculous profits they're making charging $50/month for a service that's worth $30? That's preposterous!
Do I think most users will be affected by this? No, not right now. But it's the motive behind the action, and in the case of Comcast, or any other ISP in the U.S. it's almost never a genuine attempt at customer service.
Alright, that felt good. /rant