Comcast announces new bandwidth throttling scheme (update: old news)
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Nov 5th 2009 3:58PM
posted Nov 5th 2009 3:58PM
Comcast customers have been no stranger to bandwidth shenanigans over the years, from the whole torrent filtering mess to the 250GB monthly cap. Now the company is back with a new data throttling scheme intended to put the kibosh on excessive traffic during those times when the network is already being overwhelmed. The two-tiered system is put on alert if either more than 70 percent of your max bandwidth (downstream or upstream) is used for more than 15 minutes or if your particular Cable Modem Termination System gets congested and it decides that you're partially responsible. Should you run afoul of the traffic warden, expect to find yourself down-throttled for at least 15 minutes, or until your average bandwidth utilization rate drops below 50 per cent for 15 minutes. If there is no congestion, however, you shouldn't notice any difference whatsoever -- unless, of course, John McCain gets his way. Warning: PDF read link.
Update: Due to crossed wires when researching this piece, we mistakenly reported that this policy was new. It is not. In fact, the throttling detailed above has been in effect for nearly a year.
Update: Due to crossed wires when researching this piece, we mistakenly reported that this policy was new. It is not. In fact, the throttling detailed above has been in effect for nearly a year.
Really?
Better NOT f'cuk with my connection when am playing COD:WAW.
They already mess with my connection when I play the ol' xbox online.
This better not fall under "reasonable network management".. because that'd be bogus.
one word:
ASSHOLES!!
FU Comcast you AHoles. I love it how these pricks think they are doing you a favor. Last time I checked we the customers are doing them a favor we pay our F*&*ing $50 a month plus tax for your shit service so F&*K off and leave our shit alone you asses.
Really, what all these jackass cable companies is more competition. I mean until there is more WiMax/Fios/Uverse competition, these jackasses are still going to do whatever they want. I typically don't like government intervention, but I think some of these companies should be broken up.
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THIS IS FIOS!!! THIS IS BIG!!!
what the hell are you guys talking about
an average game uses about 15-25MB of information PER HOUR, there is NO WAY game playing is triggering throttling unless you are running a server, or are on cellular data network.
stop blaming your crappy game-playing abilities on your ISP.
Also how the hell is this legal? They sold me a 15Mbit pipe so If I want to use 15Mbit all day every f&*&*ng day then I should have every right to. I say if they can throttle your pipe to 50% then you should only have to pay them 50% of your bill then since all you are getting is 50% then what you pay for. I am reporting this to the FCC and the FTC and I advise everyone else to do so even if you don't have comcast.
This shouldn't be a problem for most Comcast users. I know that even when I try to max out my connection I never come close to the bandwidth I pay for. Feels like they already throttle me.
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
GO THERE AND FILE A COMPLAINT. I just did.
So basically, if we were to compare this to a water company, it would be like having your water slow to a trickle if you kept your shower on for more than 15 minutes. FFFFFUUUUFFUUUFUFU
@bjsguess
I have comcast and every time I've run a speed test it's been slower, by a lot, than what I'm suppose to get so I know exactly what you're talking about. Ironically enough I ran a test right after reading this story and my internet was faster than it's ever been.................
@ Chuckles McGee
Not really. Because you pay for how much water you use. So the water company could care less how much you use since your paying for it. With bandwith, you dont pay for how much you use, thus they cant just let everyone use the whole pipe all the time or everyone will be affected, like its currently happening.
it would be like if you pay 50 dollars a month flat out for water, then have all your faucets, dishwasher, showers, washing machine running all its water at the same time for more than 15 min. THEN having it slow to a trickle.
I can understand where they are coming from really.
I'm sure I'll be in the minority, and probably downranked, but I'm sure this will have little to no effect on the average user. Online gaming doesn't take up that much bandwith during usage (if you spend 10 hours a day playing Xbox live EVERY day in a month, you won't even reach half of the cap, so space that out with any downloads you make, adjust as needed, etc) so I really doubt the impact will effect gamers too often. Media streaming, as stated in a few comments down, isn't a constant downloaded buffer.
I'm not an expert here, so if my numbers are off, I apologize. I just think that unless you've personally had Comcast calling you notifying you that you use too much, and will be throttled, there's no need to blow up already :) I'd be just as pissed if it happened to me, as well. Since it hasn't yet, I'm not going to get pissed.
Comcast:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Rage_face.png
FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
I wonder if this is why the neighbors all of a sudden got a new encrypted router when I used their open wifi to download 40 gigs of stuff in a week...
whoops...
For the past month or two my bandwith drops from 1.5mbps to 200-300kbps at night. Maybe this is the reason. I've had techs come out like 5 times and they tell me they will send linemen multiple times but still it hasn't gotten any better. I can't wait till U-Verse comes to my area so we can switch over. Fuck Comcast!!
They kill the quality of my adult video feeds
dammit... well at least they're replacing the trunks in my area with fiber.
Dammit I knew some bad new was going to come before Modern Warfare 2 came out...
They are almost finished in Houston by having all fiber trunks.
-1
-1
I like your profile pic. (i know it's not you, i heard you tell someone that before) lol
DPedolski
epic picture
i cant read the last part of the picture... something about bandwidth.
I think its my ISP.
DO NOT WANT
translation: no online gaming. no downloading anything large. no anything. AHHH!!!
Don't forget streaming high quality video.
While this is definitely shit. Somehow I doubt online gaming uses more than 70% of your bandwidth.
you cant stream high quality video, open your eyes.
well maybe on a tiny screen, but then its not really high quality.
That's because in America, internet providers don't actually want you to use what you pay for. Think mobile phone providers who provide "unlimited internet" until you reach 5GB per month. Soon, they will also feature this throttling method and raise your rates by $50 per month!
I do this this as being a potential lawsuit, though.
What online game uses 1 Mbps or more of bandwidth for 15 solid minutes!?
@youngstunna: I guess the near-HD quality video I've been streaming to my 46" LCD TV via Netflix has just been an illusion, since you say it's not possible. Wow.
To be honest in Germany we also have unlimited mobile plans where they cut you off after 5 GB, or where 3G gets cut down to GPRS after 200, 300, whatever megs. I had a provider that offered a flatrate that give you only 50% of your bandwidth after you have reached 30 GB, 25% after you have reached 50 GB and 10% after you have reached 70 GB, or something like that. My current one cuts you off for 2 weeks if you exceed 10 GB between 8-24, which is really easy to do since it's 100 Mbit up and down.
I think my biggest issue with what Comcast is doing is that people now have to take care not to use 100% of their bandwidth. Ok, for me that would be easy since almost no server can send with 12 MB/s, but with a normal connection? You would have to install a download manager that reduces the speed.
Also... with those slow connections normal people have almost any download would mean your connection slows down. New Engadget Show? Slows down. Patch for your game? Slows down. etc. I'd think it would make more sense if they keep the cap (250 gig, right?), but instead of capping the connection reduce the speed to something usable for internet but not for downloading large files... maybe 512 kbit or so down, 128 up.
You guys realize that HD video Buffers...its not a constant 1Mbps data stream?
ARE YOU F*K*NG KIDDING ME?
if they cannot support the LOAD in their network, why in the hell are they selling/offering something that they cannot provide?... this is just ridiculous.
That's why i'm staying with Verizon FIOS or any other true ISP.
warning for verizon: You start doing sh*t like this and i'm gonna be the first one to leave.
The local power and water people are putting in fiber to the home and service is going to be available in about a couple of months. Can't wait. Faster speeds at the same price as comcast + matching upload speeds and no cap. I am literally going to walk into comcast's local office and start yelling "I HAVE ON OPTION NOW, BITCHES! CANCEL MY SERVICE!!!"
Hey in addition to complaining to Engadget please contact your State Attorney General and the FTC about these ridiculous practices. These actions should add up to false advertising.
Don't they make enough money. How much do you think it ACTUALLY cost them to provide service to each customer? I want to know that!
My local phone company is laying down fiber to the town right now. Supposed to be in my neighborhood early next year. I have already marked my Outlook Calendar to call again in January to see if they are closer to getting fiber to my house. The sooner I can dump Comcast the better, I already dumped their TV for DTV 2 years ago, and have been waiting for my chance to dump them completely. The sooner I can get rid of them the better.
I just called Fios today after coming in from work, only to learn that it's available along with Verizon FIOS TV :). I have a tech coming to my house on Monday, I'm more than anxious!
At least you guys have options where you live. In my area, Verizon DSL still a distance dream, not to mention Fios. The only cable company it's Comcast, so I got to stick with them.
I think everyone in america should get to crap on the CEO of comcasts head. Thats right CRAP
...he might like it.
yeah CEO needs to contribute the society other than feeding other customer's doo doo.
Crap on his Harley's seat.
Ah yes, that great old Jewish family, headed up by Mr. Roberts. We all know that Roberts is a fine Jewish name.
Then Comcast has the nerve to make those commercials dissing other ISP's... what a joke
I download things on a daily basis that take longer than 15 minutes at max bandwidth. This is pretty ridiculous, and should be seen as a way to thwart Netflix and others from offering high-quality content over the internet. (Thereby eating away at Comcast's cable product.)
So I get punished for using the bandwidth I'm paying for? Get bent Comcast.
I am not here to defend Comcast but I am confused.
I hate Concast because their cheapest service in Chicago is 15MB/sec for $59.99 without cable service. Using 70% of that connection is 10.5MB per second. I download a lot, more then most but I don't think I've gotten above 1.8MB/sec download speed.
Whois really using that much bandwidth?
You're getting 15 megabits/second. There are 8 bits to a byte. So at 1.8 megabytes/seconds, it's equivalent to 14.4 megabits/second. So yes, a lot of people max out connections. Especially if I'm downloading new linux distros via bittorrent, I'll typically max out my connection for however long it takes.
No shit, you're right. I don't know why I thought it was 15MB per second, it's 15Mbps in which yes, your math is indeed correct.
So I guess I am f***ed if I want to be streaming through Netflix and Hulu like I used to.
So if someone uses 70% of the bandwidth they're paying for longer than 15 minutes during peak time they get throttled? Nice one Comcast.
So glad I don't have comcast. What a horrible company. You pay a lot for your internet, and when the service can't keep up with their promises they throttle users instead of improving their network.
So they sell you a certain amount of bandwidth and then if you actually use anywhere near that amount for more than 15 minutes, they force your internet to slow down? Awesome.
So you can't even use the internet you are paying for now. Nice, Comcast.
When did we ever get that. This wont actually be noticeable because nobody using Comcast gets the speed they pay for anyway.
wtf mate
Classic.
Wow, well, you know, where I live ... Comcast is pretty bad....at night when people get on massively, our download speed goes from 6 mpbs to like 0.25 mbps. I have a collection of Comcast Tech Reports. They have been here multiple times. The verdict: There are too many gamers on your area that eat the bandwidth. So what I see form this article is that their solution is go Bandwidth Nazi instead of improving the nods.
Would the Internet reach a point where you have to pay per kilobyte? I mena right now you pay a falt rate for whatever download mass you make.
What could be the advantages of this system? Is it fair? Something tells me No, but something else tells me yes.
I appreciate your input.
Next to follow Cox Communications! SWEET!.......................
As if sucking ^ isn't enough.
OH dear God say it ain't so. I need my slingbox
Glad I dont have comcast anymore. This is stupid. If you pay for 15mbps, you should be able to use the full 15mbps for as long as you want. They need to put this is big bold letters on their website.
That's like a phone company saying that you have unlimited data, then forcing you down to EDGE after you stream a youtube video for 3 minutes.
..!.. U COMCAST! I WILL BE CANCELLING YOU ASAP!
minor clarification....both conditions have to be met for you to be throttled. The CMTS has to be congested AND you have to be contributing to the congestion (>70% for 15 minutes.)
"When, and only when, both conditions are met, a user’s upstream or downstream traffic
(depending on which type of port is in the Near Congestion State) will be designated as BE. " -page 7 of the pdf
I don't care what the f'in thing says its kind of sad that day after day our rights are taken away, "Land of the Free" my ass
also, "Based on the trials to date, we expect that a typical CMTS port on our HSI network will be in a Near Congestion State only for relatively small portions of the day, if at all, though there is no way to forecast what will be the busiest time on a particular port on a particular day." - page 8
We'll see if this statement holds up and how long they consider to be "relatively small."
Cumblast Chodeband
What Engadget (apparently everyone else) missed is that this document is a year old. It even states that this rollout is on track to be completed December 31st, 2008. And no, that is not a typo. Comcast has been doing this for the last year and no one noticed...
Seriously, that might need a little explanation from the editors...
Lol, well, since no one's noticed, then carry on, Comcast!
nice catch
Well, I just thought it was Comcast being generally crappy. Apparently, there was a method to their crappyness. Good to bring the mechanism to the public's attention.
Yes, they've been doing this for some time now...I'm just waiting for FIOS to get to my neighborhood. Unfortunately, they can't even give me a guess as to when that will be. Looks like I may have to consider Clear as an alternative but I've got to sign a two year contract.
The biggest problem I've got with Comcast is their monopoly. Not that I blame them, the city offered them the monopoly on a silver platter, it was a smart business for Comcast. We the people were let down by our elected officials (nothing new there either).
Well, then they certainly did a piss-ass job implementing the throttle, as my connection slowwwwwws to a crawl several times a week simply checking e-mail. If they're throttling my neighbors, then this wouldn't happen.
Face it, Comcast is a piece of shit. You can barely get the bandwidth you've paid for, as others have pointed out.
Great. What is with assholes trying to ruin the internet these days?
We recently got our account suspended by Comcast for 12 months for usage abuse. We have seven people living in one house sharing the connection. The first one we had upload + download of about 607gb according to Comcast. Our internet got disconnected and after a phone call they explained to us that if we exceed again we would be suspended. So the next month we were more careful and did around 947gb :|. So we kinda exceeded the bandwidth limit every week. So the bottom line is we don't have internet and I hate my roomies.
What the hell?
How do you download nearly a TB of stuff a month. Holy shit
Hint one or more of your roomies is a pirate.
Listen for parrots
you should have multiple lines brought in with 7 people in one house.
is a piece of cake to hit terabytes on usenet.
I'm routinely above 250GB according to my router's firmware. They don't call me. Probably because I've been a customer for 10+ years.
Comcast and Time Warner don't compete... they don't serve each other's areas.
They're a damn cable cartel.
To arms!
Ooooh, can we have "Uprising" by Muse as our theme song?
Does this mean an end to watching Netflix HD? That's the whole reason I switched to Comcast. What a bunch of crap!
Also, how can I monitor my usage? My home network has 3 computers plus 5 or 6 other wi-fi devices that use the connection. How would I know if I approach the 250 GB limit?
Also is that 250 GB limit up and down? (ie 200 down and 50 up = 250 limit)
If you get a router that supports a free custom firmware like Tomato, it provides live, hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly logging of bandwidth utilization and such it is simply amazing. Here's the link... http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato
or DD-WRT
This will not change anything! A new BT client will come out that bypasses this by throttling down bandwidth usage every once in a while to abide by the rules set forth by Comcast.
I download at least 2TB a month mimimum so i guess comcast isn't for me and they don't do business in my area anyway.
First time they throttle my connection I will drop them in a heartbeat and switch services.
If people would read the actual source or check the /informed/ comments on slashdot, you'd see that this is an old story, and it's nowhere near as "evil" as people are making it out to be.
Psst! Attachment A was released last year.
This Attachment B.
The next time you're going to be a snarky, know it all, asshole, at least try to be right.
Er.. I meant, "This is Attachment B."
Does any1 know a Good Fast not Throttling ISP?