http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/ Engadget Comments for http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Yeah, really. 4 GB per MONTH? I knock out 4 GB in ten minutes... I really wish I could check my usage.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
I used to average about 40GB/mo, but a lot of that was totally unnecessary. Now I have a 10GB/week cap at school, and I never even get near it, but then again torrent is blocked and DC++ doesn't count against the cap. :)

Torrent can eat up a lot, but how much of that can you consume? 3 HD movies a week is around 50GB/mo, Pandora for 200 hours/mo is 18GB, even Bittorrent is less than 1GB/hour (of watchable content) even if you seed more than you download (I seed to 1.2 and stop).

That being said, I think that Comcast should just kick you to the bottom priority on your node or to 768/128 or something so that you can still get information online, but not guzzle bandwidth after you hit that magic 250GB and your area is congested. Threatening to terminate people is a totally inappropriate way to handle bandwidth hogs.

They should also have a clear upgrade path to a business class unlimited connection so that if people want to suck down bandwidth like no tomorrow, and want to pay for it.

Those of you who are moving close to 1TB/mo, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???]]>Dec 2nd 2009 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/works for Comcast]]>Dec 2nd 2009 9:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Good thing I have an upgraded router firmware. I only ended up november with about 140GB using DD-WRT's graph. Kept it nice and light.

The problem with comcast though, there is almost certainly going to be a discrepancy between their number and the router's number. I have a very hard time believing they will measure the same number. This will be interesting to see if stuff starts matching up or not.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 10:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
That being said, excessive use is excessive use. What they should do, however, is offer a clear path to true unlimited business class (at, say $150-$200/mo), and instead of banning people, just throttle them hard.

In the same way, I support the 5GB caps on wireless datacards and tethering, but they should not be charging those outragous overage feeds, they should just throttle you back. Throttling is a legitimate network management technique, charging overages or banning users is not, as you are just money grabbing, and still pumping out bandwidth.

Throttling at 250GB for Comcast would be a simple solution and would require a lot less customer support while still retaining the "offenders" but it would stop them from hurting the network.

Either that or they could sell 1.5mbps unlimited connections. :D]]>Dec 3rd 2009 10:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/If it is 4GB a month why the @#$# are you on people's back about using 400GB? What they are not using let me use it.

See I can twist shit to. ]]>Dec 3rd 2009 10:57AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Secondly, no matter what any company says, any consumer level connection is a shared connection. Even though AT&T and Verizon like to say that you have your own bandwidth, that only holds true from your house to the DSLAM, as there sure isn't the sum of the DSLAM's possible bandwidth available to the CO. It might be a 1:10, or more likely 1:100 ratio, but you don't have your own connection.

Cable is a fully shared medium, although it can usually pump out more bandwidth than DSL.

That being said, you can't just waste bandwidth all day, because it will hurt the service for other users.

Even if we all had 100mbit fiber to our houses, it would still be a shared medium at some point, as even then a CO might only have a 10 gigabit line coming in and out for 1,000+ subscribers. In that way, it would still not be something that we could all just suck bandwidth all day. Bittorrent is OK on some scale, but you can't just download junk for the heck of it and upload it 100 times. Well you can, actually. If you buy dedicated bandwidth like a bonded T1, and pay accordingly.]]>Dec 3rd 2009 12:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 8:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
I easily knock 250 GB out.....I share a connection with 6 other friends and my average is 100Gb a month and my friends if any thing download a hell of a lot more than me....rapid shares, torrents, all kinds of stuff (they dont have jobs :-) yet) we are all students. I have been using comcast for 2 yrs now. NO extra penny paid to comcast.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 10:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/I don't think they care about what you use it for. they just want to maximize their profit margin. After 250GB, they probably drop below a certain threshold of profitability.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 7:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/House wants you to steal.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 10:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Don't worry, they only warn you the first time.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 10:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:53PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Recently being last october. It's in the FAQ.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 10:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 4:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Most people online don't use HULU, Youtube. Most people online don't Torrent, podcast, or stream tons of media.

That's the reality. At my local watering hole, I ask 50 people about HULU, Torrents, and podcasts. Most didn't know what HULU or Torrents were (these people are in there 20s and 30s). Many knew what podcasts were and didn't use them.

250Gb is a good size because the majority of internet users will never exceed it. The few who do will have to pay for their excessive use.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
No what they should do it charge the users who only use 4GB/month a super low rate because then the ISP (Comcast) is making big bucks off that $50/month when they have a 250GB limit but only using 4GB?

sounds like a ripoff to me]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
They do offer service for less than $50 a month. You can get a $30/month plans with a slower download rate. Most users won't notice a difference with the lower priced plan if they aren't a heavy streamer/downloader.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:16PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Why do they have to lower the speed to lower the price? if your only using 4GB/month does the speed really matter?

]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Many people that post on this website and many others live in a vaccuum. Most people in the world don't have a clue or care about the things we care about on here.

I've did the same question thing at two large dance clubs (not my usual watering hole) with a lot of twenty somethings that have Android phone, iPhones, blackberries. The results were very similar.

]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
It really sucks how Comcast can manipulate their monopoly to prevent the laws of supply and demand to take effect]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:36PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
While I agree with you that too many posters here are clueless how "average people" use tech(or don't use it).
You're making the same mistake, all those kids with smart phones, didn't have them until the iphone made them cool.
All it takes is that one killer app, and suddenly average use goes from 3GB to 300GB.
Att is discovering this to their customers dismay. The ISPs will as well. ]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Actually, comcast offers a $100 service that has no restrictions whatsoever with higher speeds than the $50 plan. The $100 plan also allows VPN connections (which causes heavy data usage when moving files).]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/well what about people who play games online? ive always wondered that myself, like how much data does playing MW2 online use. Its things like this that i have no idea about and want to see. plus add that to a roommate who streams maybe 2 or 3 movies a day (while working) then average internet usage... i have a feeling it could add up pretty quickly]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/So if you use 249GB it's still $50 :P

it should all be rated by the bandwidth used
under 5GB is like $10/month and then as you use more you get charged a little bit more]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:41PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Actually, online games don't use much data and many can be played a lousy connection. It's not like they are sending the graphics back and forth. Just some numbers to define the actions and event in your view (and some outside to make it speedy). I doubt many online games today use much more than what was used for online games 10 years ago (not verified). It would be interesting to know the real numbers.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 9:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 3rd 2009 10:33AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
gotta love not having usage cap...comcast u suck and dont u dare screw up hulu or ill spank you]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
I mean I guess the company has to do what it has to do, and they've put a fairly high cap in place...but seriously, why not be honest about it and cap everyone to the amount of bandwidth that you think they deserve for their money?

I'm guessing that figure is significantly closer to their "average" but they know nobody would pay $30-$70 a month for 4 gigs of transfer a month when you can buy a Flash drive bigger than that for less money.

What gets me is they're offering 250 gigs a month. Which on their 16megabit connections that they're hawking now, you could hit in like 35 hours of continually capping out your speed. Even at the crippled speeds you actually get once it hits your PC you could Easily hit that cap in a week or two of pulling down free or paid content, completely legally. I don't even want to think about what folks who have online backup services are going to run into with these caps...

it just seems like Comcast is setting themselves up for failure by devaluing the speed of their services... what's the point of having 4 megabytes a second available to download with if you can only use it for 35 hours a month and then you get cut off... ]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Imagine downloading at Docsis 3.0 speeds, that limit is way to low for those

watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMKSo-PKr10
]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:11PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Dec 2nd 2009 5:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/
Can't believe how big everyone is on Torrents... you want to pull hard bandwidth, get yourself a good NNTP service. When I hope for a 150k/sec torrent download, my NNTP can crank at 6MB/sec easily.]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/02/comcast-delivers-data-usage-meter-in-portland-oregon/Many people don't even know what that is :) but I agree much faster and worth it]]>Dec 2nd 2009 5:12PM