BandwidthLimits
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Comcast announces new bandwidth throttling scheme (update: old news)
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.
AT&T joins the herd, looks to trial bandwidth capping in Reno, NV
During an age where unlimited bandwidth has never been more useful for perfectly legal and entertaining reasons, carriers everywhere are looking to harsh our collective mellow. Following in the frowned-upon footsteps of Comcast, AT&T is gearing up to trial monthly bandwidth caps in Nevada. Starting this month, Reno-area subscribers using the carrier's least expensive DSL service (768k) will be forced to download less than 20GB in a month; the cap amount increases with the speed of the service, topping out at 150GB for the 10Mbps level of service. A USA Today report on the matter even admits that "streaming video services like the one Netflix offers" could indeed push users over the limit without any illegal transfers to speak of. Of note, customers involved in the trial will be able to track their usage via the web, and AT&T will contact them if they surpass 80% of their limit. Should they exceed the threshold even after a grace period, they'll be dinged $1 per gigabyte in overage charges. Awesome.
Comcast set to begin bandwidth capping come October 1st
You hear so much tough-talk and blustery grand-standing these days over data capping that it's hard to take any of it too seriously. A recent announcement by Comcast, however, is sending chills down the collective spine of Engadget (and seriously threatening to put a crunch on Thomas Ricker's... er, "movie" downloads). The company recently confirmed that it will begin capping its residential broadband service at 250GB per month (or roughly 124 SD movies) come October 1st, and could simply terminate customers who violate the cap more than twice. Of course, 250GB is a pretty large chunk of bandwidth, so you'll have to be entertaining some pretty hefty habits to break that bank. Then again, who likes the Man breathing down their pipeline?
