Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use • Hacker News Board

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#81

Post by mentat » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:47 PM UTC

chopsueyar wrote: post #41

megaman821 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a few times they won't ban you from their service for a year. They just want you to curb your use, which is exactly what this guy was willing to do.

My water and electricity utilities charge per gallon and kilowatt-hours, respectively. Comcast does not charge by the megabyte. Instead, it is all you can eat, until Comcast says that is all you can eat. This guy was actually using his residential account for business purposes.

Both of these utilities have sliding scales (at where I've lived in California) which become punitive at higher levels. Comcast could do that same as long as they provided reasonable visibility.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#82

Post by bgentry » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:49 PM UTC

paran wrote: post #33

rudle wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What, exactly, does Comcast have a monopoly on? Basic internet access might be considered a necessary utility, but an unlimited 15MB line is certainly not. Also, http://www.google.com/search?q=high+speed+internet+seattle+w...

So why stop the service, charge more for more data use. Or perhaps throttle your speeds. I think he means monopoly in the terms of disallowing service, I guess he should be ok if they charge him more money for more data usage. Either way I believe there is a monopoly where as locations and service providers are concerned and many a times caps such as 250GB are extremely arbitrary. I mean really whats the technical re…

It's cheaper for Comcast to cut off a few "problem" customers than it is for them to actually invest their record profits in upgrading residential infrastructure.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#83

Post by matwood » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:49 PM UTC

dkl wrote: post #73

pavel_lishin wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only example, which is kind of spurious, that comes to mind is drought in Texas - if you're watering your lawn during a drought, or decide to fill up your empty pool, I believe that there are actual legal consequences.

There is no analogy to internet use. It's not a scarce resource.

Bandwidth certainly is a scarce resource as is the equipment needed to support it. Fiber doesn't just magically appear in the ground. Switches don't grow on your street corner. These things have to be paid for and maintained. It only makes sense that the highest users pay for more for the infrastructure. It's the current pricing schemes that I have a problem with.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#84

Post by _delirium » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:50 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #61

fr0sty wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. They do? Where is this the case? My water and electricity usage have no monthly cap and are only shut off if I fail to pay the bills.

The only example, which is kind of spurious, that comes to mind is drought in Texas - if you're watering your lawn during a drought, or decide to fill up your empty pool, I believe that there are actual legal consequences.

True, though I believe that in most jurisdictions that's just a normal law, done separately from the utility company. In states where rules about watering during a drought are legally enforceable, if you're caught watering your lawn when you aren't allowed to, you get issued a ticket/fine from the local police, not from the water company.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#85

Post by ctide » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:51 PM UTC

bgentry wrote: post #80

ctide wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just pay for one of the higher speed options. I've gone over the bandwidth cap without fail every month, and they don't care since I pay for the higher speed option (previously the 50Mbit line, now the 105.)

Even though their contract specifies the same data cap for all speed options... So that means that at any time they can decide to terminate you for the same reason.

Does it matter if they don't? I'm sure you can find clauses in most ISP contracts that enable them to terminate you more or less at will, it doesn't matter much if they don't enforce them.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#86

Post by bgentry » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:52 PM UTC

ctide wrote: post #85

bgentry wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even though their contract specifies the same data cap for all speed options... So that means that at any time they can decide to terminate you for the same reason.

Does it matter if they don't? I'm sure you can find clauses in most ISP contracts that enable them to terminate you more or less at will, it doesn't matter much if they don't enforce them.

Yes, but the point is that if they wake up one day and decide to enforce them, you are screwed. No options for appeal and no other good options for service.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#87

Post by ctingom » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:53 PM UTC

I am surprised Comcast doesn't just offer a 500GB month plan. Or 750GB month... just set a price and tell him he needs to pay it.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#88

Post by aeontech » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:53 PM UTC

matwood wrote: post #75

megaman821 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a few times they won't ban you from their service for a year. They just want you to curb your use, which is exactly what this guy was willing to do.

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Most utilities cannot just shut you off. Many states have laws that determine when and how. The biggest thing about a utility though is that you pay for usage. If you want to leave your lights on all day, they really don't care as long as you continue to pay your bill. Personally, I do…

$6/Gb on mobile? That would be wonderful compared to, let me check... $20/Mb that I just paid for checking google maps over AT&T roaming when lost in another country. Sigh.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#89

Post by bradleyland » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:57 PM UTC

fr0sty wrote: post #57

megaman821 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. Except if you go over a few times they won't ban you from their service for a year. They just want you to curb your use, which is exactly what this guy was willing to do.

>Your water and electricity utilities most likely also have caps on how much water or electricity you can use before they cut you off. They do? Where is this the case? My water and electricity usage have no monthly cap and are only shut off if I fail to pay the bills.

Your electric utility service is capped, but they use a different method because electric utilities are metered. You have a fixed capacity feed to your house. For example, our home has 150 amp service. I cannot exceed that draw or the main feed breaker trips and everything goes dark. I can request installation of a larger feed, but I have to pay the build-out, and there are hard limits based on my local zoning.

One thing is certain, in no way do I have "unlimited" electricity available at my home.

Contrast this to your ISP. Say they deliver a 15/3 mbps (down/up) service to your home. The actual data transfer usage isn't metered (you pay a fixed price), but there is a cap for residential service. The reason for the cap is that Comcast has to make arrangements for transfer of that data to its destination, which will cross over in to other carrier's networks. Many of these agreements are made on trade between carriers, but if there is an imbalance, Comcast has to pay.

The only alternative is metered transfer. If you had a commercial grade internet connection, you'd already pay based on two factors (sometimes more):

    * Available bandwidth
    * Data transfer
    * (Sometimes) Port capability

For example, if you get metro ethernet service that is capable of 100 mbps, you might pay a 100 mbps port charge. You can order only a fraction of that bandwidth however; say, 20 mbps. Along with that, you'll pay a data transfer allowance; usually purchased in buckets. You can scale this to your need.

Businesses make this decision based on a profile of their usage. Do they need to transfer lots of data at a relatively slow (but consistent) rate? Or do they need to transfer large chunks of data periodically, but very quickly? Maybe they need to transfer lots of data really fast?

Residential customers don't want to think about this. They want to pay a fee and receive service. Comcast built a product around the profile of typical consumer usage. If you go outside that, you get business service, which means you pay for what you use.

This whole notion that unlimited internet for $60/month is some kind of "right" is just preposterous.

Re: Comcast cuts off customer for going over 250GB of legitimate use

#90

Post by tzs » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 6:59 PM UTC

VonGuard wrote: post #2

The worst thing about this is not the cutting off of the service, but the fact that this guy has no reasonable alternative to Comcast in his area. Tyranny of the last mile still exists, and isn't going away any time soon.

He should be able to get a T1 or higher. No cap to deal with then.