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Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

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Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#21

Post by dylan604 »

alt187 wrote: post #12
h2odragon wrote: post #3

this isn't going to be fully effective until they name and shame. little popups (like viasat did) that say something like "your internet will continue to suck until your neighbor at $address stops torrenting the 100gb h0rse archive" and then they can get extra fees for "anonymous" as well as "unlimited"...

I can't wait for this future.

Like HoAs weren't already annoying. In this future, the ISPs will deputize the HoAs to have roaving bands of enforcers going door to door to encourage considerate bandwidth practices. Eventually, this will be escalated to authorized drone strikes on the offending addresses. So it will behoove you to ensure your neighbors are not borrowing your bandwidth.

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#22

Post by saxonww »

zer8k wrote: post #6

Very familiar with Cox as they are the only cable provider in my area and fiber largely has not made it to any other part of the city except the really new and wealthy areas. While I have not yet run into any caps with my gigabit plan I am painfully aware of how limited the so called "unlimited" gigabit plan is. During COVID it was particularly egregious. I was paying about what Mike was paying except from the hours…

I'm in the same city as Mike and have been a Cox customer for 15+ years. While I have had problems, for the most part I've been satisfied. I've not historically been a top-speed-tier customer though. They are running some kind of promotion right now where they've moved me from 500Mbps to 1Gbps for 12 months at no charge, and it's the first time where I've not gotten really anywhere close to the advertised speed (not even 500, now). I'm not sure what this accomplishes for them; maybe they'll cut speeds in half next year and try to suggest I just got accustomed to faster speeds.

Support is challenging when you need it. You usually have to talk to multiple people before your problem is resolved. For example, last time I got a new modem I had to be handed off twice before I got to a level where they could 'reset my registration,' and I definitely got the figurative stink eye over the phone for not renting their modem (which, is probably why it didn't "just work"). They usually try to sell you something like wiring insurance as well, and really like to emphasize the potential cost to you if they feel like they have to roll a truck. Fortunately, I've only had perhaps 3 support engagements (1 truck) in that 15+ years. Otherwise I'd be a lot less satisfied.

I'm hopeful that the various fiber providers 'coming soon to my area' will help with this. AT&T is here but not cheaper - they force you to rent their equipment - and I don't want to be an AT&T customer. At the very least it might stop Cox from raising rates $3-$6 a year.

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#23

Post by zamadatix »

walrus01 wrote: post #2

The root cause of the problem is that copper coaxial cable tv based (DOCSIS3.0, DOCSIS3.1, etc) last mile internet infrastructure is a shared/contended access medium for many modems connected to it. It's built on a limited number of RF channels in a certain segment that have many modems all going to a single "port" on a DOCSIS CMTS (cablemodem termination system). There is a great deal of absurdity in their claims to…

The FTTH offerings from Ziply, Cox, Comcast, Google, ATT, Centurylink etc are all the same "shared media with high oversubscription" design too. Among them the typical ratio is ~32 PON users for the given "base rate" PON standard, similar to a typical ~20-50 for coax at a given DOCSIS standard. Both have better/worse examples (particularly early gigabit PON deployments were 64) but FTTH has rarely been about getting dedicated bandwidth up to the neighborhood box... honestly most of the time the lion's share of the benefits are "it's a sign your area just got upgraded cabling and equipment for the first time in many many years" than anything to do with the physicalities of the wire.

For GPON that's 2.5 Gbps for downstream and 1.25 Gbps for upstream. So with a 32 split it's the same story of 2-3 people downloading a popular Linux ISO at 980 Mbps still eat up the entire fiber line for all 32 people.

The difference on the fiber, outside the better upload symmetry we already see, is it will be able to scale a lot more in the future. Some places already have 10G PON (which, unlike GPON, is usually actually said speed) such as where ATT offers 2G and 5G symmetric service. The next step will be 25G PON (again, about the actual nominal speed).

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#24

Post by condiment »

walrus01 wrote: post #2

The root cause of the problem is that copper coaxial cable tv based (DOCSIS3.0, DOCSIS3.1, etc) last mile internet infrastructure is a shared/contended access medium for many modems connected to it. It's built on a limited number of RF channels in a certain segment that have many modems all going to a single "port" on a DOCSIS CMTS (cablemodem termination system). There is a great deal of absurdity in their claims to…

This reads as though the cable companies aren’t aware of the limitations of their tech and that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The last mile isn’t the same as today. Docsis technology continues to improve, more RF channels are being allocated to high speed internet, and cable companies are wholesale replacing their CMTS infrastructure with higher frequency (read: more channels) equipment.

The truth is that only some cable companies make these investments - you can look up “fiber node size” for respective performance across different companies. A fiber node being the place where optical is terminated and switched to coax. These have been getting smaller everywhere, but it only makes sense to invest there when the upstream infrastructure can support it. So from a consumer perspective, your “Linux isos” will be slow to download in any case until the upstream network is upgraded and your node is split to offer higher performance.

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#25

Post by qwertyuiop_ »

Meanwhile billions and lofty promises don’t translate to benefits for real people.

https://www.atr.org/senators-demand-bead-program-accountabil...

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/kamala-harris-announces-plan-...

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#26

Post by dboreham »

throwaway48476 wrote: post #16

"Heavy" use is just using what they pay for. If they can't guarantee that they should sell a lesser tier of service. Otherwise this is just fraud.

They paid for committed bandwidth? So they'd be paying $1000+/mo. But they're not.

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#27

Post by AyyEye »

Cox advertised gigabit to me. I always wanted it so I took the upsell. After six truckrolls (alternately telling me my signal was too strong -- installing attenuator, then too weak and removing it) for which I had to take a day off work every time, they eventually told me it was a mistake and my neighborhood didn't have gigabit.

Then the cherry on top was they wouldn't even put me back on my old plan because it "wasn't offered any more". So they tried to charge me an extra $15/month for half the speed I was getting before. I switched to a local wireless ISP that ended up being even more expensive for even slower service -- but at least they weren't liars and when I had a problem I could talk directly with the owner if it wasn't sorted (and no data caps).

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#28

Post by somethoughts »

Mistletoe wrote: post #7

I remember when we got Cox “Fiber” that wasn’t fiber at all. This company is absolute trash. https://www.lightreading.com/cable-technology/cox-called-out... https://www.cox.com/residential/internet.html

I think if the company could offer Fiber To The Curb and then the last 10-20 feet between the curb and the house's router was either DSL or Cable or 5G, that would ba huge win.

FTTC would avoid this scenario at least where a heavy user brings down the whole neighborhood.

But perhaps the bandwidth through the last 10 feet of DSL/cable/5G isn't enough to upsell customers to convince them the switch or modem equipment is too big to fit at the curb.

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#29

Post by [deleted] »

qwertyuiop_ wrote: post #25

Meanwhile billions and lofty promises don’t translate to benefits for real people. https://www.atr.org/senators-demand-bead-program-accountabil... https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases... https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/kamala-harris-announces-plan-...

[deleted]

Re: Cox slows Internet speeds in entire neighborhoods to punish any heavy users (2020)

#30

Post by willcipriano »

majorchord wrote: post #15

I could only dream of having 10mbps upload... we are still stuck on DSL here, I am lucky to get close to 1mb upload, not enough to even watch my home camera feed reliably, especially with audio on.

Starlink?
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