Don’t let Comcast Cut You Off
August 28th, 2007 by JeffEver wonder if your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is monitoring how much bandwidth you are using? Well, there is one that not only monitors your usage, but also will discontinue your usage if you utilize too much bandwidth. The even more insidious thing is that with this particular ISP, you never know what the limit is that you crossed. This is the story that is being told by several current and former Comcast customers.
One thing that we should all realize is that all ISPs have some sort of limit of bandwidth usage for each customer. However, not all of these ISPs keep that limit a secret the way Comcast does. These limits can be imposed several ways depending on what the limitation is. If the limitation is at or above the amount that someone could ever download per month on that particular speed of connection, then the connection speed is the limiting factor, and it appears as if there is no limit at all. Another way to limit bandwidth is to cut off internet connectivity for the remainder of the period if you reach the limit. This is the approach that is taken by web-hosting companies that have a hard limit on the amount of bandwidth that a particular customer can use.
The method that Comcast uses is to arbitrarily determine their limit. According to an article on Consumer Affairs entitled Comcast Cuts Off Heavy Internet Users, says, “that it is a breach of contract to generate “levels of traffic sufficient to impede others’ ability to send or retrieve information.” But nowhere does it detail what levels of traffic will impede others.” Once a user goes over the arbitrarily determined limit, Comcast will send them warnings and information that they will be disconnected from their Comcast service and will be unable to re-connect it for 12 months.
For those of you that are not Comcast customers, check with your ISP to find out what their bandwidth usage limit is, and what the punishment is for exceeding the limit.