Phack Comcast

And all other companies that are establishing bandwidth caps regardless of size.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/SmartHome/Story?id=5689480&page=3

Yeah it sucks. Everyone should switch away from them while there are still some providers that don't have caps. I'd probably run over that limit so fast it wouldn't know what hit it.

Yeah, I read that then a little while later watched one of their "powerboost" commercials touting how much faster they are making things. Um, yeah until you actually get fiber to everyhouse in town, I'm not buying it.

As far as switching goes, what should we switch to? In most places it is Cable or DSL. I don't know about you, but DSL is capped and you have to deal with the local phone company, which is even worse.

One article I read a while ago compared current cable internet providers to oil cartels.

They're creating a bandwidth cartel and we as consumers are allowing it.

I hate that the cable companies are trying to apply a supply and demand logic to this. It's not like bandwidth can be used up in the sense that once it's used, it's gone like water. Bandwidth is similar to pipes, while information is the water that flows through the pipes. They're not creating bandwidth caps, they're creating information caps, but they use the term bandwidth to disguise the fact that they'd rather fleece us for more money than to upgrade their infrastructure like they've been doing for years, and continue to do in other parts of the world.

captainzib wrote: One article I read a while ago compared current cable internet providers to oil cartels. They're creating a bandwidth cartel and we as consumers are allowing it. I hate that the cable companies are trying to apply a supply and demand logic to this. It's not like bandwidth can be used up in the sense that once it's used, it's gone like water. Bandwidth is similar to pipes, while information is the water that flows through the pipes. They're not creating bandwidth caps, they're creating information caps, but they use the term bandwidth to disguise the fact that they'd rather fleece us for more money than to upgrade their infrastructure like they've been doing for years, and continue to do in other parts of the world.

I've always thought of telecoms as being AT LEAST as bad as the oil cartels. Well some good American free-market capitalism should sort this all out quickly...right?

This feels like the birth of the cell phone all over again. I may be wrong, but back when cell phones were only able to be used for making phone calls, cell phone service providers "threw" phones at you (they still do) and you were able to change service providers...at will, no probs/penalties. When cell phone service providers realized they had HUGE competition among each other, caps, limits, and penalties started to pop up. Remember when there were no long term contracts to get service?
Notice, now there is a phone company that says it will pay any early termination fees if you switch to them. With so many companies offering new phones, with new capabilities, consumers are finding the phone they want doesn't always work on their network. Service providers are trying anything and everything to keep their profits high and their investment in infrastructure low.

That sucks really bad. I had DirecPC, the WORST INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER IN THE WORLD. They gave you 150MB (that's MEGA BYTES, as in 0.15 GB) per day, and anything over that put you in "punishment mode," which got more and more severe if you kept using their service, eventually dropping you to dialup speeds and then disconnecting you altogether for 2 days. They didn't care if you pulled all 150MB in a half hour or all day, that's what you got.

The telecoms put in all this fiber optic stuff. Huge bandwidth. I don't know what they are using now, but I think it was something like less than 10% of capacity a year or two ago, and most of that was spam. And, multiplexing technology exists to increase that capacity by 16x dirt cheap. Something about using different color lasers on each end and optical switches. I forget exactly. Anyway, easy to up the capacity of what we have, but the telecoms were like, don't even get near me with that idea. We are 90% dark right now, and would be 95% dark if it wasn't for the spammers, and you want up up our capacity 16x?. And still, they won't put so much as a DSL repeater within 2 miles of my house because they don't want to apend $200, probably less.

We currently have Comcast in our house for Internet and cable TV. So far, only my dad has used it for work-related purposes while the other computers in my house either have (gasp!) dial-up or (bigger gasp!) no Internet connection at all. I've been trying to convince him to let me set up a LAN of some sort in our house so the rest of the computers can join the 21st century, but my dad dragging his heels and this cap on bandwidth throws a couple of monkey wrenches into my plans. 250GB/month isn't a lot, especially if we do set up a LAN. Not to mention that we've been experiencing problems with some TV channels breaking up and the Internet connection slowing to a crawl sometimes. Now I'm trying to convince Dad to get Verizon FiOS, which is much faster and AFAIK has no bandwidth limits.

It's Comcraptastic!

Right now I have only Comcast to 'choose' from unless I go DSL. There might be a torchlight procession soon.

I love my DSL.... no limits on it.

If Cox has a bandwidth cap, I've yet to bump it. And I've downloaded TB of por...I mean uncopyrighted material.