[sllug-members]: Comcast has problems

[dtwarnick at mmm.com]

> 250GB is a small enough barrier that more and more non-power users are
> going to hit, because they don't pay attention to how much they
> downloaded with these new services.

I think this is the key. I don't pay attention to how much I up/download
because what good would it do? I have unlimited usage right? Let's say one
month I use 150GB worth of traffic. (8 HD XBox movies, 10 HDTV episodes,
some updated game content, a couple of Linux iso's which I also share back
to the community for 2X their download size, Vonage, OS updates, etc...)
OK, so it is near the end of the month and I'm at 150GB, what do I do? The
point is, if comcast (or any other ISP) does NOT TELL YOU WHAT THE LIMIT
IS, then there is nothing to be done. In fact, it is probably reasonable to
assume that it is OK to carry on because they company advertises NO USAGE
LIMIT!!

I guess that's the real rub. Secret limits used by Comcast to crack down on
heavy users. I don't think anyone here would argue that reasonable limits
are within the rights of an ISP. In fact, most of us don't want someone who
shares our bandwidth to use 250GB of traffic every month because we know it
is affecting us adversely. However, I think it is entirely unfair to cancel
an account without FIRST publishing the criteria.

Broadband internet access is no longer a luxury item, but a necessity for
many of us. It is how we communicate, work, and play. Canceling an account
can cause very real problems.

It doesn't help that there is so few places one can go to get broadband.
Where I live, DSL is not available, Comcast is not available, UTOPIA is 3-5
years out so I'm pretty much left with a wireless broadband ISP. If they
were to cancel me because of some secret limit, I would have no option but
to go back to dialup. Painful.

Anyway, good luck getting any sort of positive result from Comcast.
-Derek