600GB Comcast “Invisible” Bandwidth Limit
If you have Comcast High-Speed Internet, don’t download more than 600 gigabytes within a month or you could find yourself Comcast No-Speed Internet. I saw this on Digg and never knew there was a shroud of mystery surrounding an invisible bandwidth limit and getting booted but apparently it’s floating out there. An anecdote shows that 600 GB appears to be the limit at which Comcast company policy states considers your usage to be ‘internet abuse.’
600 GB/month = 20 GB/day = 833MB/hr. Eight hundred and thirty three megabytes downloaded an hour, each hour, for thirty consecutive days… even I would consider that abuse.
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There are 22 comments, add your thoughts now!
That’s some SERIOUS bandwidth. I can’t imagine be able to download that much in a month. And yes, I agree, I’d consider that somewhat abusive, too.
That’s some serious internet time. I wonder if they are disclosing this to their customers anywhere.
Whoa, that’s a lot of bandwidth. That’d be hard to use. I can only think of someone illegally downloading movies every hour from Limewire or something. That’s crazy. What were the people doing that breached this limit??
Sure, it’s a lot of bandwidth, but how is it abuse? They tell you that there’s no limit; that means there’s no limit, and you can use as much as you want. If they don’t want that to be their policy, then they should change it.
I agree that they should tell you there is a limit and at the very least give you some sort of warning before they cancel service, having it be an “invisible” limit is a bad business practice.
You know, this reminds of me of the situation with Netflix. They say “unlimited DVD rentals” but if you rent and return your movies too quick they penalize you and put you lower in the queue when you’re waiting for movies! Netflix also slows down the amount of movies that are sent. I think it’s somewhat dishonest to say unlimited and then limit it.
Like you said Jim, it’s a “bad business practice.” I agree.
I recently got shut down by comcast. I received one warning by phone and argued with the
guy when he refused to state what my bandwidth cap should be. I was exasperated to say the
least. He mentioned that I’d been doing about 200GB per month and needed to “drastically
cut back” on my bandwidth usage. He did also mention that I needed to stay off of their
“top 1% of users list”. I admit, my family are Internet power users. We have about 5
computers
connected to the firewall router and my 8yo daughter uses the connection too.
The next day I called ATT and got signed up for DSL. ATT has new types of DSL that do not
depend on distance to the central office and rely upon remote connection points instead,
where a fiber connection is aggregated for the area and sent back to the CO and then
connected to the Internet backbone. This is a much more scalable architecture and it is
obvious to me that Comcast is very much worried about being able to maintain their current
network in light of some customers downloading Netflix movies and so forth in the months
to come.
The 200GB figure was not completely a surprise to me, as I do various P2P activities on
occasion, we have Vonage and my wife is a homemaker and talks to friends and family every
day. I think software and video downloads on youtube, as well as ebay picture uploads
would account for a great deal of bandwidth in addition to the Vonage use. I did cut back
on downloads quite a bit (I tried to limit to 2GB per day) and thought I would be OK for
the next couple of weeks until ATT DSL was installed; having a date about a week out when
I would get switched on, I continued to do downloads on my Comcast account, albeit at a
much lower level.
I WAS WRONG. My Comcast Internet service was shut off within about a week.
Of course my wife (who uses the phone a lot, as well as the Internet for her business) was
ticked off; po’ed at me and very mad at Comcast. I told her I had been reading DSL reports
and various ISP reviews that indicated that once the service was cut, nobody had been
successful in getting them to turn it back on. Maybe a dozen reports I had read were very
uniform in this respect.
I told her to take the kids and go visit her mother (has DSL) for the weekend and our
service with ATT would be switched on in a few days…
Of course ATT has never been a very progressive company and I found out just how bad they
are when I ordered DSL and realized they had completely fouled up my DSL order, except for
the phone line itself (there are 3 parts: phone line, unlimited LD, and DSL installation)
needed to be completely reordered! They had not completed 3rd party verification of the
ULD, and that was on hold. The DSL order was completely misplaced and had to be reordered.
This pushed out our ATT DSL service date a bit..
ATT it seems is completely unable to track DSL orders for new customers that do not yet
have an ATT phone line. I found this completely unacceptable and inept, and not a small
bit disconcerting! Old school.. they don’t even answer the phone after about 9pm pacific.
I pointed out to my wife that our 911 access (via Vonage) had been cut off (by Comcast)
without any notice; a vague warning did not cite any hard limit, and we were not capable
of monitoring our actual usage with any tool provided by Comcast. My emails to
abuse@comcast.net (dev null) inbox where merely being autoresponed to and I saw no
coherent responses that looked like a human being was involved. Mean while the wife has a
cell phone and was putting it to good use.
She called the consumer hotlines. She called Sacramento, the state capital. She talked to
neighbors and tried to alert the media of our problem. Finally she ended up at the Public
Utilities Commission. I guess she happened to find the right person there because they
conferenced her in on their calls to Comcast on her behalf and transfered around to
various departments until they ended up with the high speed Internet department.
The PUC lady kept up her mantra “You have disconnected this woman’s 911 access without
notice, and she has a sick child at home; if she needs 911 service, you have a HUGE
LIABILITY on your hands here; do you really want that?”
My wife’s cell phone finally dropped the call and she was worried but looks like the PUC
did the trick because within an hour, our Internet connection was back on, and we had
a $50 credit to our Comcast bill (!).
I’m posted this around the Internet because it is the first example I had heard of any
success whatsoever in this type of case.
I recently got shut down by comcast. I received one warning by phone and argued with the
guy when he refused to state what my bandwidth cap should be. I was exasperated to say the least. He mentioned that I’d been doing about 200GB per month and needed to “drastically cut back” on my bandwidth usage. He did also mention that I needed to stay off of their “top 1% of users list”. I admit, my family are Internet power users. We have about 5 computers connected to the firewall router and my 8yo daughter uses the connection too.
The next day I called ATT and got signed up for DSL. ATT has new types of DSL that do not
depend on distance to the central office and rely upon remote connection points instead,
where a fiber connection is aggregated for the area and sent back to the CO and then
connected to the Internet backbone. This is a much more scalable architecture and it is
obvious to me that Comcast is very much worried about being able to maintain their current
network in light of some customers downloading Netflix movies and so forth in the months
to come.
The 200GB figure was not completely a surprise to me, as I do various P2P activities on
occasion, we have Vonage and my wife is a homemaker and talks to friends and family every day. I think software and video downloads on youtube, as well as ebay picture uploads would account for a great deal of bandwidth in addition to the Vonage use. I did cut back on downloads quite a bit (I tried to limit to 2GB per day) and thought I would be OK for
the next couple of weeks until ATT DSL was installed; having a date about a week out when
I would get switched on, I continued to do downloads on my Comcast account, albeit at a
much lower level.
I WAS WRONG. My Comcast Internet service was shut off within about a week.
Of course my wife (who uses the phone a lot, as well as the Internet for her business) was
ticked off; po’ed at me and very mad at Comcast. I told her I had been reading DSL reports
and various ISP reviews that indicated that once the service was cut, nobody had been
successful in getting them to turn it back on. Maybe a dozen reports I had read were very
uniform in this respect.
I told her to take the kids and go visit her mother (has DSL) for the weekend and our service with ATT would be switched on in a few days…
Of course ATT has never been a very progressive company and I found out just how bad they are when I ordered DSL and realized they had completely fouled up my DSL order, except for the phone line itself (there are 3 parts: phone line, unlimited LD, and DSL installation) needed to be completely reordered! They had not completed 3rd party verification of the ULD, and that was on hold. The DSL order was completely misplaced and had to be reordered.
This pushed out our ATT DSL service date a bit..
ATT it seems is completely unable to track DSL orders for new customers that do not yet
have an ATT phone line. I found this completely unacceptable and inept, and not a small
bit disconcerting! Old school.. they don’t even answer the phone after about 9pm pacific.
I pointed out to my wife that our 911 access (via Vonage) had been cut off (by Comcast)
without any notice; a vague warning did not cite any hard limit, and we were not capable
of monitoring our actual usage with any tool provided by Comcast. My emails to
abuse@comcast.net (dev null) inbox where merely being autoresponed to and I saw no
coherent responses that looked like a human being was involved. Mean while the wife has a
cell phone and was putting it to good use.
She called the consumer hotlines. She called Sacramento, the state capital. She talked to
neighbors and tried to alert the media of our problem. Finally she ended up at the Public
Utilities Commission. I guess she happened to find the right person there because they
conferenced her in on their calls to Comcast on her behalf and transfered around to
various departments until they ended up with the high speed Internet department.
The PUC lady kept up her mantra “You have disconnected this woman’s 911 access without
notice, and she has a sick child at home; if she needs 911 service, you have a HUGE
LIABILITY on your hands here; do you really want that?”
My wife’s cell phone finally dropped the call and she was worried but looks like the PUC
did the trick because within an hour, our Internet connection was back on, and we had
a $50 credit to our Comcast bill (!).
I’m posted this around the Internet because it is the first example I had heard of any
success whatsoever in this type of case.
I just got called by Comcast for using 485 GB of transfer in a month. That might sound excessive but there are 5 CS students connected to it. We use the internet for everything: homework, projects, web, games, TV, music, the works.
I then asked: “What is the limit so that I can set our usage accordingly?”
The Comcast Rep then said: “It’s like growing grass, there is no set limit. Your account just showed up on our audit trail.”
I responded: “Is that not false advertisement? You claim that your internet usage is unlimited, yet you’re calling me telling me that I used too much? And you will not tell me what your real max transfer is?”
Comcast Chick: “We do claim unlimited internet connectivity not unlimited transfer.”
My Response: “So what is the max transfer I can use so that I can lower our usage to it?”
At this point I felt the distinct presents on an infinite logic loop that was spiraling nowhere. And the lady must have as well because she offered that I can get a second cable modem for the same price or a single enterprise account for $1500!
When the rep said that we should get a second modem, I immediately remembered when we first set up our internet. We tried to get two modems from Comcast but they said that only business accounts can have more than one line. Also saying that business accounts are well over double the residential price!
Being enraged at this point I, in no uncertain terms, made it clear that I did not agree with their policy and that I do not have control over how much internet my roommates use. I then hung up.
This BS is why as soon as fios is available I am getting rid of comcast. The point is they have lied about unlimited broadband. Their service sucks anyway so here is to the future fios.
Whoa!!! 600 GB! Even 200GB/mo. is excessive usage and is unfair to bb users in your neighboorhood…I’m sure I probably rock at about 100 GB/mo…maybe slightly more..but then again…we only have one computer, even though it is in use (by an actual person, yes) probably about 18 hours/day. These people are obviously good clients at The Pirate Bay & Limewire
well, I’m one of those customers in the midwest, who got taken over by the sale of INSIGHT COMMUNICATIONS w. a 10/1 mbit-line. after running in circles and being forwarded 4-5 times, i had a tech on the like who, after being on and off the line, that COMCAST now has the following limits for the midwest area:
2 gigs/month going through Comcast Email accounts.
6 gigs/month using P2P bittorrent protocol.
for everything else like HTTP(s)/FTP/VPN its still unlimited.
thats what the “higher lvl” tech told me.
now, like everything else in life - take it w. a grain of salt, not as a gospel
cheers
@
i actually just got off the phone with Comcast not 1 hr ago anbout my bandwith usage being Excessive. Granted i rocked in at 400+ gig in the last month. i also got the “dramatically cut back” speech from the agent, but no one could tell me what that number was suppose to be just that their medium users use 2GB. i was also told that if i get back on this a second time my internet access would be turned off for a year with NO negoitation. this is good to hear 10 days into the month (am i over the limit now?), so what am i suppose to do not go only for the rest of the month and HOPE i come off the list?? Not to mention this was not a consecutive month statement. if i wind up on the list again at anytime, my internet access is gone.
If my access is not unlimited then don’t change me for unlimited access tell me what my limit is and i will stay under it. Don’t hide behind this “formula” and violation of terms of service crap. I don’t know what they consider to be acceptable since I have seen numbers here ranging fromm 200GB to 600GB.
Time to look for a new service provider.
What ISPs offer unlimited bandwidth?
I just got the call… yes the dreaded call from Comcast. They told me I used 1.1 TB of bandwidth last month, which is 1100GB. Just like everyone else on here, I agree it is excessive… But when I think about all the things I do online, I can’t imagine ever being down around 250GB. I was reading forum posts and blogs all night about this whole situation, and it seems like Comcast is really only targeting abusers if they get a complaint.
The Comcast rep told me I was in the top 0.1% of all bandwidth users. And just like everyone else they refused to give me a number that would be acceptable…. I was told that I needed to drastically lower it. And that the “Average” Comcast user only uses 2GB per month!?! Who are they kidding. You go on youtube for an hour and you’re over 1GB! Are they telling me that no one else consumes video or HD content online? C’Mon Comcast Stop Lying!
On the other side of the arguement… If they tell people to stay under 250GB a month, then everyone would think they had to use it up or lose it…. So I can see where they wouldn’t want to state a definite number… But please Comcast! Give me something… A safe area! A ballpark figure! I can’t go from 1100GB to 2GB! Now I might be able to curtail it to 300GB! They wouldn’t even tell me yes or no! I said I could cut it in half and all the rep would say is that I better not appear on the report again or I’m done for 1 year!
COMCAST! DON’T LIE ANYMORE! Stop the false unlimited ads. Stop being such a terrible company. Throttling torrents, terrible customers service, downgrading HD content, and now lying to customers and not giving them an acceptable bandwidth limitation…. it needs to stop! You are under investigation by the FCC right now…. and I’m sure you’ll grease your way out of it!
I only have one computer and I hit 1100GB last month. But I run a 24 hr. voice server on it. (which is what really did it) I constantly watch videos and consume quite a bit of web content. I download torrents. I play online games. I run instant messaging programs. I also use a VPN connection for work related purposes. Five years ago this sort of bandwidth was unheard of.. With all the video and content on demand sites we have today, its really easy to surpass 250. How can Comcast say the average user is 2? In another 5 years the average will be 1000. Unless something changes! The very second another provider option is available to me I will leave Comcrap forever!
Comcast is trying to maximize download speeds for their customers. Mine cable hit 16mbits one day. That’s fast.
Capping the abusers is good.
Capping the abusers is good? It’s not my fault you don’t use it as much as some people…abuse is in the eye of the beholder, or downloader. I pay for unlimited, and I want to use it dammit…
I second that! Unlimited means unlimited. Fios can’t come soon enough!
gmastr85, the 2gb a month actually makes sense. I know plenty of Comcrap users that do very little with their connection. Plus, you must average in all the comcast customers that don’t use their internet at all / on a daily basis. There are many people that have Comcast internet at multiple houses / locations and only live in one location at a time.
That being said, I think a cap makes sense, but it is not fair to leave the cap ambiguous.
Unlimited does indeed mean unlimited. Without an asterisk there is no hole big enough for the corporation to suck that out of you. They can easily avoid conflict by stating clearly what the consumer is ACTUALLY receiving. This all just seems to be the initial beginnings of internet control, etc. e-Fascism.
comcast says the limit is 250GB a month i’m doin over that i run an underground website from my house for my town to share files i build this site to make it easy on us to work on computers the site is over 1.5TB i’m downloading more then 250GB a month i’m always downloading and seeding out. I been doing this ocver 5 years now and comcast never said a word plus i have a Unreal Tournament Demo server running ver 348 with the mods my buddy’s made I host a team speaker server and i do remote administrating all over the country. the usage can be used without thinking. the normal person that just goes online to watch videos on youtube they wont have a problem but for the people that like to download albums and seasons of their fav. tv shows they will have some problems for years they never said a word and now they want to change every thing. where I live comcast is the only high speed ISP its a monopoly its illegal comcast is the biggest monopoly out there. people pay to watch movies TV and listen to music online they paid for it they have the right to use it as they please if you got the hard drive power then fill it up you bought the service you have every right to use it any way you like.
Well, we had Comcast Cable and Internet. We switched to that F-ed up Triple play crap. Why do i say that?
1st: Now i cannot view my website. there wasn’t that much traffic on it - i was learning php and now since we have that Arris modem (maybe it is the service) i cannot view it. What? Do they block port 80? i tried port 8080 and still cannot! Comcast F-ing Sucks!
2nd: Now i cannot view ny ftp site. My job requires my to occasionally download some files i need to fix computers but now i CANNOT. This happened when the switch happened.
3rd: ONLINE GAMING SUCKS! You ever try and play a graphic intensive game on a system with a crappy video card? I have a ‘cable’ connection, a Dual Core system w/3 GBs, a nVidia 8600 GT w/512 MBs. Before the switch was made i was playing seamless games in the multiplayer community and now i cannot even play. I get ’somewhat’ good ping but in a game of Quake Wars, it is choppy and it jsut makes you want to quit the game.
IF - you are thinking of switching - DON”T!@!!!!! Use Comcast for either - Just your cable and get another service for the Internet. You will be happier and you won’t have the aggravation.
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