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September 9, 2008

Bandwidth Caps and the Burden of Proof

A few weeks ago, several media outlets carried the story that Comcast has finally announced a concrete bandwidth cap for it's residential customers. I don't mind having limits placed on my service - and now that Comcast has announced that 250GB/month is the magic number, it seems only reasonable that they give me an easy way to see how close I am to that limit.

They haven't, of course, so I submitted the following note to them via their online support mechanism this evening...


Like many others, I'm writing in regards to the recent announcement that Comcast will be imposing a 250GB/month bandwidth "cap" on usage.

I want to start by saying that naming a number is a positive step from the previous policy, which didn't offer a concrete limit.

In considering my bandwidth usage, which includes streaming media from Netflix to my set-top player, voice over IP telephony, and off-site backup, in addition to browsing and email I realize I have no idea how close I might be to the 250GB cap.

I'd like to know what facilities Comcast intends to make available to customers to self-police their usage, and ensure they don't inadvertently cross the line that's been drawn in the sand.

I would propose that like other metered use services, such as energy and telephony, it is Comcasts responsibility to provide customer-verifiable metering.

It seems reasonable to assume that Comcast must be tracking usage in order to enforce the published policy - else there would be no basis for punitive action against offending customers - but so far I've seen no way for me, as a customer, to access information regarding my usage.

Perhaps this information is already available - in which case, please provide the requisite access information.

Thanks.

...Dan Berger

I'm not holding my breath for a response, but should I get one, I'll be sure to post it.

Update: I got an automated response, which follows:


In order to maintain a high-quality online service for all customers, we
have a responsibility to manage our network appropriately to provide the
best possible experience. While Comcast has been evaluating a monthly
data usage threshold for quite some time, we have heard from high-speed
Internet customers who have asked that it provide a specific number for
excessive use. By providing a specific monthly data usage threshold,
Comcast hopes to provide more clarification to its customers about what
would qualify as excessive use. As of October 1, 2008, data usage above
250 GB/month per Comcast High-Speed Internet residential customer
account will be considered excessive.

There are many online tools customers can download and use to measure
their consumption, but at this time, we are not providing one. This may
becomes available in the future. Customers can find such tools by simply
doing a Web search - for example, a search for "bandwidth meter" will
provide some options. Customers using multiple PCs should just be aware
that they will need to measure and combine their total monthly usage in
order to identify the data usage for their entire account.

Generally speaking, more than 99% of our customers use our service as
intended, as a residential product so less than 1% of Comcast customers
today use an excessive amount of data. By way of comparison, they use
more bandwidth in one month than a regular customer would use over a
period of many years. To reach 250 GB in a month, for example, a
customer would have to do any of the following:

Send 50 million emails (at 0.05 KB/email)
Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song)
Download 125 standard-definition movies (at 2 GB/movie)
Upload 25,000 hi-resolution digital photos (at 10 MB/photo)

For additional information regarding excessive use, please visit or
Frequently Asked Questions page found at the following link:
http://help.comcast.net/content/faq/Frequently-Asked-Questions-about-Excessive-Use

If you have any further questions, please reply to this email or chat
with us at

http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat

An account executive will be happy to assist you.

Come on FioS!

Update 2: I got a different response from the office of Rick Germano - the "Senior VP of Customer Operations"


Thank you for contacting the Comcast Office of Rick Germano, Senior Vice
President of Customer Operations in regards to the Bandwidth cap and
your
suggestion for Comcast to provide customer-verifiable metering. I
apologize for the delayed response.

Mr. Berger, my name is Lina and I would be more than happy to assist you
today.

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your suggestion on how
to improve our service. I have forwarded your suggestion to the
appropriate management team for further review and action. We appreciate
your interest in making the Comcast High-Speed Internet the best online
experience possible.

Mr. Berger, again, thank you for your suggestion. We do appreciate your
business.

If you should require any further assistance in this matter or have any
other issues, please feel free to response to this email at anytime and
we would be delighted to assist you.


Thank you for choosing Comcast and have a great day.

Posted by dberger at September 9, 2008 9:24 PM