Will Comcast implement a monthly bandwidth cap on users before July 1st?
Settled as No
Comcast Considering 250GB Cap, Overage Fees
A Comcast insider tells me the company is considering implementing very clear monthly caps, and may begin charging overage fees for customers who cross them. While still in the early stages of development, the plan -- as it stands now -- would work like this: all users get a 250GB per month cap. Users would get one free "slip up" in a twelve month period, after which users would pay a $15 charge for each 10 GB over the cap they travel. According to the source, the plan has "a lot of momentum behind it," and initial testing is slated to begin in a month or two.
"The intent appears to be to go after the people who consistently download far more than the typical user without hurting those who may have a really big month infrequently," says an insider familiar with the project, who prefers to remain anonymous. "As far as I am aware, uploads are not affected, at least not initially." According to this source, the new system should only impact some 14,000 customers out of Comcast's 14.1 million users (i.e. the top 0.1%).
As a few of you may have noticed, Comcast received a public relations beating and is being investigated by the FCC for their use of Sandvine gear to throttle upstream P2P traffic. This practice of using forged TCP packets to "break" BitTorrent connections was discovered first in our forums in May of last year, some five months before the Associated Press story made national headlines.
Settlement details:
As reported by a major mainstream news source.
Will Comcast implement a monthly bandwidth cap on users before July 1st?
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Forecast history, %
Settled
Activity: H$62,622
Settled as
No on Tue 1st Jul 2008 6:13am PDT
Suspend date: Mon 30th Jun 2008 8:59am PDT Settlement date: Tue 1st Jul 2008 6:13am PDTPrediction cut-off: Predictions on this question after Mon 30th Jun 2008 8:59am PDT have been voided because they were made after the question could be settled
Initial likelihoods:
Yes: 40%
Action history:
Created Thu 8th May 2008 11:07am PDT by
lola
Suspended Mon 30th Jun 2008 8:59am PDT : Suspend date reached
Settlement requested Tue 1st Jul 2008 1:27am PDT by
orlin
:
No reports of such implementation.
Suspend date: Mon 30th Jun 2008 8:59am PDT Settlement date: Tue 1st Jul 2008 6:13am PDTPrediction cut-off: Predictions on this question after Mon 30th Jun 2008 8:59am PDT have been voided because they were made after the question could be settled
more info...
Predictions (99)
99 predictions
27 weeks ago
arnos
predicted
No (H$100 at 93%)
27 weeks ago
nicfulton
predicted
No (H$50 at 93%)
27 weeks ago
krnsidez
predicted
No (H$100 at 93%)
27 weeks ago
sman1955
predicted
No (H$500 at 93%)
more27 weeks ago
arnos
predicted
No (H$100 at 93%)
27 weeks ago
nicfulton
predicted
No (H$50 at 93%)
27 weeks ago
krnsidez
predicted
No (H$100 at 93%)
27 weeks ago
sman1955
predicted
No (H$500 at 93%)
27 weeks ago
curios
predicted
No (H$100 at 89%)
27 weeks ago
bigken1
predicted
No (H$500 at 89%)
27 weeks ago
bigken1
predicted
No (H$500 at 89%)
27 weeks ago
bigken1
predicted
No (H$1,000 at 88%)
27 weeks ago
aractor
predicted
No (H$100 at 88%)
27 weeks ago
lordpalmer
predicted
No (H$100 at 87%)
27 weeks ago
kiwifire
predicted
No (H$20 at 87%)
28 weeks ago
coolkraft
predicted
No (H$50 at 86%)
28 weeks ago
amice
predicted
No (H$50 at 86%)
28 weeks ago
greggles
predicted
No (H$500 at 86%)
28 weeks ago
ennottodo
predicted
No (H$100 at 86%)
Showing recent public predictions only
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Comments (6)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_9456427?nclick_check=1
Industry leaders Comcast and Time Warner Cable have started testing traffic-metering and management techniques that seek to rein in heavy usage, and AT&T says such limits are inevitable for the most extreme users of its network. That means that for the first time since the era of dial-up access, Internet providers are looking to count how many bytes a customer uses, potentially ending or significantly altering the practice of all-you-can-eat broadband consumption. (SF Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/22/BU9V11CIVA.DTL&tsp=1
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