Why you’re going to absolutely hate Comcast’s data caps

[ProblemAgain]

i just know frenchy is gonna love this story..

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Why you’re going to absolutely hate Comcast’s data caps

By Brad Reed May 15, 2014 1:25 PM

Wochit

Comcast To Cord-Cutters: You Should Pay More

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If there’s one thing Comcast loves doing, it’s figuring out how to grab even more money from its subscribers. But Comcast has a problem: More and more customers are choosing to reject its beloved bundles and only subscribe to it for Internet services so they can watch their favorite shows through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and other online streaming services. To squeeze more money from these rascally cord cutters, Comcast has now said that it plans to implement bandwidth caps that will slap its users with fees if they watch too many episodes of House of Cards over its network.

Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin does a good job of explaining just how much you’re going to hate these bandwidth caps, especially if you’re someone who watches most of your favorite shows and movies online. As Brodkin notes, new research from Sandvine shows that cord cutters in the United States “consume on average 212GB a month, more than seven times the usage of a typical subscriber” while watching “an average of 100 hours of video a month and account for 54 percent of total traffic consumed each month.”

What’s more, Sandvine’s research shows that the top 5% of Internet users consume around 328GB per month, which means that they’ll likely go over the 300GB cap that Comcast has started rolling out in many markets.

Why does this matter if it only affects 5% of users? Well, it matters because the future of video really is going to be online and not through cable television. Online streaming apps and services keep growing in popularity and soon more people will see that paying $200 a month for a package that includes 150+ channels they don’t watch is a complete waste of money. In other words, while only a few people will run afoul of such caps right now that number is only going to keep growing, especially once more people get 4K TVs.

And once this happens, you can just bet that Comcast will want to implement its pièce de résistance by copying AT&T’s proposed “sponsored data” plans that will let content providers fork over extra cash to make sure that their streaming data doesn’t count against customers’ caps. This way Comcast can not only collect overage fees from customers who watch too many videos from unsponsored sources, it can also rake in cash from Netflix, Amazon and others who want to make sure their subscribers aren’t punished for enjoying their programs too much.

CA-CHING, CA-CHING, CA-CHING!

At any rate, while it’s certainly true that we Comcast subscribers are going to hate this new bandwidth cap scheme the good news is that we’ll have plenty of company. After all, if Comcast ends up buying Time Warner Cable, then every TWC subscriber will know the joys of being slapped with fees for watching too much Netflix as well

[frenchy]

well all i can say is i dumped comcast about 10 years ago and good riddance .. right now i have century link and while i'm not thrilled with them so far so good .. i did try their prism package when it first came out and it was a disaster .. i had directv and dish both and down here in florida when it rains it pours so at a time when you're most likely to not be doin anything else but watch a movie because of the foul weather thats the time they have their outages .. somethin about the low lyin clouds or somethin durin a storm .. so , so far i'm happy with centurylinks service for the internet for the most part .. i have their 10mps package which is fast enough for any roku .. i had the 3 mps and accordin to roku thats all you need 1.5 even is enough but they say you could experience some bufferein so there's nothin between the 3mps and the 10 mps .. truth be told i don't really see any difference but its good to know i have way more than i need.. but .. always a big butt in there .. when i had centurylinks  prisim package i couldn't get it outta here fast enough .. i told em you guys are tryin to be just like comcast with all your bait and switch tactics .. way to go .. now get this shit outta here and don't ever try to sign me up again .. they keep tryin tho .. had a guy actually come to my door the other day tryin to sell me again .. i had to tell him buddy if you gave it to me for free i wouldn't take it .. i'm happy with the way things are now .. so all in all comcast don't surprise me .. but then they're the main reason that so many people are goin to roku or apple tv or smart tv's .. and comcast with prism by century link might not be all that far behind .maybe they'll put a limit on their's too ??  or .. if they're smart they'll advertise heavy in the area's that comcast is limitin bandwidth that they won't limit it .. nahh.. they ain't that smart ..  far as 4k tv's go they'll probably sell a shitload of em but as of now there ain't nobody on the horizon that i know of who even has a plan to broadcast in 4k anytime in the future let alone near future .. i'm sure at some point it will come .. but not for a few years , so save your money and just get a hd capable tv for now cause 4k won't do you any good at the moment cept for braggin rights ..  

[ProblemAgain]

i read a test report on the difference between 4k and 1080. unless you have a monster screen size, you can't even tell the difference in the picture quality. i guess what they are selling is bragging rights, kinda like 'my car can go 0-120 in 10 seconds and can do 185 mph..."...'yeah where would that be that you wouldn't go to jail as a dumbass?"

[Wayne Goodwin]

I have Charter and so far there is no cap as I know of  . I pay 57 dollars a month for 30 meg . Was paying 45 dollars . They offering 60 meg now with free modum for 40 a month bundlled . I have dish for TV . Is there any way to get rid of dish before the contract runs out ?

[Snagg]

We have Comcast, because THERE'S NOTHING ELSE AVAILABLE.

Now that the "Freedom Lovers" in congress (Who love "freedom" for themselves and for corporations and for no one else) have chosen to ignore anti-monopoly and anti-trust laws, Comcast rolled in here a few years and gobbled up every other cable provider in a two-hundred-mile radius - So it's them or nothing. (Except for Dish Network, which sucks even worse.)

I got in trouble with a moderator a few years ago for saying this, but I remember when the American Business Model was competition and "the customer is always right" - The various industries knew that not everybody wanted the same thing; Some folks wanted a Ford, some wanted a Chevy, and there were companies that went, "Well, that's cool - Either way, we still get enough business to make an ENORMOUS profit, and there's new customers every day", and that worked out well enough.

But the NEW American Business Model, of the last fifty years or so, is this: Merge with or destroy your competition, strip the consumer of any choice at all, back them into a corner and fuck them as hard as possible - And make sure that they know that you have an army of lawyers who will make things even worse for them if the consumer dares to complain about it. Take the extra extorted profits and buy your OWN congress composed of eager whores who will slit their own children's throats before they do anything for the consumer, lean back in your executive corner office, and call yourself a "job creator". End of fucking story.

[frenchy]

well snag i have to agree with you .. i hate comcast too and now the latest is they wanna merge with warner cable .. they tried it quite a few years ago and congress did have the balls to say no .. this time i'm not so sure that will happen .. dish tried to merge with directv and they stopped that too but if comcast and time warner succeed then watch dish and directv cry foul .. i'm not sure if its still up but they used to have a website i hate comcast or somethin like that where people could go and bitch .. from what i understand it got comcasts attention and they tried to be a kinder gentler cable co. but their reputation is still quite tarnished and this bandwidth limitation is just one more reason why .. leapord's don't change their spots .. just a quick question if i might tho .. who's the landline co. in your area and whats their cost for dsl ?? you'd be surprised how many channels you could get with a roku and most of em are free .. and netflix is like 8.50 a month tax included for as many movies as you wanna watch .. all you really need is a 3mps dsl connection .. 1.5 would even work for most things .. i'm not even sure what comcasts cheapest basic cable runs now but it has to be more than 50 bucks a month and thats not countin internet ..with internet is has to be close to 100 and now they wanna limit your bandwidth and charge you even more .. hard to beat 8.50 a month and free .. and the roku is pretty simple to setup .. 

[Wayne Goodwin]

Roku has a streaming stick now . Just plug it in a usb connection ...

[frenchy]

a regular roku works thru your wifi and you don't have to plug it in at all .. just a short hdmi cord to the tv or if you prefer your rca jacks will work too .. i have 2 of em in different rooms and one is rca and the other is hdmi .. no difference in the two .. and the remote is so simple to use ..  

[ProblemAgain]

but then the concept is that with netflix you save money on cable tv by streaming only to pay it out by exceeding the data usage and paying the other pocket ...pretty soon they will figure out how to rent you air and double bill you for breathing and then charge you extra for using over your allotment

[frenchy]

you save a shitload of money with netflix compared to comcast and if you use your landline dsl as of now there is no cap in bandwidth .. its a no brainer .. 

[Wayne Goodwin]