Comcast goes after Internet hogs
Posted
Aug 29 2008, 05:15 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Comcast is rolling out a new policy to keep people from hogging the Internet. And while the new restrictions seem pretty generous, I'm on high alert for what I call the Comcast gotcha. That's the sticker shock that happens when the cheapo trial period ends, and suddenly the bill comes and I'm paying how much for cable and Internet?
The new policy goes like this: Starting next month, customers will be limited to 250 gigabytes of downloaded content per month. If someone goes above that limit, their account could be suspended.
The good news? It's very tough to hit that limit. Comcast says that people can still download 50 high-definition movies, 250 standard-definition movies or 6,000 songs every month. So most people won't be affected by the new rules.
The bad news? Comcast doesn't make it easy to measure how much data you've downloaded. It's developing a bandwidth meter, but for now you have to find one on your own and figure out how to use it.
The worst news? Comcast could change its allowance at any time. It and other Internet providers could slowly tighten the restrictions, to the point where anything beyond simple e-mail and Web surfing will come at a cost.
This is a significant change. The days of all-you-can-download are over.
Comcast shares fell 2% Friday to close at $21.18.
On one hand, I can see where Comcast is coming from. A very small percentage of its customers use more than their share of Internet capacity, usually by illegally downloading lots of movies and albums. That can cause problems for everyone, particularly as it gets easier to find and download those super-large files.
But Comcast might not be as innocent in all this as it wants you to think. You can buy (or rent) high-definition movies from several companies online. And that competes with Comcast's own video-on-demand offering.
By placing caps on the movies someone can download, Comcast is making it harder for competitors to sell competing content.
As I said, the allowance seems generous for now. If Comcast leaves that 250 GB cap alone, most customers will be fine. But excuse me while I wait for the gotcha.
Here's what others are saying about the news:
Wired: "While usage caps may help Comcast out of a jam, they're not the best long-term solution for users or for the market -- it could slow broadband adoption and stall innovation. Here's a novel suggestion: If supply is a problem, why not increase capacity?"
Om Malik: "The caps are a move to ensure that the gouging scheme put in place by Comcast and other cable providers stays intact and they can continue to sell their video-on-demand services."
Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett: "Usage-based pricing would be a welcome development for broadband providers, and would be the simplest manifestation yet of what we believe is still the primary truth of the broadband market; that is that demand is rising at a time when relevant supply is actually shrinking." (Via Wired)
TechCrunch: "Comcast’s cap will be seen not as the start of a decline but rather the flowering of the Golden Age of Streaming."
Related reading:
Comcast to make life easier for rival Vonage
Cable companies eyeing nationwide wireless network
Cable continues to sucker us
