Usage is something we should be use to because it determines our heating/cooling/water bills. I never even come close to my Verizon limits and I don't stream over the internet. What Comcast's proposal would do is appropriately charge those people who gobble up a lot of data

Understandably so. With Internet being declared a utility it was bound to happen. I just don't know if the companies holding the keys and setting these limits on a profit based system is the best thing for consumers. History has proven it usually isn't. Look back at what phone companies did with Long distance and what mobile companies are doing with broadband now.

I would bet dollars to donuts that CenturyLink can tell you exactly how much data was TV programming and how much was internet traffic.

I bet you are right, but the point is none of them will care as long as you have a live TV service.

As a CenturyLink customer, internet only, I certainly hope they don't put quotas on data use. What gives me hope is that they are essentially a phone (and internet access) company that also provides TV services as opposed to the "cable" companies that are essentially TV companies that also provide phone service (and internet access). Clearly the lines are blurring. The current pricing model for internet access has you paying more money for higher bandwidth. This implies more data will be transferred. Putting a quota on top of that may create a lot of unhappiness with their customers. It would cause a problem for us as we generate a "lot" of internet traffic.

The comparison to a traditional utility is a stretch. With water, gas, and electric, you are actually consuming something that has to be created. With internet access, nothing is being consumed - you are simply moving bits of data around using the infrastructure. The infrastructure has to be put in place but that is true for all utilities. The pricing model is already in place for people who use a lot of data - they pay for higher bandwdith. However, I would not be surprised to see the pricing model change if it can generate higher revenues/profits.

Exactly. You used to be able to get unlimited data on cell phone plans now it's an average of 10GB per month. That's a huge disparity, and that is what the industry is moving towards. As for phone companies, they would be well suited to be the exception to the rule to retain and gain more broadband customers. but it remains to be seen whether they will in fact do just that.

Love the HBO Blast plan at Comcast. The link lists a 250 GB data threshold!

I know I don't have to worry about exceeding it.

My Internet plan:
Blast!
MAC address: ---

Data usage

15GB
View data usage details
Note: Enforcement of the 250GB data consumption threshold is currently suspended.

You must not be streaming. You would use that much data (the 15GB) with just 3 movies on Netflix. That means a heavy streamer would be able to watch about 50 movies or HD TV shows per month before the data limit was exceeded. It doesn't seem like much but it can add up quick.

And Comcast just announced they are discontinuing Personal Web Pages in just 2 months.
So I will call and ask how much they will reduce my internet rate because they are eliminating a sales feature they promised.

Stay tuned.

Skip

Some organizations handle this sort of thing by giving you a "good customer" discount per month for some number of months. If you got them to take 5 or 10 dollars a month off for a year that would be an excellent outcome. I would guess that you would need to escalate to make this happen. I am very curious about your outcome - good luck.

I did a chat with them. They have already stopped web pages for new customers. Only us that have web pages will continue until October 8th.

This is what he told me:

Effective October 8, 2015, the Personal Web Page service will no longer be available. Comcast will be switching to a new service provider in an effort to enhance our network and provide customers with the best Internet experience possible. Customers will need to retrieve all content currently saved on their sites before October 8, 2015 to avoid permanently losing their files and information. The ability to activate this feature has been disabled for new customers and customers who have not already activated their Personal Web Page.

Make more sense than that e-mail. I told him it did not make me happy. The web space was one of the reasons I stayed with Comcast.

I guess I will move my web space back to thevillages.net. They only give 5M but it will work for what I want to use it for.

Maybe we should see if we can get the mods to make this subject a separate thread. We might get some more people interested.

Z

I saw this today ... it seems appropriate to post now.

How to win the war on drugs:
1. Legalize drugs.
2. Require all drugs be purchased through Comcast customer service.

Its never good to marry your email to your ISP. It's a messy divorce.