Linda Haugsted

Comcast Cracks Down on Bandwidth Hogs
October 8, 2007

There’s a steep hill near my home. Every month or so, the cops hang out there to nab a few careless (or hot rodding) drivers who power down that hill, in an effort to slow down escalating speeds. They may get a ticket, but at least they know why: the speed limit is posted repeatedly along this stretch of road, even one that flashes your speed and warns you to slow down. They have been warned.

But some of cable’s high-speed data users have complained publicly they don’t get the same respect. For instance, customers of Comcast complained in a Washington Post article last month that they had been branded “bandwidth hogs” for their level of download activity and cut off by the provider. Comcast responded that it wants to keep its network from slowing down for everybody by monitoring activity and curbing those who are heavy downloaders.

I understand the need to maintain the HSD experience: it’s why people subscribe to cable modems in the first place. What I don’t understand is why Comcast won’t post its speed limit. Officials say a consumer would have to download the equivalent of 1,000 songs, or four full-length movies to trigger punitive action, but they still won't specify the exact bandwidth limits.

Isn’t consumer information a good thing? Didn’t the iTunes scenario prove that, given an efficient, reasonably priced way to legally download songs, the majority of people would modify their behavior and become legal downloaders?

I like the strategy employed by Cable One instead. That multiple-system operator publicizes the fact that it monitors usage from noon to midnight, and publishes its upload/download thresholds during that period. 

Earlier this year, that threshold was 675 megabytes downstream and 90 megabytes upstream. Ninety-two percent of Cable One’s HSD customers never hit the thresholds, said Aldo Casartelli, vice president, Internet services. Those who exceed the limit include users of the BitTorrent content downloading site.

Yes, publishing what techies branded a “stingy” threshold earned CableOne negative buzz on Internet blogs. But Casartelli said the rate limiting improved speeds overall and provided time (midnight to noon) when heavy users could download all they wanted. CableOne never turned off anybody for heavy downloading. “We just put ’em at the back of the line a little bit” with its threshold limits, he said. 

In the last month, plant upgrades have enabled CableOne to raise its Residential Plus (3.0 MB) HSD threshold to 1,347 MB downstream from noon to midnight and 131 MB upstream during the same period, according to the company. The thresholds for faster HSD packages results in an evey bigger daytime pipe. Heavy downloaders still have 12 hours with no limits, he said.

Unambiguous thresholds. To this consumer’s mind, that’s a good thing.

Posted by Linda Haugsted on October 8, 2007 | Comments (1)