Extreme Tech LogoBuild it, Tweak it, Know it
Comcast Preparing to Screw Its Customers?
May 16, 2008
By Jim Lynch
As I mentioned in a previous column, I'm a Comcast customer. But I'm
not a happy one. I'm sort of stuck with them. I live in a somewhat
rural area and we don't have a lot of choices here for broadband
providers. We have Comcast and DSL. The DSL is more expensive and
slower than Comcast so...we're stuck with Comcast.
Metering Bandwidth?
But as I said, I'm not happy and when I found out that Comcast might
begin metering bandwith=97I became even less happy.
Comcast is considering a rate hike for broadband customers who
consume more than 250 gigabytes of data each month, though there are
no immediate plans for implementation. "Comcast is currently
evaluating this service and pricing model to ensure we deliver a great
online experience to our customers," the company said in a statement.
"We have not made any changes to our current service offerings and
have no new announcement to make at this time."
Comcast came under fire last year for cutting off service to
bandwidth hogs, but refusing to reveal its actual limit for bandwidth
consumption. Targeted users, who said they were perfectly willing to
adhere to bandwidth limits set by Comcast, were unable to get the
provider to tell them what that limit might be.
Comcast is now pondering the idea of charging more for people who
use more than 250 GB per month, but the idea is still in the
evaluation stage, according to a source familiar with the situation.
The move is seen as a way to curb excessive use, and 250 GB is a
number that the average user will not likely surpass.
The news comes several months after Time Warner Cable announced
plans to test a usage-based system in the Beaumont, Texas market. The
offering was split into four tiers, with the option to purchase five,
ten, 20, or 40 gigabytes of data-per-month, but pricing information
has not yet been set, according to a spokesman."
Before I start ranting too loudly about this, I can understand
Comcast's position (believe it or not) to a certain degree. They might
be trying to figure out a way to manage their network congestion so
that there isn't too much slowdown as people engage in file sharing,
video downloads, etc. They've gotten flack for slowing down BitTorrent
use on their network and it seems like that criticism has them moving
in a different direction. Continued...
Unfortunately, the direction they may be going is the wrong one. We've
already done the "pay for the bandwidth/time you use" thing in the
past with AOL, CompuServe and other ISPs and people didn't like it.
Those days are long gone and internet connectivity has become as
im****tant and expected, like a services in electricity, sewage
processing, and clean water.
Comcast is making a desperation move here and it shows. Unfortunately,
it probably won't cost them much in the way of customers. Why? Well
there are far too many people like me who don't really have much of a
choice. We're stuck with Comcast if we want broadband and there's not
a damn thing we can do about it (except move and for some that really
isn't an option; don't think this hasn't crossed my bandwidth-besotted
brain).
Government Regulation?
And what about the government? Should it intervene to stop Comcast
from doing this? Well I know that it's easy to get angry and demand
that the government "put a stop to this now!" but the libertarian/free
marketeer side of me groans when I consider that. The government
almost inevitably screws up most of what it touches and I can't help
but wonder if it would just make things worse over the long run?
On the other hand, Comcast is pretty much a monopoly in some areas and
as a monopoly some sort of government oversight or accountability
might not be such a bad idea. I would prefer, frankly, that a free
market solution be the way to hold Comcast accountable. If Comcast
screws its customers then we should be able to leave and purchase a
similar product from somebody else. But that's just not the reality in
some places. Comcast has its customers by the balls and, in the short
term, there's not much anybody can do about it. Continued...
One question that comes up in all of this is how much bandwidth is
enough? The rumor has Comcast considering 250GB per month. Is that
enough? Should it be 500GB? How much is enough? I really don't know.
Every customer is different and some will use more and some less.
I'm a single guy so I don't have a large family all hitting the
internet with varying bandwidth needs, but I feel for the people that
do. Think about a family of six with teenage kids...imagine how much
bandwidth such a family might use every month between file sharing,
watching online videos, playing games, email attachments, photo
uploading/downloading, etc. For this kind of family 250GB could be
burned-through pretty darn quickly and then what? How much will it
cost after that? Will the speed slow down? Will the family run up a
huge bill?
There's no way to know right now but, given the costs of gas/food/etc,
this could be a huge extra cost for working families. If Comcast goes
this way, they better be prepared to be brought onto the hot seat in
Wa****ngton again because I think somebody is going to ask them about
any additional charges, if people go over the allotted bandwidth.
And how are customers going to be notified when they get near the end
of their bandwidth? I'm not installing some piece of Comcast software
junk on my Macs so I can keep track of my bandwidth usage. Are they
going to send an email out to each customer when the customer hits the
limit? If Comcast adds additional fees for more bandwidth usage then
they have to notify the customers each time before the fees kick in.
So some method of monitoring bandwidth usage is going to be necessary
and it can't be an intrusive spyware-type program that customers are
forced to install on their machines. Continued...
There is another wrinkle to this story that needs to be examined.
Comcast might or might not claim that they are considering metering
bandwidth to keep their network performance in good shape or even to
cut down on piracy through file sharing. But is that really the case?
Nixon said to follow the money and I think he might, as usual, be
proven right.
Downloadable content is still in its infancy but companies like Apple,
Netflix, and others are moving swiftly to offer customers movies,
games, television shows, and other video products over the Internet.
This has the potential effect of cutting into Comcast's own cable TV
business. Who wants to pay for crappy cable TV each month when you can
just buy or rent the shows you want and have them download to your Mac
or PC?
I suspect that Comcast is making a preemptive attack to hurt Apple and
other downloadable content companies. In effect, Comcast is trying to
kill the downloadable content market in its infancy. It sees the
future and in that future Comcast may be nothing more than the owner
of some dumb pipes that carry everybody else's valuable content.
This could be yet another argument (though I won't be the one making
it) for government intervention to protect the fledgling downloadable
content market. Comcast (and other cable companies) could be awakening
the sleeping giant if it decides to take on Apple, Google, and other
prominent companies in a face off over the viability of downloadable
movie rentals, TV shows, etc. Continued...
If Comcast is serious about metering bandwidth then there's one fair
thing it should do for its existing customers: cut the prices it is
currently charging people in half. Yes, you read that right. Comcast
should, at the very least, cut its prices in half. Currently I'm
paying around $65 per month for "unlimited" bandwidth. That's what I
signed up for and that's what I'm paying for. I'd want Comcast to drop
the price to around $29 per month before I'd even start to be
comfortable with metered bandwidth.
If Comcast is going to try to get away with this slap-in-the-face to
its customers then it better have a way to sweeten the deal so that
customers don't go ballistic when they realize that they've been
screwed and suddenly they are running out of bandwidth for their
families. Imagine the phone calls that are going to get made to
senators and congressman when America's families suddenly realize that
the service they signed up for has suddenly been changed and that
Comcast is planning to rake in even more money by forcing them into
"tiered" metered bandwidth services.
I sure wouldn't want to be the head of Comcast once the politicians
and public get wind of all this.
Ouch.
If Comcast starts metering bandwidth will you stick them as your
broadband provider? Tell me in the forum.
Copyright (c) 2008Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved.
|
