My Big Fat Rant
Caps and Lies
Comcast Stinks! It's not just because of their horrible, and I mean horrendously awful, customer service., their failure to show up appointment after appointment no matter how many calls you make and the unreasonable amount of effort it takes as a customer to have any issue corrected. In fact if you plan on getting Comcast service you may as well quit your day job now, because you'll be busy dealing with Comcast 24/7 and in the end they'll still screw you over. I could live with all this as even as bad as it is, but what I can't abide is Comcasts cap and their lies. I switched to Comcast because DSL was too slow for me at times. I figured the upgrade from 6/mbs to 16/mbs a second would be life changing and it was, but soon after getting Comcasts service I found out that I was only allowed to use so much of my Internet service, 250 gigs a month of bandwidth, that means uploads and downloads. It was like trading in my bicycle for a Ferrari but finding out I could only drive it around the block, just much faster. 250 gigs sound like a lot, but it's not. I'm an avid movie watcher through Netflix and I also spend a lot of time online doing blogging, beta testing, etc. I also have a family that is online a lot listening to Pandora, watching Youtube, uploading photos, and doing all the usual Internet stuff. What this means is that two-thirds of the way through every month my family goes on an Internet fast so we don't go over our 250 gigs and have our service terminated by Comcast. How does all this tally up. Well according to Comcast, "...the median data usage by Comcast High-Speed Internet customers is approximately 4 - 6 GB each month...". Liars! One HD movie on Netflix is 3 GB. That would mean I could watch two movies and check my email once a day. Liars! Comcast also says, "The vast majority—more than 99%--of our customers are not excessive users and do not need to be concerned with excessive use." Liars! If this were true than there would be no issue with 1% of the user going over, there would be plenty of bandwidth to go around. Liars! Comcast says, "We have an excessive use program to provide a high-quality online service for all of our customers." Liars! How is it high-quality online service if I can't use my internet for the last 10 days of the month. Liars! Comcast says, "We do not monitor specific customer activities on the Internet...". Liars! It is well known that Comcast works hand in hand with Anti-P2P groups. Though they themselves might not be watching what you are doing the certainly are allowing various Anti-P2P groups access to watch what you are doing. Liars, liar, liars. Whys does Comcast do all this. There's only three reasons I can think of. One, Comcast is trying to save a buck by not allowing you to use more bandwidth. Two, Comcast has some type of back room agreement with Anti-P2P groups to prevent pirating through the most idiotic system ever. Three, Comcast is a cable company and they do not want you watching movies on Netflix and watching TV on networks websites. They want you to pay for it through cable television. What's this mean for you. Well if you watch a lot of movies on Netflix or you have a family that is online a lot, then you will have your service cut off if go over twice in a six month period. If you are doing something naughty like downloading music or movies you will get caught. Obvious solutions to this would be allowing you to pay more for higher bandwidth, paying for each GB when you go over 250 or rolling over unused GB from month to month. Why doesn't Comcast do this, because they suck and want to force you to use cable television. Cutting off your service for a year is extremely harsh and makes no real sense unless what I'm saying is true and Comcast is a bunch of liars. Conclusion: if you can go with another provider, even if it's slower like DSL, in the end it's worth it. You might not be able to play Halo and watch a movie at the same time, but at least you won't be looking over your shoulder all the time and depriving yourself of watching a movie on Saturday night for fear of losing your internet service. Comcast Lies! Comcast Sucks!
More here: www.savetheinternet.com
Update 6/20/12 - Comcast has made a smart move and decided to remove their bandwidth usage cap so that they can review real usage. Most likely the cap will come back at a 300gb limit for some or maybe all users and those who go over will simply pay and extra for every 50gb they use. It's rare for a big faceless company like Comcast to actually do something good for their customers and even rarer for me to actually say, "Thank you Comcast."
Update - AT&T has decided to suck right along with Comcast and is introducing a 150GB monthly cap on their customers. By doing so they are losing their one major advantage over Comcast. Big Mistake. There are several petitions out there that are fighting this or you can take more direct action and call your state representatives and tell them to fight for the American public or get another job.