Comcast Mulls Bandwith Cap

Seeking to limit disproportionate bandwith use, Comcast is considering a monthly limit of 250GB that could set a precedent affecting game downloads.

The North American provider may charge $15 for every 10GB in excess of the cap, already in place in other parts of the world. The company says the limit would affect only one-tenth of one percent of users.

But the move may set a precedent and create a downward trend that would affect digital distribution of games and movies.

PC users of Valve's Steam network download games measuring from a few hundred megabytes to five or more gigabytes in size, as do users of Direct2Drive or EA's service. The Xbox 360 allows for movie downloads, weighing in around 4.5GB, as does iTunes.

"Comcast is currently evaluating this service and pricing model to ensure we deliver a great online experience to our customers," said Comcast spokesman Charlie Dougla. "We have not made any changes to our current service offerings and have no new announcement to make at this time."

Source: Shacknews.com

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Is that 250gb a typo? Very few people need that much.

250gb doesnt seem bad. But why do they need to do it at all?

This has been an ongoing bit of fear mongering for a while now.

http://campustechnology.com/articles/50054/

I haven't a clue how true it is, but basically since people are now using the internet for videos and other huge files so excessively in tandem that it won't be able to support it. A giant slowing down or something like that.

Scarey. So South Park was right the internet will one day just stop working

This is, in part, related to net neutrality. The cable companies know that eventually, the fed is going to pass a net neutrality bill which will keep them from charging websites a right of way fee (basically free revenue) which will serve to limit the amount of traffic so they do not have to spend money to upgrade the system. This is their counter to the pending legislation. If and when Comcast does this, expect every cable company to do the same.

Fuck Comcast!
I use their shit internet and it cuts out on me at least once a day.
They also tried to charge me over $100 last month for just internet.
The problem is that no one else offers high speed anywhere near here.

My 65 GB, $120/month ADSL account feels no sympathy. Especially as it's one of the cheaper, and larger, plans available here.

Where is "here?"

Part of me wants to say you guys should just be thankful to have access where getting 250gb a month is even possible, but the less-embittered side of me is more concerned about the impact this could have on an entire range of net-based services. Net neutrality is a wonderful concept but the fact is that in many ways we've (well, you've) been getting a free ride for a long time now, and there's no way the big players are going to let that continue indefinitely without a fight.