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Is the End of Unlimited Internet Near?

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jrknothead
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02 Sep 2008, 1:55 am

Is the End of Unlimited Internet Near?

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Get ready to say goodbye to unlimited Internet access.

Comcast Corp., the nation's second-largest Internet service provider, says it would set an official limit on the amount of data subscribers can download and upload each month.

In an online announcement, the service provider said that although it already contacts residential customers who use excessive amounts of bandwidth, it had never provided a specific limit. Now, Comcast said it will amend its user agreement to say that users will be allowed 250 gigabytes of monthly usage.

The company emphasizes that its cap is generous and will only affect about 1 percent of its 14.4 million customers. Experts say these customers might include heavy gamers and those who use a significant amount of bandwidth for creating or uploading video.

But industry watchers note that Comcast's decision is indicative of a trend by Internet service providers to move toward usage-based service plans


Looks like they want to crack down on file sharing by capping the amount of data you can share.

Bastids.



tomamil
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02 Sep 2008, 2:27 am

250 giga? heh...

in Europe this is very common. there are several levels you can choose to pay for. for example allowing you 25 giga of national transfer and 1 giga of international one. there is always the unlimited one, too, but it's more expensive. btw, i was never able to download more than 1 gigabyte a day.


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Quatermass
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02 Sep 2008, 3:08 am

25 GB is too much, I reckon. I don't do anywhere near that much per month.


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spudnik
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02 Sep 2008, 3:37 am

I do 65gb per month 8)



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02 Sep 2008, 3:39 am

spudnik wrote:
I do 65gb per month 8)


8O

How the hell is that possible?


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n4mwd
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02 Sep 2008, 4:48 am

The are trying to kill off file sharing. A single DVD movie can be 9 GB right there. Most movies are compressed with MP4 and take up less than 1GB.

The bottom line is that they don't want to spend the money to increase their system bandwidth. The world is demanding higher bandwidths. They need to get with the program. My local phone company is looking at 12 Mb/s DSL service right now. Some people have fiber at 20 Mb/s. Yet people in France have had 50 Mb/s service for years.

The higher bandwidths are used for providing cable TV over internet so its not surprising that comcast would be against it.