By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
superchunk on 30 May 2012
Edit Thread
mike_intellivision said:
superchunk said:
mike_intellivision said:
I wonder if all these companies which are moving to using the cloud have also considered the ISP usage limits that many companies (at least here in the United States) have.

I have Comcast and it has a 250 GB per month limit. That sounds like a lot -- and it is. But what does it really mean. Will you exhaust it if you are playing 8 hours a day, several days a week, as well as streaming movies, visiting webpages, updating Facebook, Tweeting, handling the occasional email, etc.

And from what I can tell, this is a very generous cap.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/how-internet-users-are-disciplined-around-the-world/


Mike from Morgantown

We've discussed this before and I've never been in a place with any form of a cap. Home internet is unlimited as far as I know. You need to move or find a new service.


I provided evidence that it is not in the form of the Arstechnica report.  And while they may be limited in use in the US (Time Warner could not make its cap stick), they do exist. Wired had a story about someone who exceeded Comcast's cap twice in six months and got cut off of service. http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/07/seattle-comcast/

I have a 1/4 TB limit from Comcast -- so I have a lot. And Comcast is trying the overage fee system. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/comcast-raises-data-cap/

Not everyone has the option of moving for bandwidth.  People choose where they live for many reasons -- usually if you have kids the first thing you look at is school district.

And yes, we have talked about this before.  But as more people use more data, this could cause problems. Look at the limits that ArsTechnica talks about in Canada.  http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/04/how-internet-users-are-disciplined-around-the-world/  Or look at what cell phone companies do with their limits of 2GB.

Mike from Morgantown

(My other option is Frontier -- which at one point was experimenting with data use charges which would have cost $250 a month for 250GB:  http://stopthecap.com/2010/04/14/frontiers-5gb-cap-is-back-now-includes-the-ultimate-in-internet-overcharging-249-99-a-month-for-250gb/)

Yeah, that seriously sucks. I really hope they don't push this stuff nation wide and instead remove it as a failed experiment.