Leaked Comcast Docs Confirm What Everybody Knew: Broadband Usage Caps Are About Profit, Not Congestion
from the you're-bad-at-bullshit dept
For many years the broadband industry relentlessly argued that broadband usage caps were necessary to protect networks from congestion. Unless ISPs were allowed to meter broadband usage, we were told, the rise in Internet video would clog the world's tubes, resulting in a mammoth network apocalypse known as the exaflood. Years later, with the exaflood debunked as fear mongering nonsense and most engineers pointing out that caps don't really fix congestion anyway, the broadband industry was forced to admit half of the obvious: that broadband usage caps weren't about congestion.Still, as the nation's biggest ISP and current leading proponent of the "necessity" of usage caps, Comcast has tried to tap dance around this fact. Until now. On the heels of the news that Comcast was expanding its usage caps and overage fees yet again, an employee leaked Comcast's talking points about caps to 4Chan and Reddit. The six-page support document confirms what everybody already knew; namely that usage caps are about raising rates to protect legacy TV revenues, not about congestion. Employees are told:
• Do say: "Fairness and providing a more flexible policy to our customers."Yes, as Comcast has shifted away from the congestion excuse it has tried to argue that imposing a glorified rate hike on all of its users is somehow about...fairness. Under Comcast's new proposal, customers face a usage cap of 300 GB a month, after which they pay $10 per each 50 GB consumed. Users also have the option of paying $30 to $35 to return their connection to its original, unlimited status. Of course nobody under the proposal pays less, and understandably, users suddenly forced to pay $30 to $35 more for the same connection they had yesterday aren't seeing the fairness.
• Don't say: "The program is about congestion management." (It is not.)
The document also reiterates Comcast's frequent insistence that these aren't "usage caps," they're "flexible data plans." Employees are told:
• Do say: "Data usage plan"Comcast was already quite literally the least liked company in the country thanks to abysmal customer service. Now, despite breathless proclamations that it's trying to renovate its public image, the cable giant apparently thinks it's a good idea to not only raise rates, but insult its customers' collective intelligence. Of course when you don't have any meaningful competition you can do pretty much whatever you'd like -- something that Comcast is increasingly making abundantly clear.
• Don't say: "Data Cap" (This is not a cap. We do not limit a customer's use of the Internet it any way at or above 300 GB)"
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Filed Under: broadband, broadband caps, business models, congestion, data caps, pricing
Companies: comcast
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And here's the result of that leak:
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This is what Monopolies do
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Re:
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Re: Re:
Colorado Residents Vote to Bypass Protectionist State Broadband Laws
Colorado Voters Abolish Ban on Government-Owned Broadband
Wow, the people actually being able to overturn corporate written laws? Practically unheard of and very encouraging. Most of the time business interests are very effective at getting the laws they want and once those laws are passed it's very very difficult to change them (ie: look at copy protection laws/lengths and taxicab medallion laws among many others). Hopefully this becomes a trend ... (I can see business interests are afraid).
With respect to the TPP
Mass Mobilization To Stop The TPP Announced
While this may or may not work it's nice to see more and more people participating in the legislative process. Encouraging and if it keeps happening more and more eventually these issues will become more and more difficult for the corrupt mainstream media to keep most everyone uninformed about and public pressure (in opposed to business pressure) will have a greater impact on our laws.
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Truth by technicality, the best kind of truth
In the same way, 'speed limits' don't actually stop you from going over the listed speed, you're just penalized if you do.
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Re: Truth by technicality, the best kind of truth
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Data Caps...from a historical perspective...bunk!
As soon as Verizon FiOS starts I'll work to convince my town (in MA) to build out its own network. It isn't all that difficult.
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Re: Data Caps...from a historical perspective...bunk!
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Re: Re: Data Caps...from a historical perspective...bunk!
I believe you are pointing to long distance, yes. But believe it or not, plenty of networks have used the 'by minute' technique with great success. To them, for awhile, then stopped because of every reason.
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Re: Data Caps...from a historical perspective...bunk!
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Re:
Capitalism isn't "fair" and isn't intended to be.
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This one is fishy
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Re: This one is fishy
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Keep reading the document...
• Don't say: "Hahahaha, you dumbass, thanks for the free money!" (It is free money.)
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Step 2: use a small percentage of those profits to bribe senators into passing laws that only support you
Step 3: raise prices while under delivering you product for massive short term profits
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Poor Comcast CS Reps
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Re: Poor Comcast CS Reps
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I thought the tubes were clogged
I'm shocked to hear that that was all bullshit. /s
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Usage Caps
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