I respect your choice... but it seems a little extreme to me also. Maintaining the option of having choices is great, redundancy or otherwise. Competition is good too.
What you describe - you could get their business service and be good... no caps on that, etc.
I totally agree - DSL is too slow.
I am similar -- I am a Network Engineer and telecommute... I have Comcast business cable modem (/30 static IP) w/ no caps and Clear 4G service.... yes, Comcast is a large Clear investor. I am not aware of any other viable options for me. I am shopping around for a dedicated circuit - a metro E type solution. If you have high bandwitdh needs, SLA, and it's critical to your business, such an option may be something to consider ... getting a SLA and all.
Why does everyone pander to emotion, and avoid reality? There are a LOT of stupid posts here! I comment on things like once a year, and I could probably write pages, but I'll try to keep it short.
First, educate yourself on the issue and background. FOR YEARS (I'm guessing 10+), Comcast has had a TOS/AUP that didn't specifically define "excessive," (it does now, they have published a monthly 'cap') but did say that usage was subject to residential use, not running a server, and usage that impacted others on the network was subject to violation, etc.
"Unlimited" was ALWAYS in the context of unlimited ACCESS, NOT USAGE. NEVER once did any cable network that I know of (Comcast, MediaOne, RoadRunner, @Home, AT&T Broadband, Time Warner, etc) say you can 'do whatever you want with your connection.' Access being in the context of marketing in regards to dial-up comparisons... ie, you don't have "hours" to usage, you have "unlimited" access to connectivity - obviously with some restrictions such as maintenance and outages, you don't have a specific SLA - this is residential service. And speeds have always been "UP TO"... shit so is Verizon and ALL residential products that I'm aware. Unless you have a SLA, and a dedicated circuit, you're not getting a guarantee or CIR. Again, UP TO... has ALWAYS been used.
For those that say I pay for 8Mbps and I should get it 24/7, you are stupid! You pay for UP TO 8Mbps, and I very much agree that you should get those speeds at most times, on average, and for all REASONABLE use. BUT if you chose to transfer 8Mbps 24/7, with a residential service, at some point I totally support your ISP stepping in. If you're connecting to a source that can support it, and you NEVER get near your cap speed, that IS something to at least investigate and complain about. I have Comcast DOCSIS3.0 service at 50/10 and get my FULL 50d and 10u - almost 24 hours of the day. Sometimes I do slow to 40/8 or so. Sometimes while I get 10Mbps to one site max, I can still get 35+Mbps to others.
Anyway, to get back on point... if you want GUARANTEED or DEDICATED bandwidth... pay for it. It's NOT residential service or cable modem, or even FiOS, buy yourself a circuit and you'll most likely be billed at 95 percentile billing. Then you can use as much as you want, you have the right.
In Comcast's case, from what I've read, it's not even an 80/20 rule.. it's more like 5% OR LESS of the top users use MORE than 90% of the bandwidth.
Bandwidth is NOT FREE or unlimited. It COSTS money. It can COST a lot of money, and for those transferring 100's of G or more a month, you're costing more than they get from you.... and the cost is direct and indirect. Indirectly, they are forced to upgrade infrastructure to support - which is a huge cost.
FIOS this FIOS that... it's a broken business model, and it's SO LIMITED in availability. Those that do have access to it, yeah - it's a GREAT competitor to cable, but DSL really doesn't compare to Comcast. FIOS may even be better than Comcast data/cable modem, but again - look at the availability. And the long-term business model. FIOS is not sustainable, you'll see long-term. It's not an apples to apples comparison right now. Wait until FIOS can serve at LEAST 66% or 2/3rds of the market share that cable has, then on scale you can start to compare better.
Comcast has an IP network unlike any other in scale. One of the LARGEST in the WORLD! Look at AS 7922 and see it's role in the Internet. Doing some research, you can see OC768 (40G) paths of 280G (7x40G)!!! 10G appears to be their LOWEST bandwidth circuit in any data path!!! Understand their business model for a second, and you'll learn that their 'converged network' carries traditional residential service, along with advanced commercial solutions. You'll see the common network is not the bottleneck, as much as your last mile and cable modem... and it's not just a matter of more "cake" or anything... it's a HUGE expense to get that last mile bandwidth. If you want DEDICATED, you can get it too! Comcast is offering metro-Ethernet and other dedicated services.... they do cost a lot more, they cost what any commercial solution does.
SHOP around... WHO can offer you UP to 8Mbps, or more, for $50 or less a month!?? It's limited. DSL is very limited in such, FIOS can blow the speeds, but is so limited in it's availability, so cable is really the only current company able to offer this to the general public - to TENS of MILLIONS of households!
NO company CAN offer UNLIMITED bandwidth to all of it's customers. Well, okay - at a certain CIR, yes. So, if EVERYONE wanted unlimited bandwidth usage, you'd probably get 500kbps max rate.
To you BOB... explain how you 'build it right'? What do you charge customers? What is the max burst rate?
So yeah, sending a RST packet on your behalf was not the best plan from a PR perspective for sure. But technically, putting aside the emotional factors of it all, it wasn't the woest technical idea ever. It was a mistake in my eyes, a bad practice. But networks DO need administration and there NEED to be methods to better ensure some traffic is policied. There should be better transparency in such.
BANDSWIDTH is a FINITE resources, as are CPU cycles, fiber, power and space, etc.
Simply, I'm on the boat of metered usage. Pay for what you use... it's already the telecom model, Comcast has always paid for it's bandwidth usage - generally 95% billing. Think cell phones in many ways. Cell phones have the same issues w/ large bandwidth usage too, calling minutes are becoming less of a factor - but the same concept, it's a resource. Maybe you get a huge allotment of MB's, and then start paying... whatever, but once you start paying, you'll reconsider just sharing your connection (eg P2P) with the world, etc.
It's simple, well - fairly complex actually, business. If anyone understands that, and can do better-- start your own company, beat Comcast and put an end to their business model. The thing is, Comcast runs a business pretty darn well! Sure, you can't please everyone, and there are unhappy customers... but the funny thing is, I've been in the ISP business for 12+ years... people complain all they want, but when you shop around - cable very regularly is the BEST option on the market. IF you have FIOS, you're lucky and it's right there, if not better from a data perspective. But it's also a business model that isn't scaling, and is failing in most regards. Just ask Verizon and look at their books... why have they slowed and almost stopped new growth and installation? Well, because it costs $1500 per HOME passed, if not more - that's passed, not subscribed. And that's just the plant build, not even the net operations costs, customer support costs, etc, etc.
In a perfect world, we'd have free and unlimited Internet. Free and unlimited healthcare. But nothing is really free, someone pays for it. I like the idea of I pay for what I get/use, rather than into a pool and everyone takes what they think is fair to them.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Shawn.
RE: I refuse to even so much as live in a place where Comcast is the only broadband
What you describe - you could get their business service and be good... no caps on that, etc.
I totally agree - DSL is too slow.
I am similar -- I am a Network Engineer and telecommute... I have Comcast business cable modem (/30 static IP) w/ no caps and Clear 4G service.... yes, Comcast is a large Clear investor. I am not aware of any other viable options for me. I am shopping around for a dedicated circuit - a metro E type solution. If you have high bandwitdh needs, SLA, and it's critical to your business, such an option may be something to consider ... getting a SLA and all.
Think, educate yourself, then comment intelligently...
First, educate yourself on the issue and background. FOR YEARS (I'm guessing 10+), Comcast has had a TOS/AUP that didn't specifically define "excessive," (it does now, they have published a monthly 'cap') but did say that usage was subject to residential use, not running a server, and usage that impacted others on the network was subject to violation, etc.
"Unlimited" was ALWAYS in the context of unlimited ACCESS, NOT USAGE. NEVER once did any cable network that I know of (Comcast, MediaOne, RoadRunner, @Home, AT&T Broadband, Time Warner, etc) say you can 'do whatever you want with your connection.' Access being in the context of marketing in regards to dial-up comparisons... ie, you don't have "hours" to usage, you have "unlimited" access to connectivity - obviously with some restrictions such as maintenance and outages, you don't have a specific SLA - this is residential service. And speeds have always been "UP TO"... shit so is Verizon and ALL residential products that I'm aware. Unless you have a SLA, and a dedicated circuit, you're not getting a guarantee or CIR. Again, UP TO... has ALWAYS been used.
For those that say I pay for 8Mbps and I should get it 24/7, you are stupid! You pay for UP TO 8Mbps, and I very much agree that you should get those speeds at most times, on average, and for all REASONABLE use. BUT if you chose to transfer 8Mbps 24/7, with a residential service, at some point I totally support your ISP stepping in. If you're connecting to a source that can support it, and you NEVER get near your cap speed, that IS something to at least investigate and complain about. I have Comcast DOCSIS3.0 service at 50/10 and get my FULL 50d and 10u - almost 24 hours of the day. Sometimes I do slow to 40/8 or so. Sometimes while I get 10Mbps to one site max, I can still get 35+Mbps to others.
Anyway, to get back on point... if you want GUARANTEED or DEDICATED bandwidth... pay for it. It's NOT residential service or cable modem, or even FiOS, buy yourself a circuit and you'll most likely be billed at 95 percentile billing. Then you can use as much as you want, you have the right.
In Comcast's case, from what I've read, it's not even an 80/20 rule.. it's more like 5% OR LESS of the top users use MORE than 90% of the bandwidth.
Bandwidth is NOT FREE or unlimited. It COSTS money. It can COST a lot of money, and for those transferring 100's of G or more a month, you're costing more than they get from you.... and the cost is direct and indirect. Indirectly, they are forced to upgrade infrastructure to support - which is a huge cost.
FIOS this FIOS that... it's a broken business model, and it's SO LIMITED in availability. Those that do have access to it, yeah - it's a GREAT competitor to cable, but DSL really doesn't compare to Comcast. FIOS may even be better than Comcast data/cable modem, but again - look at the availability. And the long-term business model. FIOS is not sustainable, you'll see long-term. It's not an apples to apples comparison right now. Wait until FIOS can serve at LEAST 66% or 2/3rds of the market share that cable has, then on scale you can start to compare better.
Comcast has an IP network unlike any other in scale. One of the LARGEST in the WORLD! Look at AS 7922 and see it's role in the Internet. Doing some research, you can see OC768 (40G) paths of 280G (7x40G)!!! 10G appears to be their LOWEST bandwidth circuit in any data path!!! Understand their business model for a second, and you'll learn that their 'converged network' carries traditional residential service, along with advanced commercial solutions. You'll see the common network is not the bottleneck, as much as your last mile and cable modem... and it's not just a matter of more "cake" or anything... it's a HUGE expense to get that last mile bandwidth. If you want DEDICATED, you can get it too! Comcast is offering metro-Ethernet and other dedicated services.... they do cost a lot more, they cost what any commercial solution does.
SHOP around... WHO can offer you UP to 8Mbps, or more, for $50 or less a month!?? It's limited. DSL is very limited in such, FIOS can blow the speeds, but is so limited in it's availability, so cable is really the only current company able to offer this to the general public - to TENS of MILLIONS of households!
NO company CAN offer UNLIMITED bandwidth to all of it's customers. Well, okay - at a certain CIR, yes. So, if EVERYONE wanted unlimited bandwidth usage, you'd probably get 500kbps max rate.
To you BOB... explain how you 'build it right'? What do you charge customers? What is the max burst rate?
So yeah, sending a RST packet on your behalf was not the best plan from a PR perspective for sure. But technically, putting aside the emotional factors of it all, it wasn't the woest technical idea ever. It was a mistake in my eyes, a bad practice. But networks DO need administration and there NEED to be methods to better ensure some traffic is policied. There should be better transparency in such.
BANDSWIDTH is a FINITE resources, as are CPU cycles, fiber, power and space, etc.
Simply, I'm on the boat of metered usage. Pay for what you use... it's already the telecom model, Comcast has always paid for it's bandwidth usage - generally 95% billing. Think cell phones in many ways. Cell phones have the same issues w/ large bandwidth usage too, calling minutes are becoming less of a factor - but the same concept, it's a resource. Maybe you get a huge allotment of MB's, and then start paying... whatever, but once you start paying, you'll reconsider just sharing your connection (eg P2P) with the world, etc.
It's simple, well - fairly complex actually, business. If anyone understands that, and can do better-- start your own company, beat Comcast and put an end to their business model. The thing is, Comcast runs a business pretty darn well! Sure, you can't please everyone, and there are unhappy customers... but the funny thing is, I've been in the ISP business for 12+ years... people complain all they want, but when you shop around - cable very regularly is the BEST option on the market. IF you have FIOS, you're lucky and it's right there, if not better from a data perspective. But it's also a business model that isn't scaling, and is failing in most regards. Just ask Verizon and look at their books... why have they slowed and almost stopped new growth and installation? Well, because it costs $1500 per HOME passed, if not more - that's passed, not subscribed. And that's just the plant build, not even the net operations costs, customer support costs, etc, etc.
In a perfect world, we'd have free and unlimited Internet. Free and unlimited healthcare. But nothing is really free, someone pays for it. I like the idea of I pay for what I get/use, rather than into a pool and everyone takes what they think is fair to them.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Shawn.
Submit a story now.