[MadRiverTurtle]

By BLOOMBERG NEWS
Published: August 20, 2008

The Comcast Corporation plans to slow service to its heaviest Internet users during periods of congestion after regulators ordered the company to devise a new method for managing its Web traffic.

Top Internet speeds for the heaviest users will be reduced for 10 to 20 minutes to keep service to other users flowing, said Mitch Bowling, Comcast’s senior vice president and general manager for online services.

The Federal Communications Commission found on Aug. 1 that Comcast had improperly blocked peer-to-peer programs like BitTorrent that are used to share video and other files.

In an order posted on its Web site on Wednesday, the F.C.C. gave the company 30 days to provide details of its “unreasonable network management practices” and show how they would be changed by year-end.

A heavy Comcast Web user being impeded would have Internet speeds equivalent to “a really good DSL experience,” Mr. Bowling said. DSL, or digital subscriber line, is an Internet service offered by telephone companies. After a slowdown ended, Comcast would return Internet service to normal.

Comcast, which calls the new system fair share, will fine-tune it further before introducing it, Bowling said. In trials, Comcast has found the fair-share system to be effective if the slowing lasted for “roughly between, probably, 10 and 20 minutes,” Mr. Bowling said.

Comcast has about 14.4 million Internet users.

“We’re going to really have to see all the detail and have all the information,” said Marvin Ammori, a lawyer for Free Press, which promotes universal access to communications and filed the complain with the F.C.C. along with Public Knowledge, an advocacy group. Both organizations are based in Washington.

nytimes

[ironchefblue]

I truly hate Comcast's practices. They shouldn't be promising the world when it comes to bandwidth when they know they don't have the capacity to provide it for all subscribers at once. Bait and switch / shady practices earning them many millions of dollars. Kinda like my Verizon "unlimited" plan being limited to 5gb (I think they upped it to 10gb) of bandwidth a month.

[stanley]

I find this whole idea to be screwed.

I have been following this for a while now... Comcast (ptui!) isnt the onlly cable system to be doing this. ALL of the major carriers are doing this to some degree or another.

From my understanding they get away with it by offering "up to X Mbps" as opposed to offering X Mbps.... "up to"....

That like an ad for a sale... "Up to 50% off".... meaning 2% off....but it could have been "up to".

I guess the phone companies that were offering distinct tiers of service up 768Kbps, up to 1.5Mbps, up to 3Mbps, etc etc. are being sued in several states for not providing full bandwidth to "heavy users" as well....

Bandwidth is a commodity. You should be able to buy X Mbps and GET X Mbps...

Anything else is a rip off from the provider...

Just like folks are finally getting tired of the cell phone scam of buying minutes and having them "expire".... you paid for them, why do they "expire"?

Time is a commodity on a cell phone system, you buy it, it should be yours.

Informed consumers will put an end to the wild abuses the cable and phone companies are trying to pull on us.

Thieving bastards!

[jesusffs]

Originally Posted by stanley

I find this whole idea to be screwed.

I have been following this for a while now... Comcast (ptui!) isnt the onlly cable system to be doing this. ALL of the major carriers are doing this to some degree or another.

From my understanding they get away with it by offering "up to X Mbps" as opposed to offering X Mbps.... "up to"....

That like an ad for a sale... "Up to 50% off".... meaning 2% off....but it could have been "up to".

I guess the phone companies that were offering distinct tiers of service up 768Kbps, up to 1.5Mbps, up to 3Mbps, etc etc. are being sued in several states for not providing full bandwidth to "heavy users" as well....

Bandwidth is a commodity. You should be able to buy X Mbps and GET X Mbps...

Anything else is a rip off from the provider...

Just like folks are finally getting tired of the cell phone scam of buying minutes and having them "expire".... you paid for them, why do they "expire"?

Time is a commodity on a cell phone system, you buy it, it should be yours.

Informed consumers will put an end to the wild abuses the cable and phone companies are trying to pull on us.

Thieving bastards!

Amen brother, well said.