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Author Topic: Broadband Caps  (Read 5616 times)

Tinman57

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Broadband Caps
« on: December 22, 2012, 06:37 PM »
You know they'll just up the price higher than it already is....

Senator wants to limit broadband data caps
A U.S. senator has introduced legislation that limits the ability of broadband providers to impose data caps on customers.

http://lm.pcworld.co...75/5571255/354291/0/

f0dder

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2012, 07:44 PM »
Wyden's got it right - the spice must flow.

The greedy bastards should rethink their strategies. What netflix is doing is interesting - offering colo boxes at ISPs... you install a few racks at your site, and end up having to do less random (paid) peering with other ISP companies - this gets you a cache of the most wanted content in your own network, which is effectively free to send to your customers, whether they have 128kbps ISDN (yeah right), 20mbit ADSL2+, 100mbit VDSL or 1gbit fibre.

We need net neutrality and we need unmetered access in order to keep the internet alive, as well as to foster innovation.
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KynloStephen66515

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #2 on: December 22, 2012, 08:42 PM »
Good...In this day and age its fucking stupid to be capping customers that have 24mbps+ connections...to 20GB/Month or 40GB/Month...Jesus...Hardcore Netflix users would eat through that VERY fast.

SeraphimLabs

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2012, 12:41 AM »
My Verizon device has been limited to 10GB per month, up from 5GB per month for an additional $30 per month on the bill. About a year ago it went from being a 3G type connection with a top speed of perhaps 768KB/s to a 4G device that at one point clocked against an unloaded tower for nearly 20MB/s down. (Actual usage is far lower, perhaps 8-10MB/s due to tower congestion).

Needless to say the most I can do with it beyond browsing forums and checking my email is playing MMORPGs. It can only barely handle TF2 or Minecraft for any length of time without making a major spike in my quota and risking going over, and a couple of months now I've ended up going significantly over.

Although Verizon Wireless doesn't implement a hard cap like Hughesnet did, their price scale for overages makes it potentially painful to go more than a few gigabytes over quota.

I can see where they would look at the user statistics and go "Ok this tiny group is using up almost all the bandwidth, lets punish them."

But the end result then gives the effect where they want people to buy the service and then not use it, actively punishing those that do with data caps and overages. The reason there is such a wide range of traffic patterns is because some people use the internet continually during the day, while other people barely get online at all. And these capping strategies do not take that into account at all when calculating limits.

Although at the same time, data caps themselves are not specific to end users.

Servers often have data caps as well, where they serve a role in allowing a provider to effectively provision equipment and connectivity to ensure that speeds are maintained under peak loads and that bandwidth is not being wasted by abusive users such as malware servers and bots.

As a hosting provider, I too provide some data caps. But in my case it is done entirely to discourage abusive users from signing up and for accountability purposes on my end- that way I know at the end of the month my server has sufficient bandwidth assigned that if everyone on it uses their maximum the server does not exceed its own limit. Most of the time if a user actually hits the cap I'll raise it for them as long as the statistics show they are using it legitimately.
« Last Edit: December 23, 2012, 12:48 AM by SeraphimLabs »

Tinman57

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2012, 08:12 PM »
  One thing that really gripes my butt is how they advertise a certain speed with the small print that states this will vary depending on the time of day.  Well, I've been on the internet in all times frames many times and have NEVER even come close to the advertised speed.  But yet they just keep on keeping on.....With our money.....

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2012, 08:32 PM »
  One thing that really gripes my butt is how they advertise a certain speed with the small print that states this will vary depending on the time of day.  Well, I've been on the internet in all times frames many times and have NEVER even come close to the advertised speed.  But yet they just keep on keeping on.....With our money.....

The key word they use is "Up to" -My ISP uses the 'Up To' method, BUT, they also point out that I will NEVER get below a certain speed (90% of full speed) unless something breaks at the exchange.

Renegade

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2012, 08:54 PM »
There seems to be a fundamental disconnect between ISP marketing divisions and the concept of being honest or not outright deceptive. Skipping the rant...  :-\
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

barney

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2012, 08:55 PM »
The key word they use is "Up to" -My ISP uses the 'Up To' method, BUT, they also point out that I will NEVER get below a certain speed (90% of full speed) unless something breaks at the exchange.

Wish I had your service.  Think they work across the pond  :P?

KynloStephen66515

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #8 on: December 23, 2012, 09:19 PM »
The key word they use is "Up to" -My ISP uses the 'Up To' method, BUT, they also point out that I will NEVER get below a certain speed (90% of full speed) unless something breaks at the exchange.

Wish I had your service.  Think they work across the pond  :P?

Don't think "British Telecom" have a US department...Couldn't be sure though lol

barney

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2012, 10:35 PM »
The key word they use is "Up to" -My ISP uses the 'Up To' method, BUT, they also point out that I will NEVER get below a certain speed (90% of full speed) unless something breaks at the exchange.

Wish I had your service.  Think they work across the pond  :P?

Don't think "British Telecom" have a US department...Couldn't be sure though lol

They tried.  When I worked at MCI, BT offered to buy us, around 1998-2000, if memory serves.  Most of us were all for it.  Then Bernie doubled the bid (to the higher ups), his was accepted.  Then he was jailed, MCI became a 5th rate organization (at best) - and they had been arguably at the top of the telecom heap - and got bought out by Verizon.

erikts

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Re: Broadband Caps
« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2012, 07:24 PM »
I only got 1GB data cap priced at about $6 per month. :o It's a wireless network where congestion often happens. I rarely reach the cap because of slow connection.

I am probably not in the Age of Netflix yet.  :)
« Last Edit: December 25, 2012, 07:25 PM by erikts, Reason: spelling »