How Does Your ISP Handle Top-Usage Customers?

davidwr (791652) writes "Does your ISP cap overall usage? What happens if you go over the cap? Does it force you into a higher-priced plan, throttle you for the rest of the month, cut you off for the month, or terminate your service entirely? I don't mind paying for what I use, but I'm looking for a list of cable and DSL providers that won't leave you high and dry like Comcast does if you go over the official or unofficial limits."

Comments

Comcast Weans Hogs Off Their Packet Teat

[eldavojohn]

I don't mind paying for what I use, but I'm looking for a list of cable and DSL providers that won't leave you high and dry like Comcast does if you go over the official or unofficial limits.

Well, since it's highly unlikely my similar story I submitted this morning will be accepted after this is the on the front page, I'll just submit it to Slashdot as a comment.

The telecommunications giant Comcast has severed its services to internet hogs who use more bandwidth than others. From the article,

Carreiro said he received a message from a Comcast Security Assurance representative in December, who warned him that he was hogging too much of the company's bandwidth and needed to cut down. When Carreiro contacted customer service about the call, they had no idea what he was talking about and suggested it was a prank phone call. Unconvinced, Carreiro contacted Comcast several more times, but was again told there was no problem. A month later, he woke up to a dead Internet connection. Customer service directed him to the Security Assurance division, which Carreiro said informed him he would now be without service for one year.

This is quite alarming to me, considering that I am forced into using a particular ISP based on some deal my neighborhood made many years before I moved here.

And, if I may elaborate, I feel I am a hog though I have never ever been threatened with this action before. What interests me is that they have my bandwidth capped and even that cap seems to fluctuate with how much my neighborhood is using. But, I'm pretty sure that the cable modem I have is physically capped at a low level because I've read stories of people uncapping them and being pretty much black listed. If that's what these "hogs" are doing, then I have little sympathy for them. The only time I had an uncapped connection was when I was in Bailey Hall at the University of Minnesota my freshman year. They had just installed ethernet and I soon discovered that they trusted me a little more than they should have. An unproductive dumbass freshman with a bass amp/speaker combo, a computer, a modded dreamcast and an uncapped connection to mIRC/morpheus/gnutella/etc made for some interesting nights ... rest assured that rooms adjacent to N410 knew the 8 bit emulated glory of contra theme song as I destroyed Red Falcon night after night.

Back to the topic, though, I have often used BitTorrent while playing World of Warcraft and using Ventrillo with no problems. Me and my roommates pay for the highest upload/download rates but, as I've said before, we never get close to those numbers.

Here's a better question, how does your ISP handle telephone calls by unsatisfied customers who complain that in the middle of the day using a third party site, their bandwidth is pinched FAR BELOW what they've been paying for? In my case, as a current customer of Cox, I can speak from first hand experience that those calls go largely unnoticed--although I've had different results from different providers at different locations.

Re:Comcast Weans Hogs Off Their Packet Teat

[TubeSteak]

But, I'm pretty sure that the cable modem I have is physically capped at a low level because I've read stories of people uncapping them and being pretty much black listed [google.com]. If that's what these "hogs" are doing, then I have little sympathy for them.

You're totally confusing two different things.

The bandwidth cap we're talking about is "GBs per month", not "how fast does my modem go". Your modem goes as fast as the service you paid for, while "GBs per month" is some magical number that Comcast doesn't tell you.

From what I've read, Comcast warns you to lower your usage at some point after 100GB.
Uncapping your modem = bannination if/when as they notice.

Re:Comcast Weans Hogs Off Their Packet Teat

[onx]

I also have cox at home (currently I am in another state at college) and like you, at home I have their fastest residential plan (12Mb/1.2Mb) however my experience has been much better. We have had Cox high-speed internet for several years, and they have upgraded our service over the years several times. From what I understand Cox (at least they did about a year ago) had a transfer limit of 20GB down a month. A first time violation gets you nothing, no notice phone call or anything of that sort. Repeatedly and frequently exceed that cap, or do so by a significant amount and you will get a warning. I believe they have a sort of three strike policy, but maybe it is four, after which they terminate your account. However I have never heard of Cox throttling a user's rates as you claim.

In fact, a few months ago my stepfather inadvertently switched us to the 256kb/256kb plan, so obviously I noticed the huge speed difference and thought there was a problem. I called Cox and told them my internet was super slow, talked to tech support on the phone, they were nice but weren't able to do anything so we scheduled a home visit. Cox guy comes in his van, does preventative maintenance, and then starts trying to diagnose the problem. He said they had been doing work in the area recently and maybe that was messing with the signal, after about an hour+ of ruling out everything (even installing an amp they gave us for free, just in case) he calls HIS tech support line and they find out the problem, we're running a slow config...Cox guy complains the stupid tech on the phone should have noticed this right away (the one I scheduled the appointment with) and helps me switch us back to the fast config. Thirty minutes later we get 12Mb/1.2Mb again, after about 2 hours total of tech support and a home visit because our speeds are far below what we (thought) we were paying for. The in home tech even went to dslreports to do speed checks.

So, as a current customer of Cox, I can speak from first hand experience that those [speed complaints] are taken seriously, but then again the old saying goes...your mileage may vary.

For Australians....

[danpat]

If you were in Australia, you could use http://www.whirlpool.net.au/.

A consumer advocacy group, with an extensive ISP plan database that lets you search on all the criteria you've mentioned. Anyone know if there is an equivalent in the US?

Mobistar, Belgium

[Ford Prefect]

Cheap and cheerful ADSL - I get 15GB a month transfer included, and every gigabyte after that costs 50 cents.

No idea if there's an upper limit (but I doubt it) - but it has the benefit of clearly publicising how much you can transfer, and what happens if you exceed that. No hidden small-print or anything...

7.95$/Gb

[Frederic54]

My ISP, videotron, has a 20Gb/month cap, and charge 7.95$CAN per Gb after that...

Re:7.95$/Gb

[jacexpo069]

I am also a videotron subscriber. You only have to pay 7.95$/GB if you are an Extreme High speed internet plus subscriber. (which is 20Mbps) or High Speed (7mbps) and download 20GB. If you have just regular Extreme high Speed (which is 10Mbps), then there is no limit, and that is clearly posted here http://www.videotron.com/services/en/internet/comp arer-xtmplus.jsp On the compare tab. Buyer beware! And yes I have gone over 20GB per month, and all I get is a notice that I went over 20GB per month (I think it was 35GB), no charges or fees.

Business Class Line

[SCHecklerX]

Since my last ISP (suscom) saw fit to block inbound port 25 traffic, I was forced to pay extra for their business class line. This gave me 'less bandwidth' but a much more solid connection with a static IP address and no filtering.

Suscom was bought out by comcast, and I am still a business class customer, but now with lots more bandwidth.

I haven't had a serious issue yet other than rolling outages as comcast took over (grrrr).

Anyway. Even for home use, especially if you want to run your own servers, my experience has been pay the extra for the more stable business class line and don't worry about it. You get the advantage of bypassing the level 1 support monkeys when you have problems then, too.

Re:You can get the service...

[_xeno_]

You don't get Comcast for $30/month either. I'm currently paying something like $110/month for Comcast, although that includes cable. According to my bill it's something like $50/month for just the cable internet portion, and $60/month for the TV.

Given the quality of service (ha!) that you get from Comcast, I'm beginning to think I might want to find a different ISP. Too bad my only other choice is Verizon, who have yet to provide me with working phone service.

Re:Comcast?

[Caffeinate]

As a low-level grunt for the company, I will confirm that Comcast does indeed cap bandwidth. The stated limited (and yes, it is in the TOS agreement which nobody reads - available on the Comcast.com website) is 60 GB/month. Yes many people exceed that and don't get cut off (which is the penalty), but be warned that the company can legally do so if they feel you are degrading the service for other customers.

Luckily I don't even live in an area where I can GET Comcast, so it's a non-issue for me! I just have to deal with Rogers' packet-shaping, BitTorrent ruining behaviours :(

Well, then, fuck Cablevision.

[Wakko Warner]

Cablevision's Optimum Online service is great until you accidentally upload more than you should. The numbers I've heard for "more than you should" range from a few hundred megabytes to a few gigabytes, sustained over a few hours. There are no official answers to exactly how much you can upload or for how long.

I've been capped four times now, since 1997. They keep a lifetime record of this. It's not like moving violations, where they drop off your record in a few years. If I fuck up again, at all, for the rest of my life, they will immediately disconnect my cable service and won't ever do business with me again.

Apparently the free market hasn't made its way to the northeastern united states yet.