Slashdot Mirror
Comcast's New Throttling Plan Uses Trigger Conditions, Not Silent Blocking
clang_jangle writes with this excerpt from The Inquirer outlining Comcast's new traffic-throttling scheme, based on information from Comcast's latest FCC filing. "Its network throttling implements a two-tier packet queueing system at the routers, driven by two trigger conditions. Comcast's first traffic throttling trigger is tripped by using more than 70 per cent of your maximum downstream or upstream bandwidth for more than 15 minutes. Its second traffic throttling trigger is tripped when the Cable Modem Termination System you're hooked-up to – along with up to 15,000 other Comcast subscribers – gets congested, and your traffic is somehow identified as being responsible. Tripping either of Comcast's high bandwidth usage rate triggers results in throttling for at least 15 minutes, or until your average bandwidth utilisation rate drops below 50 per cent for 15 minutes."
In Soviet Russia, network throttling trigger trip YOU!
From the company that brought you Power Boost. Introducing Power Drain!
This article is from January. Maybe it got throttled somewhere.
If they are going to "throttle" my service, it seems only fair for me to "throttle" my payments.
"Oh, you've been billing 100% of the advertised rate for the last 4 months? I'm going to have to cut you down to 50% until your annual average is under 75%..."
Because 95% of us don't run twenty or thirty PERFECTLY FUCKING LEGAL TORRENTS STOP ACCUSING ME I HAVE MY RIGHTS THERE IS NO LAW AGAINST IT THAT'S NOT PIRACY I DESERVE EVERYTHING FOR FREE BECAUSE I SAID SO running 24/7 for PERFECTLY FUCKING LEGAL REASONS WHAT IS YOUR GODDAMNED PROBLEM STOP ACCUSING ME, so we don't even notice it.
It's the OCD people who feel that every second that more data COULD fit out their pipe is time and money wasted who are bitching about this. Do you REALLY need that much pr0n? Do all the Blu-Ray rips of movies you just don't feel like paying for but will still watch really make you that much more l33t?
Comcast is not a monopoly. They are pretty close, and they certainly operate like one in certain local areas, but on the whole there is competition nationwide. So trying to prosecute under monopoly statues is impossible.
(blinks)
(puts ice cream back in fridge)
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I only agree 70%.
Your post has been up more than 15 minutes, so you're probably only in agreement 50% now.
Fine with me. As long as you don't do so for more than 15 minutes.
You know who else used a similar throttling scheme?
Nazi Germany.