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Comcast's 105MBit Service Comes With Data Cap
itwbennett writes "Comcast just announced the ultrafast, ultra-broadband 'Extreme 105' 105 Mbit/sec Internet service for an introductory price of $105, when bundled with other services. That's the good news. The bad news: Comcast 'put a data cap on the service of 250 GB per month — about five hours worth of full-bandwidth use,' writes blogger Kevin Fogarty."
Business accounts have a limit. It just isn't acknowledged as any specific limit. You can easily use a terabyte or maybe even two without running into problems. After a certain point, they're likely to want to speak with you about signing up for a more dedicated service at a higher cost.
It's interesting, however, that in the same physical location, they can't afford more than 250gb/mo, because it is consuming all of their precious resources. Pay them an extra $40, however, and that same location and network can suddenly handle six or eight times that much bandwidth. Of course, the other important reason to get their business service is that you can get 5, 10, or even 50 mbps *up*, instead of 768kbps.
Clearly they mean bytes, not bits. 5 hours of full bandwidth usage would be about 1890 Gbit, or roughly 235 GB of usage, so there is a mistake in the summary and the story itself.
So yeah, it's annoying, but not as bad as they made it sound.
There is absolutely nothing stopping you from starting your own broadband company, and then charging a flat rate with absolutely no limits on usage.
Wrong. Internet infrastructure still requires a wire so it has the same problem as power companies. You are not going to allow 5 different power companies to run power poles through your neighborhood. So, the company that owns the power poles can charge whatever they want. That is why we have government. To protect the consumer from abuses by companies in areas that are in natural monopolies. Same thing for internet infrastructure. I remember when my neighborhood had the infrastructure put in. They were hitting gas lines and cutting power lines every day or two. People's lawns got dug up. Were they asked for permission? No, the local municipality used their easements to give the ISP the right to dig through people's lawns without paying for it. You think people will allow that to happen 3 or 4 more times (to have true competition you need at least 4 or 5 companies competing against each other).
You want a centrally managed economy that prevents Eeeevil companies from competing with each other and trying to price things to win your business while managing to also stay in business.
No, I want companies to compete for my business. It isn't happening. Please name for me the 4 or 5 companies that are competing in your neighborhood for your business. Because if it is just Comcast and AT&T, then they are getting rich while you got slow internet. The free market provides excellent service, price, and innovation when there is a lot of competition. This is because PROFITABILITY requires good service, low prices, and innovation. When there is little or no competition (monopoly or oligopoly) then those things are no longer sources of PROFIT. The profit comes from reducing costs (bad service), increasing income (high prices), and stifling competition (preventing innovation). They are not evil. They are looking after their shareholders. It is government's job to look after the consumers (the people).