Comcast Tests Its Limits

Comcast has been criticized in the past for arbitrarily imposing bandwidth caps on its internet customers. Problem was, they never explained what that limit was, nor did they provide any way of checking your usage.

That may finally be about to change. The company is considering imposing a 250 gigabyte limit per month. That's they equivalent of 50 hi-def movies, 250 standard movies, 6,000 songs, or 30,000 pictures of Britney without her underwear. If someone exceeds those limits, they will be charged an additional $15 for every ten gigs.

Whatever other complaints I may have had about Comcast in the past, this certainly seems more than fair. Time-Warner, for example, has previously said that five percent of their customers use 50% of their bandwidth. More importantly, bandwidth hogs tend to slow down the network for everyone else, so it certainly seems fair to make them pay extra.

It also starts to bring internet usage more in line with how we pay for electricity, gas, and water. After all, if the power company charged a flat rate for unlimited electricity use, I'd run my air conditioning non-stop and wear a coat indoors during July.