It seems the issue of Comcast disconnecting it's Internet customers is popping up nearly every week. The latest in a post from JT Rockville, The Register has picked up the story. JT Rockville also found a very amusing commercial from Southwestern Bell which had me in stitches.
Sounds like there are some who are getting the message. I do wonder though. The Register article mentioned they wonder why DSL providers aren't working hard to capitalize on this problem with Comcast. I'm guessing they may be. I find it very interesting that DSL is available in my area about 6 weeks after Comcast disconnected us. Quite the coincidence wouldn't you say :-)
One more thing. I'm encouraging everyone to check out this web site for Net Neutrality. It won't help people with being disconnected by Comcast however in my research I've seen this pop up frequently. Net Neutrality as I understand it will prevent a company (such as Comcast) from picking who they want over their pipes and who they don't want. Choosing Google over MSN Search vs. altavista and so on.
Common carriers shouldn't be able to pick who get's service over their lines. It ensures that the public can view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest Web site. I encourage everybody to check it out. You should have a choice over which web sites you wish to visit.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
March 12, 2007
Today the Boston Globe published an article on Comcast terminating HSI services. It was good to see other's are coming forward about this. I guess the company has changed their policy of not terminating customers who exceed their undisclosed limits. FYI, Comcast will always have a top .01% :-)
BTW, this issue isn't going away anytime soon. As much as I don't care for Bill Gates, he does make some insightful comments about the Internet and what we can expect from the future. From the article:
The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said recently;
{snip}
At the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill Gates said, "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians The rise of high-speed Internet and the popularity of video sites has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set.
I've recently learned another resident just a few doors down has been disconnected by Comcast for "using the internet too much". She received the call from Comcast's abuse department threatening to disconnect her broadband service if usage wasn't drastically reduced. Comcast however was (again) unwilling to say exactly what acceptable use is.
Rather than guess what was acceptable, she decided that if it was such a problem that Comcast needed to threaten termination, she decided to cancel her broadband on the spot. She mentioned that her kids did use the Internet heavily. The funny thing about this is the abuse rep began to backpeddle saying they didn't need to terminate HSI, only use it less. So now they are without HSI however she began asking for details about DSL. Personally after a week I'm surprised to see very little difference in performance. I'm making a point of telling everyone about Qwest DSL.
Came across this article recently. A fellow blogger determined if you use only 7% of your connection you can be terminated.
Here is a very interesting article on public ownership of a fiber infrastructure. A pdf copy of their report is available.
This is where we are going as a society. Public Libraries are getting into these services and companies are bringing TV from all over the world steaming to your home.
Finally, from the Boston Globe article:
"Legitimately, everybody's going to be a bandwidth hog sooner or later, because that's what the Internet is, going forward," said Linda Sherry of Consumer Action.
Seems this is how .01% got into trouble with Comcast. We simply got there first :D
Update
Seems slashdot is now running with the Boston Globe story . I'm pleased to see the word is seriously getting out as people have the right to know they didn't purchase "Unlimited Use for a flat monthly fee".
BTW, this issue isn't going away anytime soon. As much as I don't care for Bill Gates, he does make some insightful comments about the Internet and what we can expect from the future. From the article:
The Internet is set to revolutionize television within five years, due to an explosion of online video content and the merging of PCs and TV sets, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said recently;
{snip}
At the 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Bill Gates said, "I'm stunned how people aren't seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we've had," he told business leaders and politicians The rise of high-speed Internet and the popularity of video sites has already led to a worldwide decline in the number hours spent by young people in front of a TV set.
I've recently learned another resident just a few doors down has been disconnected by Comcast for "using the internet too much". She received the call from Comcast's abuse department threatening to disconnect her broadband service if usage wasn't drastically reduced. Comcast however was (again) unwilling to say exactly what acceptable use is.
Rather than guess what was acceptable, she decided that if it was such a problem that Comcast needed to threaten termination, she decided to cancel her broadband on the spot. She mentioned that her kids did use the Internet heavily. The funny thing about this is the abuse rep began to backpeddle saying they didn't need to terminate HSI, only use it less. So now they are without HSI however she began asking for details about DSL. Personally after a week I'm surprised to see very little difference in performance. I'm making a point of telling everyone about Qwest DSL.
Came across this article recently. A fellow blogger determined if you use only 7% of your connection you can be terminated.
Here is a very interesting article on public ownership of a fiber infrastructure. A pdf copy of their report is available.
This is where we are going as a society. Public Libraries are getting into these services and companies are bringing TV from all over the world steaming to your home.
Finally, from the Boston Globe article:
"Legitimately, everybody's going to be a bandwidth hog sooner or later, because that's what the Internet is, going forward," said Linda Sherry of Consumer Action.
Seems this is how .01% got into trouble with Comcast. We simply got there first :D
Update
Seems slashdot is now running with the Boston Globe story . I'm pleased to see the word is seriously getting out as people have the right to know they didn't purchase "Unlimited Use for a flat monthly fee".
Thursday, March 8, 2007
March 8, 2007
It looks like Comcast came over this past weekend and disconnected the Cable TV. A flyer was left on my door to notify us. Oh and it was dated 3/1/2007. I guess they got the hint that I was serious. Still no word if they will charge us till March 13th and give us a credit. The way these guys have treated us I wouldn't be surprised to see a bill. I'll post a scan of the flyer soon and any future bills I receive (I said I keep everything didn't I ::grinz::).
Here's something else of amusement. This last week I've received 3 phone calls from Comcast Customer Service asking if I'd like to take a survey of my satisfaction with Comcast after our last phone call. I said sure. They asked how I would rate them, blah blah blah.
Got to a question about how do I like my Comcast service. I said "Great, we disconnected you guys a week ago and it's awesome to be a Comcast free house!". She asked what we are doing for service now. I said "We went to one of your competitors and are much happier thanks". She said "oh, well have a good day" then hung up after that :-)
The last call was around 6:30 last night and lasted a few minutes. At least they are calling me less these days. We've received several calls already but at least they are slowing down now.
I've asked Comcast several times over the last two months to be put on a DNC list but I guess they don't honor it. I think I'll start recording my conversations with them and post them here for fun. We've been thinking about creating several YouTube videos. We'll see. I've learned Utah has no notification requirement. So I'm kinda hoping they call again. I could really have fun with this.
When I picked up the Comcast flyer on my door I noticed something else. A flyer from Qwest advertising DSL is now available in our area and a number to call. I'm encouraging everyone in my neighborhood to "Hang up on Comcast" and go DSL. Already many have asked about my experience with Comcast and have stated they are switching. Customer Service means more to people than the fake "unlimited use for a flat monthly fee" advertisement.
Here's something else of amusement. This last week I've received 3 phone calls from Comcast Customer Service asking if I'd like to take a survey of my satisfaction with Comcast after our last phone call. I said sure. They asked how I would rate them, blah blah blah.
Got to a question about how do I like my Comcast service. I said "Great, we disconnected you guys a week ago and it's awesome to be a Comcast free house!". She asked what we are doing for service now. I said "We went to one of your competitors and are much happier thanks". She said "oh, well have a good day" then hung up after that :-)
The last call was around 6:30 last night and lasted a few minutes. At least they are calling me less these days. We've received several calls already but at least they are slowing down now.
I've asked Comcast several times over the last two months to be put on a DNC list but I guess they don't honor it. I think I'll start recording my conversations with them and post them here for fun. We've been thinking about creating several YouTube videos. We'll see. I've learned Utah has no notification requirement. So I'm kinda hoping they call again. I could really have fun with this.
When I picked up the Comcast flyer on my door I noticed something else. A flyer from Qwest advertising DSL is now available in our area and a number to call. I'm encouraging everyone in my neighborhood to "Hang up on Comcast" and go DSL. Already many have asked about my experience with Comcast and have stated they are switching. Customer Service means more to people than the fake "unlimited use for a flat monthly fee" advertisement.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
March 5, 2007
Still no word regarding Comcast charging us for services we don't want and haven't used for the last week. Last I heard, we'll get a credit for the next two weeks however they won't say that in writing. I guess they are careful with doing that these days. Might explain why they no longer send letters for customers using the Internet too much. I received a screen shot of the order from the Comcast rep. It's interesting to see the Business account mentioned as a "downgrade". It does show we tried. I received this screen shot from Sue at Comcast. Instead of showing the credit and 0 balance we received this. We'll see what happens. I'm amazed at the games this company plays.
The business account was on for about 10 minutes. I'm also surprised the replacement of our Cable Modem in November wasn't in the history. We had an outage in September which is reflected in the history then nothing until January 19th. What's really interesting is multiple calls to Comcast in December are not in the history. Fortunately I keep records. Notice the call from (801) 485-0500 on December 13th in my phone records below. That's an incoming call from a Comcast CSR I spoke to 30 minutes earlier (8:13am). According to the CSR, all calls to Utah are trunked through this number. This is why he told us to ignore the call. Apparently he didn't know the Abuse Department doesn't go through this trunk. You see an 856 number when they call. Somebody should teach what unlimited means. If they tell you to ignore it, don't believe them as they are clueless. So here is part of my phone record:
DSL will be installed March 5th. I'm looking forward to it. Oh and yes I've modified my firewall to include monitoring among other things now. I've decided to go with MRTS and some perl scripts I wrote for some detailed reporting and am working on a PHP tool to provide me with some pretty graphs. Not like I'll really need it since Xmission provides every DSL and Utopia customer with a web page displaying their usage. Still, it will be nice to have my own records even though I trust Xmission. I had them for years over ISDN before Comcast.
Friday we dropped off the Cable Modem. I was somewhat surprised to see how many people were there returning equipment. Despite my opinion of the company, I didn't expect to see the lobby full of people lining up (we went to the Murray building). Most were cable modems, some DVR's and a few VoiP phones. Of course there were people paying bills or doing other things. I couldn't resist asking why people were leaving Comcast.
There were a variety of reasons. Most were simply tired of Comcast's poor customer service and have switched to either DirectTV or Dish. A few received "The Call" and were very upset with Comcast's new "Customer Service" (Abuse Department). It was amusing how frequently this is happening here in Utah. When I spoke with an Xmission Sales rep about upgrading to DSL, we briefly spoke about Comcast. Seems sales is hearing more and more people are being dropped.
While chatting with other satisfied ex-Comcast customers, I learned many had heard of Utopia however they "thought" Utopia provided the services or that cities had to maintain the infrastructure. I straightened them out of course. Utopia is a lot like DSL. You can snap in different providers through DSL lines. Also, the infrastructure is maintained by Utopia and can be used by other companies to provide services. Heck, even Comcast or Qwest could join Utopia and provide services through Utopia's superior infrastructure if desired.
The last week at work I can't go anywhere without someone saying they saw me on FOX or Gephardt. Most are amazed. Many are switching now to DSL or Utopia citing they want to know what they purchased. A few even said they were afraid to use their Internet for fear of being disconnected. I've been recommending dumeter or RRDtool lately. Even sent a note to dumeter with my story. I figure they might want to know how much their tool would have helped had I heard of it just a month earlier.
A final note. Just received a link to check out from a blog poster. Very insightful . The title is "Comcast -- The Worst Company in America". Go figure.
The business account was on for about 10 minutes. I'm also surprised the replacement of our Cable Modem in November wasn't in the history. We had an outage in September which is reflected in the history then nothing until January 19th. What's really interesting is multiple calls to Comcast in December are not in the history. Fortunately I keep records. Notice the call from (801) 485-0500 on December 13th in my phone records below. That's an incoming call from a Comcast CSR I spoke to 30 minutes earlier (8:13am). According to the CSR, all calls to Utah are trunked through this number. This is why he told us to ignore the call. Apparently he didn't know the Abuse Department doesn't go through this trunk. You see an 856 number when they call. Somebody should teach what unlimited means. If they tell you to ignore it, don't believe them as they are clueless. So here is part of my phone record:
DSL will be installed March 5th. I'm looking forward to it. Oh and yes I've modified my firewall to include monitoring among other things now. I've decided to go with MRTS and some perl scripts I wrote for some detailed reporting and am working on a PHP tool to provide me with some pretty graphs. Not like I'll really need it since Xmission provides every DSL and Utopia customer with a web page displaying their usage. Still, it will be nice to have my own records even though I trust Xmission. I had them for years over ISDN before Comcast.
Friday we dropped off the Cable Modem. I was somewhat surprised to see how many people were there returning equipment. Despite my opinion of the company, I didn't expect to see the lobby full of people lining up (we went to the Murray building). Most were cable modems, some DVR's and a few VoiP phones. Of course there were people paying bills or doing other things. I couldn't resist asking why people were leaving Comcast.
There were a variety of reasons. Most were simply tired of Comcast's poor customer service and have switched to either DirectTV or Dish. A few received "The Call" and were very upset with Comcast's new "Customer Service" (Abuse Department). It was amusing how frequently this is happening here in Utah. When I spoke with an Xmission Sales rep about upgrading to DSL, we briefly spoke about Comcast. Seems sales is hearing more and more people are being dropped.
While chatting with other satisfied ex-Comcast customers, I learned many had heard of Utopia however they "thought" Utopia provided the services or that cities had to maintain the infrastructure. I straightened them out of course. Utopia is a lot like DSL. You can snap in different providers through DSL lines. Also, the infrastructure is maintained by Utopia and can be used by other companies to provide services. Heck, even Comcast or Qwest could join Utopia and provide services through Utopia's superior infrastructure if desired.
The last week at work I can't go anywhere without someone saying they saw me on FOX or Gephardt. Most are amazed. Many are switching now to DSL or Utopia citing they want to know what they purchased. A few even said they were afraid to use their Internet for fear of being disconnected. I've been recommending dumeter or RRDtool lately. Even sent a note to dumeter with my story. I figure they might want to know how much their tool would have helped had I heard of it just a month earlier.
A final note. Just received a link to check out from a blog poster. Very insightful . The title is "Comcast -- The Worst Company in America". Go figure.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
February 28, 2007
As of this morning we're a Comcast free household. Yesterday Dish Network came in and installed their dish on our roof, installed their DVR and with local channels and we're paying only $39 /month locked in for 18 months. Oh and we have the American top 100 package. Has everything we really enjoy including Sci-Fi, Disney, Nick, Food Network and so on.
At least it's cheaper and crystal clear compared to the static and snow we enjoyed with Comcast. I'm only sorry we couldn't have the dish placed so it was viewed from the street. I'd love each Comcast truck going by to look up and see Dish on the roof.
We were planning on replacing our TV this year because we thought it was going out. It never occurred to me it was the cable service. So we're looking at purchasing an HDTV next year and taking our $1800 (for the new TV) to the bank. I'm thinking the prices should be much better by 2008 (still a little pricy)
I'm amazed Comcast won't terminate the cable service. My wife was told the soonest they can come by to disconnect us is March 13th and they will need to bill us for the next two weeks. The only thing they are willing to do is suggest we may be able to get a credit for the next two weeks but so far have been unwilling to put that in writing.
I beg to differ. The pro-rated bill will be sent to the Attorney General's office and a suit for fraud filed if this happens. We've already called them 3 times just today to terminate the service and send either a fax or email to verify we're free and clear. The next call will be to the FCC as they regulate Cable and Telephone.
We always paid in advance every month for about 4 years. We're paid up until today and I'm unwilling to renew the monthly contract with them for any portion of March. I am under no obligation to continue the service. It feels like I'm dealing with AOL or something (I've heard the stories). We can't get HSI from them and can't get rid of Cable! Incredible!
My wife was very amusing today. When she was transferred to their cancellation department, the first words out of her mouth was "You're Fired!" (apologizes to Donald Trump). She couldn't resist. I only wish I was at home to hear the conversation.
DSL is now available in my neighborhood as of this morning. My wife spoke with a Qwest tech checking out the DSLAM yesterday. He was performing the final checks when she caught him. We signed up for the 7 Meg DSL service. It will cost $15 for the line and $22 for Xmission (the ISP). Again cheaper and faster than my old Comcast HSI service. I've had dozens of people in my neighborhood asking when this will be available. Guess Comcast will have plenty of bandwidth in our area to spare :-)
Utopia is still on my target for the long run. After my comments on the 20th to the City Council, I learned there were financial roadblocks to making this happen. After speaking with several people outside the City Council Chambers, I understand Qwest, Comcast and other's heavily lobbied the Utah Legislature years ago to pass a bill that prevents public funds to be used for projects such as this. The bill has a sunset provision set for June 2007. Roger Black (the COO of Utopia) was at the West Jordan City Council meeting that day and explained this a little more. I am very appreciative of his insight and experience.
So it seems I'll be back online next Monday. The DSL modem has been ordered and this time we're going for a business account and will be running a web server to share family photos. I figure I can do that now. In two years I should be ready to test code and move my wife's business to the Internet. Comcast was right. We do want to move the business to the Internet. They were just two years too early.
One more note, it seems there are many people here in Utah who have seen the FOX13 and KUTV/Gephardt spots and passed the word along. I've received emails and calls from journalists in California, Florida, Massachusetts and recently Georgia. I appreciate the opportunity to interview with them and provide my analysis of Comcast's statement describing what the top .01% are consuming monthly (13 million emails a month? come on. Nobody talks like that). I've only asked to be made aware when they publish their article as I'd like a copy to share.
That's it for now. I've heard rumblings of a class action lawsuit and would interested in learning more. While technically it may be legal for Comcast to terminate services according to their fuzzy Acceptable Use policy, I doubt a Judge would accept a one sided contract with undisclosed terms to stand up in court.
At least it's cheaper and crystal clear compared to the static and snow we enjoyed with Comcast. I'm only sorry we couldn't have the dish placed so it was viewed from the street. I'd love each Comcast truck going by to look up and see Dish on the roof.
We were planning on replacing our TV this year because we thought it was going out. It never occurred to me it was the cable service. So we're looking at purchasing an HDTV next year and taking our $1800 (for the new TV) to the bank. I'm thinking the prices should be much better by 2008 (still a little pricy)
I'm amazed Comcast won't terminate the cable service. My wife was told the soonest they can come by to disconnect us is March 13th and they will need to bill us for the next two weeks. The only thing they are willing to do is suggest we may be able to get a credit for the next two weeks but so far have been unwilling to put that in writing.
I beg to differ. The pro-rated bill will be sent to the Attorney General's office and a suit for fraud filed if this happens. We've already called them 3 times just today to terminate the service and send either a fax or email to verify we're free and clear. The next call will be to the FCC as they regulate Cable and Telephone.
We always paid in advance every month for about 4 years. We're paid up until today and I'm unwilling to renew the monthly contract with them for any portion of March. I am under no obligation to continue the service. It feels like I'm dealing with AOL or something (I've heard the stories). We can't get HSI from them and can't get rid of Cable! Incredible!
My wife was very amusing today. When she was transferred to their cancellation department, the first words out of her mouth was "You're Fired!" (apologizes to Donald Trump). She couldn't resist. I only wish I was at home to hear the conversation.
DSL is now available in my neighborhood as of this morning. My wife spoke with a Qwest tech checking out the DSLAM yesterday. He was performing the final checks when she caught him. We signed up for the 7 Meg DSL service. It will cost $15 for the line and $22 for Xmission (the ISP). Again cheaper and faster than my old Comcast HSI service. I've had dozens of people in my neighborhood asking when this will be available. Guess Comcast will have plenty of bandwidth in our area to spare :-)
Utopia is still on my target for the long run. After my comments on the 20th to the City Council, I learned there were financial roadblocks to making this happen. After speaking with several people outside the City Council Chambers, I understand Qwest, Comcast and other's heavily lobbied the Utah Legislature years ago to pass a bill that prevents public funds to be used for projects such as this. The bill has a sunset provision set for June 2007. Roger Black (the COO of Utopia) was at the West Jordan City Council meeting that day and explained this a little more. I am very appreciative of his insight and experience.
So it seems I'll be back online next Monday. The DSL modem has been ordered and this time we're going for a business account and will be running a web server to share family photos. I figure I can do that now. In two years I should be ready to test code and move my wife's business to the Internet. Comcast was right. We do want to move the business to the Internet. They were just two years too early.
One more note, it seems there are many people here in Utah who have seen the FOX13 and KUTV/Gephardt spots and passed the word along. I've received emails and calls from journalists in California, Florida, Massachusetts and recently Georgia. I appreciate the opportunity to interview with them and provide my analysis of Comcast's statement describing what the top .01% are consuming monthly (13 million emails a month? come on. Nobody talks like that). I've only asked to be made aware when they publish their article as I'd like a copy to share.
That's it for now. I've heard rumblings of a class action lawsuit and would interested in learning more. While technically it may be legal for Comcast to terminate services according to their fuzzy Acceptable Use policy, I doubt a Judge would accept a one sided contract with undisclosed terms to stand up in court.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
February 20, 2007
I would like to express my appreciation for John Klemack of FOX 13 and Gephardt of KUTV/2 in airing the TV spot regarding Comcast terminating customer Internet accounts this past Tuesday. I believe it's important people understand what they really purchased from the company. BTW, I've had a busy week. I've given a few interviews with several journalists this week about the situation. As the articles are published I've asked for copies so I can keep track of what's going on and make people aware here and via direct email when I feel it's appropriate. So far I've found articles from the UK to Australia about this. Sitemeter has been very helpful these last couple weeks in tracking this :-)
So after watching the TV spots, I began thinking about several people in my neighborhood who regularly download over 200 Gigs and above month after month and I've warned them to be careful as they will be on the radar if it hasn't happened already. Since I'm no longer in the top .01%, they are next :-)
At the end of each TV spot, I began thinking about Comcast's copy/paste response which they provided to everyone including the Mayor of my city (more on that later). Comcast says we use 100 times more than the average Comcast user. We are in the top .01 percent. Comcast gives the following examples of what that means:
According to Comcast, the top .01 percent download something like
256,000 photos or
30,000 songs or
13,000,000 emails
(does this sound familiar to anyone?)
So this means 99.99% of their average users use 100 times less than my family which means:
2560 photos a month
or 130,000 emails a month (yes, that's 130 thousand emails a month for the normal Comcast user)
or 300 songs a month
Some basic assumptions I made to fill in the gaps. In my wife's business she creates photos and mp3's using “The Gimp” for photos and “SonicFire Smart Sound” for Royalty free music (I highly recommend it btw). So here are some averages we've seen after 5 years in business. I also generated a text email with 3 paragraphs and saved it to the hard drive.
avg song around 4-6 Megs for mp3
avg jpg = 512 k (and they do go much higher)
avg bmp = 1m (same here, this is a low number)
avg email = 10k
Ok. So that means
2560 Jpgs = 1.31 gig
2560 bmp = 2,.56 gig
300 mp3s (at 6 Megs size) = 1.8 gigs
130,000 emails (at 10k) = 1.3 Gig
So according to Comcast, 99.99% of their customers hardly use their Internet connection for anything but the most basic of needs. Multi-Media includes anything dealing with video, audio and photos. According to the letter FOX 13 posted from Comcast's spokesman Ray Child:
“99.99% of our customers use the service as intended, which includes using it to download and share video, photos and other rich-media. Customers are notified of excessive usage typically consume more than 100 times the average national Comcast Bandwidth usage”.
(transcribed by me from the FOX 13 TV spot):
So no Internet TV, no Internet radio, and not a lot of photos or graphics. If you hang around YouTube or Spikedhumor as we frequently did, you will surpass the average which they say 99.99% of their customers use. If these numbers are typical as Comcast claims, then Comcast customers are using the service for basic email and web browsing. Movies downloaded from Zudeo.com, Walmart or Amazon.com will in a day consume more than their average customer. If you don't purchase and download movies from those services then DSL and wireless provide far cheaper solutions with adequate bandwidth.
Now the translation to what we do according to Comcast, they say we download:
songs = 180 Gigs
jpegs = 131 Gigs
bmp = 256 Gigs
email = 130 Gigs
So yes, we fully use the 6 Meg pipe we purchased and those numbers make sense. Streaming TV from Portugal or Internet radio takes more bandwidth than you normally would see :-)
Something else I noticed, we don't see anything in the agreement which states we purchased High Speed Internet with "acceptable use" of 40, 60, 80 gigs or more (hint hint). If this is what Comcast is selling their customers then it would be reasonable to advertise those limits and provide a solution so their customer can make an informed choice to meet their individual needs.
Here is a comment I recently received from a member of my local Linux Group (SLUGG):
- A 1600x1200 (3 Megapixel) digital photo as a JPG is about 1.3MB average in my experience.
- A 128kbps MP3 file is about 1MB per minute, so a 3:30 song is 3.5MB
- The average email is probably what, 5K-10K, depending on if it is plain text, html, or both?
For the photos, 2560*1.3= 3.33GB per month
For the songs, 300*3.5 = 1.05GB per month
For the emails, 130,000*5-10K = 650MB-1.3GB per month
The only place I know of at the moment that publishes quotas on usage is UTOPIA, which is 100GB per month. 1-3GB per month is way lower than that. Even back when XMission had quotas on DSL, it was 100GB/month, not including their unmetered times or within-network traffic. That usage expectation is ridiculously low.
I have to agree with his assessment. It sounds like Comcast needs to come up with realistic numbers of what their customers are really doing. 1-3 Gigs monthly is very low and not realistic in the least.
Oh and about our Mayor. It seems when he called Comcast he was given the impression they thought we were using our HSI connection for our business. I explained to him our business is very small and in two or three years will be using the Internet in accepting orders with video and photos. I haven't started writing the code yet but it looks like we'll be using PHP and MySQL. Occasionally a customer emails my wife for pricing information. Average is about a 12 email's for a busy month but I doubt this would be a problem for Comcast.
So how do we work with our customers? Here is our secret business model
- We receive via Fed-EX, UPS or US Post a package with negatives, photos, slides or perhaps video's
- We scan / import the media to our computers and render the movie
- We burn a DVD and create labels and/or DVD inserts
- We mail it back (insured) to the customer.
That's it. Comcast's role is... well... nonexistant.
I understand the Mayor is making a few more calls. It will be interesting to see what transpires. I'm hopeful he and the City Council will understand my situation isn't all that unusual as I've found over a dozen people in the Salt Lake Valley just in the last 4 weeks who were with Comcast. I'm also hopeful they look at bringing Utopia or something similar to our area. It won't happen this year or next year, but it will happen and people will join is en mass.
So after watching the TV spots, I began thinking about several people in my neighborhood who regularly download over 200 Gigs and above month after month and I've warned them to be careful as they will be on the radar if it hasn't happened already. Since I'm no longer in the top .01%, they are next :-)
At the end of each TV spot, I began thinking about Comcast's copy/paste response which they provided to everyone including the Mayor of my city (more on that later). Comcast says we use 100 times more than the average Comcast user. We are in the top .01 percent. Comcast gives the following examples of what that means:
According to Comcast, the top .01 percent download something like
256,000 photos or
30,000 songs or
13,000,000 emails
(does this sound familiar to anyone?)
So this means 99.99% of their average users use 100 times less than my family which means:
2560 photos a month
or 130,000 emails a month (yes, that's 130 thousand emails a month for the normal Comcast user)
or 300 songs a month
Some basic assumptions I made to fill in the gaps. In my wife's business she creates photos and mp3's using “The Gimp” for photos and “SonicFire Smart Sound” for Royalty free music (I highly recommend it btw). So here are some averages we've seen after 5 years in business. I also generated a text email with 3 paragraphs and saved it to the hard drive.
avg song around 4-6 Megs for mp3
avg jpg = 512 k (and they do go much higher)
avg bmp = 1m (same here, this is a low number)
avg email = 10k
Ok. So that means
2560 Jpgs = 1.31 gig
2560 bmp = 2,.56 gig
300 mp3s (at 6 Megs size) = 1.8 gigs
130,000 emails (at 10k) = 1.3 Gig
So according to Comcast, 99.99% of their customers hardly use their Internet connection for anything but the most basic of needs. Multi-Media includes anything dealing with video, audio and photos. According to the letter FOX 13 posted from Comcast's spokesman Ray Child:
“99.99% of our customers use the service as intended, which includes using it to download and share video, photos and other rich-media. Customers are notified of excessive usage typically consume more than 100 times the average national Comcast Bandwidth usage”.
(transcribed by me from the FOX 13 TV spot):
So no Internet TV, no Internet radio, and not a lot of photos or graphics. If you hang around YouTube or Spikedhumor as we frequently did, you will surpass the average which they say 99.99% of their customers use. If these numbers are typical as Comcast claims, then Comcast customers are using the service for basic email and web browsing. Movies downloaded from Zudeo.com, Walmart or Amazon.com will in a day consume more than their average customer. If you don't purchase and download movies from those services then DSL and wireless provide far cheaper solutions with adequate bandwidth.
Now the translation to what we do according to Comcast, they say we download:
songs = 180 Gigs
jpegs = 131 Gigs
bmp = 256 Gigs
email = 130 Gigs
So yes, we fully use the 6 Meg pipe we purchased and those numbers make sense. Streaming TV from Portugal or Internet radio takes more bandwidth than you normally would see :-)
Something else I noticed, we don't see anything in the agreement which states we purchased High Speed Internet with "acceptable use" of 40, 60, 80 gigs or more (hint hint). If this is what Comcast is selling their customers then it would be reasonable to advertise those limits and provide a solution so their customer can make an informed choice to meet their individual needs.
Here is a comment I recently received from a member of my local Linux Group (SLUGG):
- A 1600x1200 (3 Megapixel) digital photo as a JPG is about 1.3MB average in my experience.
- A 128kbps MP3 file is about 1MB per minute, so a 3:30 song is 3.5MB
- The average email is probably what, 5K-10K, depending on if it is plain text, html, or both?
For the photos, 2560*1.3= 3.33GB per month
For the songs, 300*3.5 = 1.05GB per month
For the emails, 130,000*5-10K = 650MB-1.3GB per month
The only place I know of at the moment that publishes quotas on usage is UTOPIA, which is 100GB per month. 1-3GB per month is way lower than that. Even back when XMission had quotas on DSL, it was 100GB/month, not including their unmetered times or within-network traffic. That usage expectation is ridiculously low.
I have to agree with his assessment. It sounds like Comcast needs to come up with realistic numbers of what their customers are really doing. 1-3 Gigs monthly is very low and not realistic in the least.
Oh and about our Mayor. It seems when he called Comcast he was given the impression they thought we were using our HSI connection for our business. I explained to him our business is very small and in two or three years will be using the Internet in accepting orders with video and photos. I haven't started writing the code yet but it looks like we'll be using PHP and MySQL. Occasionally a customer emails my wife for pricing information. Average is about a 12 email's for a busy month but I doubt this would be a problem for Comcast.
So how do we work with our customers? Here is our secret business model
- We receive via Fed-EX, UPS or US Post a package with negatives, photos, slides or perhaps video's
- We scan / import the media to our computers and render the movie
- We burn a DVD and create labels and/or DVD inserts
- We mail it back (insured) to the customer.
That's it. Comcast's role is... well... nonexistant.
I understand the Mayor is making a few more calls. It will be interesting to see what transpires. I'm hopeful he and the City Council will understand my situation isn't all that unusual as I've found over a dozen people in the Salt Lake Valley just in the last 4 weeks who were with Comcast. I'm also hopeful they look at bringing Utopia or something similar to our area. It won't happen this year or next year, but it will happen and people will join is en mass.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day!
I know I recently posted however I received some rather interesting email's today. It seems recent posts on a Comcast forum tries to explain their position on download caps and network traffic. I've learned something new but before I get to that let me address a statement "Jason1" on the Comcast forum made.
Your first link above discusses a blog entry which is completely one person's opinion and should not be taken as an official Comcast response. So please take caution when reading the info in the article as it is not completely accurate.
Yes this is a blog and NOT a Comcast web site. I do not represent Comcast in any way. We can also agree I am an individual posting my personal opinion of Comcast regarding an issue I believe was handled poorly. I hope to make Comcast aware of the problem along with it's customers and potential customers.
I have documented as best I can the events from day 1 and have presented them in the only way I have available. People deserve to know how things "could" turn out. If there are ANY inaccuracies then I expect Comcast to contact me directly and let me know where I am in error.
I will retract anything I can't prove or haven't documented through this experience. I would also publicly post a sincere apology. I don't wish to "get back at Comcast" as some have suggested as I consider that shallow. As stated at the top of the blog, I intend to get the word out of what happened to me and to encourage wider competition. I believe competition is what makes mega corps take stock of what they are doing wrong compared to their competitors. I hope Jason1 after writing "Re: Comcast has made news world wide - and not for good reasons" or another Comcast rep posts here or emails me to explain where I failed to be accurate. Otherwise I would argue his statement is simply innuendo and should be dismissed. I have done my best but I am not perfect.
If their usage is several times greater than the average Comcast HSI customer, they will be notified of the issue and their service may be terminated if the excessive use continues and service to hundreds of other customers is degraded. This usage may be around around 200-500 GB/month or it may be up to 800 GB/month - the actual amount you download is not what initiates the termination due to excessive downloading so it is not what is focused on.
So then calling someone a bandwidth hog isn't accurate. Interesting. This would explain why they say there isn't an official cap. Downloading up to 800 GB/month is suggested and may be perfectly fine depending where you live. I believe this may be why Jason1 is suggesting my comments are not entirely accurate. Ok. I can accept that. What I don't accept is the harsh manner a HSI account is terminated so quickly after multiple phone calls are made to Comcast CS to try and resolve the issue (see the live chat posted last night). There should be a little more leeway than the "You get a call then you're gone" response as Geovanny from the Abuse department stated.
If a customer is terminated due to excessive downloading, they will generally be given an estimate on how much they downloaded but this amount should not be called the download cap amount.
I'm back to confused now. Despite the confusion over whether Comcast or an ID thief called my wife in December, we reduced our usage (though we had no idea what number we should target) and were terminated the next month despite our reduction. Given an estimate? MRTG and RRDtools give you exact numbers in 5 minute increments. RRDtools will do it faster but industry best practices for monitoring have suggested 5 minute intervals are typical. I'm wondering if this is why they say it's an estimate rather than an actual number.
Yes, the download amount makes a nice easy way to visualize to the customer on a quantity that they used over the month but again, the issue is that the customers connected to a node is exceeding the capacity that node can provide so everyone connected to that node will suffer a bad connection.
My research suggests a node provides service for about 1200 homes. Still it's a crap shoot. A Comcast customer is left guessing how much is too much and risks termination even though they reduced their usage. For example, an Editor for the "Deseret Spectacle" was disconnected in July 2006, called Comcast later that day and had the HSI restored and promised to reduce usage by 50% but was terminated again in August 2006.
They were directed to the Abuse department as their account had been flagged by the CSR's system. The Abuse rep stated "even though you cut your usage in half, it's still too much. You have been terminated for 12 months". The editor posted his experience on their online magazine and moved to DSL (lucky bum). I've found dozens of other's who have been disconnected over the last few months, several here in the Salt Lake Valley. Many were fortunate to have alternatives (such as Verizon's Fios), Utopianet or DSL.
In my opinion, people generally are reasonable and willing to help (well, aren't they?). If Comcast is the ONLY real solution around, would anyone really continue pushing the network and risk termination? I couldn't have been more surprised with how poor this situation was handled. I would expect a better customer service experience.
These bandwidth abuse notifications and terminations are a way of ensuring that one individual is not responsible for degrading the service to hundreds of others.
It sounds like there is no way for a Comcast customer to make an informed choice whether he is adversely impacting Comcast's network or not. Might I suggest Comcast take a portion of their record earnings from 2006 and upgrade their infrastructure to reduce this possibility. I respectfully request my HSI be re-enabled and I will be paying VERY close attention to my usage. It's not like I can't monitor traffic or throttle it. I say that here only because I've been completely unsuccessful in finding someone at Comcast who can do anything to solve the problem. Somehow I doubt this is what Brian Roberts meant when he said Comcast was responding to what consumers want. He should have added "Customer Service" to the list.
So again, the bandwidth abuse notifications/terminations you mention here are not based on the content of what you are downloading.
I don't recall suggesting it was based on content (maybe he is referring to another disconnected customer). After speaking with the Abuse Department, I may have mistakenly understood there was a bandwidth cap. Now I'm thinking the bandwidth I could use when I had HSI is even more of a variable if 200-500 Gigs could be considered “normal”. It sounds like he is saying it depends where you live and how many are connected in your node.
If this is accurate blink twice. Once if I'm still not accurate. Or perhaps Comcast should just do what many HSI providers have turned to and set a cap so we can all be happy. Comcast wouldn't do something like this with Cable TV. If today I have 100 channels and tomorrow I have 30, the next day 40. How do I know I'm getting the service I paid for? After all, it's very difficult to be a good customer when the terms of the agreement keep changing.
I found this petition some time ago. I'd like to suggest people sign up and respectfully send Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast their opinion on the subject. I also found this petition online. If so inclinded please at least read what they have to say. Even though Jason1 is suggesting there is no cap and I'm beginning to think perhaps this really is company policy, my conversations with Geovanny in the Abuse Department suggested there is.
So there you have it. I still don't know what to make of these guys.
Update
In speaking with a buddy working at Qwest, I'm told not to worry, DSL is coming to my area very soon. My wife the other day noticed a DSLAM box going in 2 blocks from our house. Been hearing this for months but maybe it will really happen now. We'll see. If this situation isn't resolved in the next couple weeks I'm dropping the remaining Comcast services and going with Dish or Direct TV plus DSL. I'm ready to deal with top notch customer service after this experience.
I know I recently posted however I received some rather interesting email's today. It seems recent posts on a Comcast forum tries to explain their position on download caps and network traffic. I've learned something new but before I get to that let me address a statement "Jason1" on the Comcast forum made.
Your first link above discusses a blog entry which is completely one person's opinion and should not be taken as an official Comcast response. So please take caution when reading the info in the article as it is not completely accurate.
Yes this is a blog and NOT a Comcast web site. I do not represent Comcast in any way. We can also agree I am an individual posting my personal opinion of Comcast regarding an issue I believe was handled poorly. I hope to make Comcast aware of the problem along with it's customers and potential customers.
I have documented as best I can the events from day 1 and have presented them in the only way I have available. People deserve to know how things "could" turn out. If there are ANY inaccuracies then I expect Comcast to contact me directly and let me know where I am in error.
I will retract anything I can't prove or haven't documented through this experience. I would also publicly post a sincere apology. I don't wish to "get back at Comcast" as some have suggested as I consider that shallow. As stated at the top of the blog, I intend to get the word out of what happened to me and to encourage wider competition. I believe competition is what makes mega corps take stock of what they are doing wrong compared to their competitors. I hope Jason1 after writing "Re: Comcast has made news world wide - and not for good reasons" or another Comcast rep posts here or emails me to explain where I failed to be accurate. Otherwise I would argue his statement is simply innuendo and should be dismissed. I have done my best but I am not perfect.
If their usage is several times greater than the average Comcast HSI customer, they will be notified of the issue and their service may be terminated if the excessive use continues and service to hundreds of other customers is degraded. This usage may be around around 200-500 GB/month or it may be up to 800 GB/month - the actual amount you download is not what initiates the termination due to excessive downloading so it is not what is focused on.
So then calling someone a bandwidth hog isn't accurate. Interesting. This would explain why they say there isn't an official cap. Downloading up to 800 GB/month is suggested and may be perfectly fine depending where you live. I believe this may be why Jason1 is suggesting my comments are not entirely accurate. Ok. I can accept that. What I don't accept is the harsh manner a HSI account is terminated so quickly after multiple phone calls are made to Comcast CS to try and resolve the issue (see the live chat posted last night). There should be a little more leeway than the "You get a call then you're gone" response as Geovanny from the Abuse department stated.
If a customer is terminated due to excessive downloading, they will generally be given an estimate on how much they downloaded but this amount should not be called the download cap amount.
I'm back to confused now. Despite the confusion over whether Comcast or an ID thief called my wife in December, we reduced our usage (though we had no idea what number we should target) and were terminated the next month despite our reduction. Given an estimate? MRTG and RRDtools give you exact numbers in 5 minute increments. RRDtools will do it faster but industry best practices for monitoring have suggested 5 minute intervals are typical. I'm wondering if this is why they say it's an estimate rather than an actual number.
Yes, the download amount makes a nice easy way to visualize to the customer on a quantity that they used over the month but again, the issue is that the customers connected to a node is exceeding the capacity that node can provide so everyone connected to that node will suffer a bad connection.
My research suggests a node provides service for about 1200 homes. Still it's a crap shoot. A Comcast customer is left guessing how much is too much and risks termination even though they reduced their usage. For example, an Editor for the "Deseret Spectacle" was disconnected in July 2006, called Comcast later that day and had the HSI restored and promised to reduce usage by 50% but was terminated again in August 2006.
They were directed to the Abuse department as their account had been flagged by the CSR's system. The Abuse rep stated "even though you cut your usage in half, it's still too much. You have been terminated for 12 months". The editor posted his experience on their online magazine and moved to DSL (lucky bum). I've found dozens of other's who have been disconnected over the last few months, several here in the Salt Lake Valley. Many were fortunate to have alternatives (such as Verizon's Fios), Utopianet or DSL.
In my opinion, people generally are reasonable and willing to help (well, aren't they?). If Comcast is the ONLY real solution around, would anyone really continue pushing the network and risk termination? I couldn't have been more surprised with how poor this situation was handled. I would expect a better customer service experience.
These bandwidth abuse notifications and terminations are a way of ensuring that one individual is not responsible for degrading the service to hundreds of others.
It sounds like there is no way for a Comcast customer to make an informed choice whether he is adversely impacting Comcast's network or not. Might I suggest Comcast take a portion of their record earnings from 2006 and upgrade their infrastructure to reduce this possibility. I respectfully request my HSI be re-enabled and I will be paying VERY close attention to my usage. It's not like I can't monitor traffic or throttle it. I say that here only because I've been completely unsuccessful in finding someone at Comcast who can do anything to solve the problem. Somehow I doubt this is what Brian Roberts meant when he said Comcast was responding to what consumers want. He should have added "Customer Service" to the list.
So again, the bandwidth abuse notifications/terminations you mention here are not based on the content of what you are downloading.
I don't recall suggesting it was based on content (maybe he is referring to another disconnected customer). After speaking with the Abuse Department, I may have mistakenly understood there was a bandwidth cap. Now I'm thinking the bandwidth I could use when I had HSI is even more of a variable if 200-500 Gigs could be considered “normal”. It sounds like he is saying it depends where you live and how many are connected in your node.
If this is accurate blink twice. Once if I'm still not accurate. Or perhaps Comcast should just do what many HSI providers have turned to and set a cap so we can all be happy. Comcast wouldn't do something like this with Cable TV. If today I have 100 channels and tomorrow I have 30, the next day 40. How do I know I'm getting the service I paid for? After all, it's very difficult to be a good customer when the terms of the agreement keep changing.
I found this petition some time ago. I'd like to suggest people sign up and respectfully send Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast their opinion on the subject. I also found this petition online. If so inclinded please at least read what they have to say. Even though Jason1 is suggesting there is no cap and I'm beginning to think perhaps this really is company policy, my conversations with Geovanny in the Abuse Department suggested there is.
So there you have it. I still don't know what to make of these guys.
Update
In speaking with a buddy working at Qwest, I'm told not to worry, DSL is coming to my area very soon. My wife the other day noticed a DSLAM box going in 2 blocks from our house. Been hearing this for months but maybe it will really happen now. We'll see. If this situation isn't resolved in the next couple weeks I'm dropping the remaining Comcast services and going with Dish or Direct TV plus DSL. I'm ready to deal with top notch customer service after this experience.
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