Ha, I sent this story in.

Going back to the metered internet is such a huge step backwards. It was unlimited all you could eat internet that really caused its use to explode in the last 12 years. You no longer had to keep an eye on the clock the entire time you were logged in. For the first time, you could surf as long as you wanted without feeling guilty about it.

This is another artificial scarcity engineered and designed to make something cost more for no other reason than to squeeze an extra buck out of their customers. This is the last thing any of us on here would ever want. If Cox starts this crap up, I'm switching to DSL.

A bandwidth limit is not the same thing as a transfer quota limit!

I'm fine with having my bandwidth (transfer rate) capped at what I signed up for, but I wouldn't be happy with a transfer quota (byte limit) capped at some arbitrary amount, beyond which I'd have to pay big bucks for more.

I've already been bitten by the cellphone plan minute quota, and there's no need to repeat this awful customer experience with my ISP. Phone minutes and data transfer are very different things to measure and bill.

What happens when Microsoft decides to push a 300 MB service pack to every machine you've got running?

With a transfer quota, I won't notice a thing until I get hit with a big bill.

Under a bandwidth (rate) limit, things might just slow down a bit, and if it bothers me, I can change what I'm transferring.

You know the TOP 5% of users are also the most vocal of all their users. Since when does sending electrons over the wire cost more money.

This is nothing new in the UK. Here, all the cheaper plans offer under 10GB/month (some as low as 1GB/month). Generally the ISPs have a more expensive plan that's "unlimited", but which always states "subject to fair usage policy", where you'll either find a limit or a clause that lets them cut you off if they arbitrarily think that you're using too much. "Unlimited" can actually mean as little as 12GB, though sometimes it's in the hundreds of gigabytes that no-one would realistically be hitting unless they BitTorrent 24/7.

5 GB/month....? Augh! Good thing I don't have that quota here or it'd take me multiple months to get hold of anything over Steam or Direct2Drive...

Does anybody know how much bandwidth gaming actually uses up? I bet I hit 5 gigs just from multiplayer games a couple hours a day.
EDIT: Not to mention bye-bye JungleDisk backups. :(

The only reason that customer-grade FIOS services do not currently have capping is because the userbase is too small at the moment. Once, it starts to pick-up. I am very certainly it also start seeing capping. It will probably be far more generous as the technology's infrastructure can handle more bandwidth from the ground-up.

5gb/month? Holy crap.

Hell, even 40gb/month is restrictive. Yeesh.

What in the heck is TIme Warner thinking?! 5GB and 40GB caps?! I'd use over 40GB in a week or two! This actually makes me wish I had Comcast now. Hopefully they're testing goes horribly and they increase the caps.

$54.90-a-month, 15Mbps (1.9MB/s) service will feature a more ample 40GB quota.

Nice. Even rogers up here is better than that.

So the cable companies figure to force their customers to pay more, for less. Reminds me of those commercials.
I'm sure they'll say this is how they are going to pay for network upgrades.
Who is going to believe that?

at 15mb/s you could knock out 40GB in about 6 hours.... what's the point in a connection that fast if you can't use it for 98% of the month. bandwidth doesn't cost nearly that much, their caps are ludicrous

DSL users don't share the wire with neighbors. Therefore no need for DSL companies to limit usage.
Note to self: Buy stock in telcos and satellite quick. Send rest in peace card to cable companies.

They already do have bandwidth restrictions, they just don't publicize them.

I got a warning call from Comcast I had used "too much bandwidth" last month and they would cut off my service if I didn't "use less."

They wouldn't tell me how much I had used, or what the limit was, or offer a way of checking to see how much of my cap I had used.

This is an improvement in all respects.

I don't see the big deal thing with bandwidth caps as long as they are generous.

Comcast is pretty darn reasonable. I cannot say the same for Time Warner (5GB is too limiting these days).

Why on earth would you want a 15Mbps connection if you can only download 40GB a month? I'm pretty sure I use that much just in regular browsing and downloading apps, never mind any p2p.

yay, no termination fees if they change your contract. I'm on earthlink which is TW's slave these days, and is not mentioned. When push comes to shove, might as well go with FIOS. Comcrap on the other hand must be the worlds worst ISP.

250GB / Month is ALOT of Pr0n.

Time Warner's plan needs to fail horribly though.

Does anyone know how you would check your usage on comcast service?

i will never stop loving this picture.

http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2008/03/comcastbt.jpg

I paid 9$ for a complete package internet , tv + hbo, phone and mobile minutes inclusive (1000), and a 5mb/s max + unlimited download over the internet and 10 mb/s in my city (for more 8gb will shrink the speed 2mb/s )
i love my provider:d

I understand limits on usage (in the dial-up days, many services only let you connect for a certain number of hours). However, I have two possible complaints. 1) Are they still advertising this as an "unlimited service," and 2) For people who signed a year long contract (or maybe even longer), is their service getting changed in the middle of their contract?

I'm curious what speedmatters.org has to say about this. From what i've watched of them they haven't made any comments about companies trying this yet.

*edit guess it's time to start emailing representatives?(for ya'll, that 5gb limit is atrocious. Goodbye to steam at that rate.)

Nasty amount of money per GB once you go over. Can easily see loads of complaints about incredibly high bills.

Some have made a good point. I wonder if they could add select websites that don't count towards your quota. Steam and JungleDrive are good examples.

As a TW user, already on the 15Mb/sec plan, I'm a bit miffed at the LOW 40GB/month number. It's pretty damn easy to get a few DB/day. With online rental and backup solutions looks MORE attractive, that 40GB can be blown through in no time, flat.

What this really does is SELL their current VOD system: you pay nearly the same price as AppleTV/Netflix/Xbox/whatever and it DOESN'T count against your monthly usage.

I'd really like to get into some online backup solution (supporting Mac/PC, etc), but with these limits (incoming), I'm not so sure I'd want to subscribe and blow through my first month of 500GB worth of home movies.

I'll switch pretty quick away from Time Warner as soon as this crap hits home here in WI. I'll accept a slower connection before I pay them $50/mo for less of the same service.

I've suspected that this would happen though. Around here, they've gone from 3m/384k to 7m/512k in the past few years. Now they want to step up to the "next level" but not have to worry about actually upgrading their infrastructure if people actually use the full potential of the line. So, the "upgrade" will combine the sweet excitement of more speed with the inability to download as much as you did years ago and cost more too. Bullshit, it is.

Here's to hoping that TW isn't as much of a monopoly as they seem to be and other companies can come and beat their attempt to totally control their users.

I'm OK with Comcast's plan. They won't be distinguishing between types of traffic and they won't be completely cutting people off or charging them more money. It should also improve service for non-hogs. Of course it all kind of depends on what qualifies someone as a hog.

Does this mean like services like steam will be out of business if such limits were to be placed?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH