Cap fight!

Shaw demonstrates what caps are for

meta — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:43:53 +0000

I’ve been waiting for an ISP to do this since the whole data cap saga started. Finally, one of them has. Canadian ISP Shaw has announced its own streaming “Movie Club”, and declared that its data caps don’t apply to data from its own service.

This is what it’s really all about. The cable companies know that the Internet is the future of TV, and don’t want to become just a data pipe provider. Data caps allow them to cripple services like Netflix, Amazon Unbox and the iTunes store, and make their own offerings look cheaper and more useful.

AT&T caps start Monday

meta — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 21:33:52 +0000

WIRED reports that AT&T starts capping usage on Monday. DSL and U-Verse customers will be limited to 150GB and 250GB respectively, and charged $10 per 50GB after that.

As caps go, that’s pretty reasonable–$10 per 50GB is only about a 100% markup. Still, I’m glad I’m unmetered.

Comcast Extreme 105

meta — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:46:47 +0000

Comcast has launched its new “ultra-fast” 105Mb/s Internet service, “Extreme 105″. That’s actually a good speed, comparable to broadband Internet available in Korea.

There are a couple of catches, though. It’s $105 per month, and you can only use it at full speed for 5 hours before you hit your data cap.

$105 per month for 5 hours of high speed Internet? Sign me up… No, wait, don’t.

It could be worse…

meta — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:23:56 +0000

Ars Electronica has published an article comparing Internet usage caps around the world.

Meanwhile in the UK…

meta — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:58:11 +0000

…British Telecom (BT) are abandoning usage caps. Apparently they aren’t necessary to have a profitable broadband business after all.

AT&T caps U-verse

meta — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:02:03 +0000

If you thought you were going to avoid usage caps by avoiding the cable company, think again. As of May 2nd, AT&T will be capping its U-verse Internet service at 250GB a month. Regular DSL customers will be capped at 150GB a month.

This is nowhere near as bad as Time Warner’s old proposal, of course. 250GB is a fairly reasonable limit for most people, and the overage charges are closer to reasonable too: $10 for every additional 50GB.

Still, that’s 20¢ per GB, where each GB costs them about 3¢. It’s an astronomical markup, and it’s sad that it’s comparatively sane for the industry.

Cancel Cable

meta — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 15:14:43 +0000

Cancel Cable: How Internet Pirates Get Free Stuff

I’m not sure this book needs any further comment…

Throttling Netflix without breaking net neutrality

meta — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 16:15:11 +0000

Someone has leaked data to the North American Network Operators Group that purports to show how Comcast are managing their backbone Internet connectivity. Or rather, not managing it, but instead refusing to buy enough bandwidth to provide the service their customers are paying for.

In short, they appear to be running their backbone connection at full capacity outside working hours. This means that any high-bandwidth service, such as Netflix, will tend to be unusable for Comcast customers during those hours. In addition, Comcast customers will likely be unable to obtain the full download speed they are paying for.

This could be a deliberate ploy to force Netflix to pay Comcast for dedicated connectivity or a local content distribution server; it could be penny-pinching; or it could be simple incompetence. Whichever is the case, it doesn’t speak well for Comcast.

Comcast threatens Netflix

meta — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:16:31 +0000

Comcast customer? You may be interested to know that Comcast is threatening to block Netflix streaming unless backbone Internet company Level 3 pays fees to Comcast.

Comcast customers shouldn’t be surprised if an additional “Comcast fee” gets added to their Netflix bill in the near future.

Update 2010-12-14: Comcast have posted their side of the story:

Cable companies lose ½m subscribers

meta — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 14:02:52 +0000

GigaOM reports that the big US cable companies lost half a million subscribers in Q3. Could this be Internet TV and cord-cutting going mainstream?

This is undoubtedly why Cablevision were so reluctant to give in to FOX and jack up prices.