This is long.. Sorry for typos. It has angered up the soul.
So I recently made a post on my apartment complexes internal message board concerning the Comcast data caps and some alternatives. A reply was posted by another member of the complex (my reply after the quote):
Eric S Just a word about Comcast - The data caps have been in place for a while. This is nothing new. and if you use more than 300BG - you are really a power user. Even if you use NETFLIX a lot -- you will get 1000 (ONE THOUSAND) hours of "good quality. Or 10,000 HOURS of Music streaming. I know lots of people hate Comcast. But I work for NBCUniversal - so I have a bit knowledge. The whole idea of "capping" service scares people. But there is a certain reality to this. MOST people don't even use 100GB of service a month. And even heavier users rarely exceed 200. Don't let the 300GB cap be the deterrent. Be thankful you don't have TWC. Comcast is 10x better.. and I am not just saying that because I work for the big conglomerate.
Sorry, there's a little misinformation there...
Want to watch netflix at SD quality? Yeah fine, but HD is 3GB to 7GB per hour. so 42-100 hours will use all your data limit.
Even at SD, it uses 0.7GB per hour, so that's only 428 hours of viewing.
Now imagine you have 2, or 3 devices streaming content (you know, family?) then that's only 12 hours of content streaming per month per person.
(Source: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/87 )
Audio streaming at high quality is around 115MB per hour, so only 2,600 hours of streaming ONLY music before it eats up data. Yeah, that's not too high, but imagine that, on top of Video streaming from someplace like Netflix or Hulu, or Amazon Prime video, etc.
Want to watch music videos instead of just listen, on youtube, in HD? 15MB a minute in 720p or double that to 30MB a minute for 1080p. That's 166 hours of youtube video watching before the cap.
Oh hey! Let's keep going. You want to download a video game (for PC gamers, Steam) or you have a Xbox One or PS4 and want to play that new game? Well that uses data also, in some cases, a LOT of data. Grand Theft Auto V for PC is a 60GB download! Ok, you have a console?! Well GTAV is on the disk but you download (in just the Heist patch for example) 5GB of updates. Want to stream those games via Twitch to your friends? ~1GB an hour outbound.
So, Comcast, being the ever "consumer friendly" and "good service" company, instead of just saying that "We just want more money!" will instead just gouge customers for extra fees, contracts and still have unreliable service that is years behind the technology curve.
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/212376-comcast-admits-that-its-data-caps-are-a-business-decision-not-an-engineering-requirement
They don't CARE about anything other than making money, while suing people into allowing their monopolistic practices.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8530403/chattanooga-comcast-fcc-high-speed-internet-gigabit
They are anti-competitive, anti-innovation, against an open and free internet, and lock you, as a costumer into their services like a prisoner. The data caps are NEW, and they just want to make more money, without doing ANYTHING to make it feel like it's worth it.
They aren't the only company that does this. AT&T is just as guilty but not as wide spread. The fact is, COMCAST (like Time Warner) is a MEDIA production company, as well as a media DELEIVERY company, so when contracts come up, the smaller companies can’t compete, and they essentially force you to use their own media services because they can provide it “cheaper” since they can force lower contracts deals. Why do you think Internet service alone is more expensive than the “combo” packages with Internet and Cable TV service?
Comcast is a horrible, abysmal company.
I have also worked for a cable company, I’ve been in IT for many, many years, and have a very good grasp on how the industry works. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. They don’t care about you.
