Capping Bandwidth

Last month, I blogged about a story on Bloomberg.com about “The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will adopt rules barring Internet service providers such as Comcast Corp. from interfering with their customers’ ability to share videos and other online files.”

In yesterday’s New York Times‘ Technology section, it was reported that Comcast will now place a cap on monthly bandwidth. The article states:

Beginning Oct. 1, Comcast will put a 250 gigabyte-a-month cap on residential users. The limit will not affect most users, at least not in the short-term, but is certain to create tension as some technologies gain traction.

A Comcast spokeswoman, Jennifer Khoury, said 250 gigabytes was about 100 times the typical usage; the average customer uses two to three gigabytes a month. Less than 1 percent of customers exceed the cap, she said.

The article goes on to state:

According to Comcast, a customer would have to download 62,500 songs or 125 standard-definition movies a month to exceed the caps. But high-definition video and video gaming require a higher amount of bandwidth. S. Derek Turner, the research director for the nonpartisan media policy group Free Press, said broadband caps could create a disincentive to view online video.

So while the FCC isn’t going to chase after peer-to-peer sharing, ISP’s may begin the practice of metering, or limiting, the amount of monthly bandwidth one can use.

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