Comcast Rolls Out Throttling System Across All Markets
Posted 01/06/09 at 09:44:17 AM by Paul Lilly
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All systems are go for Comcast, who confirmed to DSL Reports it has implemented its broadband throttling system across all markets. The two-condition throttling system works by first examining aggregate traffic usage data for individual segments of Comcast's high-speed internet (HSI) network. If the overall upstream or downstream usage reaches a predetermined level, the software system then identifies which subscribers are using a disproportionate share of the bandwidth and assigns them a lower priority status. According to Comcast, throttling won't actually occur "so long as the network segment is not actually congested" (see Comcast's filings with the FCC in PDF form).
It will take a sustained use of 70 percent of the downstream throughput for a user to be assigned a lower priority, which will remain that way until usage drops to 50 percent of the provisioned upstream or downstream bandwidth for about 15 minutes. In this throttled state, traffic may or may not be delayed or dropped, depending on the overall demand, Comcast says.
In the past, Comcast received heavy criticism over its decision to use forged TCP packets to throttle upstream P2P services no matter how much bandwidth a user was consuming. This new system of identifying and potentially thwarting bandwidth hogs sounds a fair bit, well, more fair than the ISP's previous approach, but we'd like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
Do you like what Comcast is doing? Hit the jump and sound off.
Image Credit: Flickr Tyler Durden
This is why Verizon FIOS rocks!
Submitted by LiqMat on Sat, 01/17/2009 - 3:15pm
Dedicated bandwidth to each house with Verizon FIOS. NO SHARING!!! NO THROTTLING!!! with FIOS.
I was downloading a 7GB game file from Electronic Arts download manager with the Comcast 16/2 plan which I should have been getting about 1.5 to 2MB a sec, but with the throttling I was only getting about 700k a sec. I called Comcast tech support and they confirmed they throttle ALL large downloads. This is what I was told direct from their tech support so even though I was paying for 16/2 I was only going to get about 6mbps download speeds. RIPOFF!!! Moved to Verizon FIOS 20/5 plan for the same monthly cost and I now get 2.4MB a sec always from EA server with NO throttling. Rock on Verizon. I hope FIOS burns Comcast into the ground! Comcast advertised speeds is a bold face lie as far as I am concerned!
Submitted by jfigura on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:44pm
I really think Comcast needs to rre-examine its business plan and style of service. I got my first cable internet connection in April of 1999. In these past 10 years, the 4 years I had to endure Comcast on the east coast was the worse experience of my life regarding my internet connection.
I paid an extra 10 bucks a month for the premium connection and for my money I received at least 1-2 outages per month lasting longer than 2 hours.
At least one outage every 3 months lasting longer than 8 hours.
In addition, they have been doing this bandwidth throttling for much longer than has been discussed. It's just that the mainstream consumer knew nothing of it.
Network capacity on the backbone has increased 1000 fold in these past ten years and there isn't any reason Comcast needs to do this other than they do not wish to fork out capital to upgrade their networks and equipment.
You need to remember, Comcast is made up of many different cable systems that they have acquired over the years. Adelphia, Insight and many others. It's cheaper to limit the customer than it is to do the right thing and provide quality service and a quality product.
Submitted by curlybrian on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 11:31am
The whole purpose of this is that they want to eliminate pay-per-view competition over the internet, which would be the high users. It is all a smoke screen to favor their on-demand products.
Qua-li-ty? What means this
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 3:00pm
Qua-li-ty? What means this word? Is it a Virus? Oh god is it contagious! Someone help i think i have Quality Plague!
I think you and I see things
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 3:24pm
I think you and I see things the same way here... LOL...
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:35pm
And what is keeping the populations that are stuck with ComCast for their internet from petitioning their local governments to make ComCast straighten out of kick them out in favor of a competing provider. I am lucky that I live here in Phoenix but it sucks that we are stuck with only Cox for Cable and only Qwest for DSL service. I thought that it was wrong here in the USA for any kind of Monopoly.
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:28pm
Cox cable does exactly the opposite of what comcast is doing. If you are downloading something Cox detects it and boosts your overall download speed. So I pay for 7mbps but when I do a net speed test I get speeds in the 16 to 17mbps range. And downloads are really fast and I get really good torrent speeds as well. So if I had ComCast I would sue the first time they throttled my connection from what I am paying for. That is breach of contract. They are actually not providing the service you are paying for. It works both ways here. If I break into a cable box and steal bandwidth or cable TV signals that I'm not paying for that is illegal so if I pay for say 10mbps and after I start downloading something Comcast actually lowers the speed then they are ripping me off. So fuck you ComCast. Just try this on me and I'll mess you up. I'm surprised there are no class action lawsuits over this.
Submitted by Pball1224 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:36pm
Cox has "PowerBoost" which I think Comcast also has a form of. It's only a momenary boost, like for 30 seconds and it doesn't happen if the node you're on is currently congested.
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:45pm
Actually it's for the entirety of the download not just 30seconds. It's a great idea. I really like it and I really like the commercials they have advertising it. I think they want to speed up your download so that the pipe never gets jam packed for too long. It's alot better than hey he's downloading something lets slow him down.
Submitted by AndyYankee17 on Wed, 01/07/2009 - 11:51am
yeah, the commercials... some rabbit takes speed and runs around and some how that's a parellel to bandwidth?
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 1:54am
LOL... You have to admit that the Cox speedboost commercials are pretty well concieved and very entertaining. I love anything I can get a laugh out of and I like those commercials. I'm just giving my point of view. The commercials are funny. Sure there isn't any technical details in the commercials but just imagine if somewhere there is a room in a cox building somewhere that has that super duper thing a majig... That would be awesome. As I'm still wondering why there are no LCARS OS's designed to take advantage of the newer larger touch screens that are available now. See my imagination just takes off and leaves me in the dust.
Submitted by Pixelated on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:08pm
I love what Comcast is doing here! More money for the corporations and a decrease of service for us! YAY!
This has never been about people using too much bandwidth but about Comcast wanting more money.
Submitted by Griedire on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 1:36pm
We the customer have agreed to pay for a service at a set amount of money per month. We the customer should not be penalized for the lack of service provided by our supplier (Comcast). I believe that Comcast should do1 of 2 things
1) Upgrade the service speeds in the area to accommodate what they have agreed to provide
2) Stop taking services until they are able to accommodate the demand
If someone is downloading a lot using a Torrent program or what have you that should not be an issue. They are paying for the service and should not be penalized because the provider is unable to keep up with what they have offered.
That's my 2 cents
Submitted by Pball1224 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:03pm
If you notice, every agreement that I've seen lately says they will supply you with UP TO a certain agreed upon speed. They never say it will always be that speed.
Read the PDF file.
I do wish they'd continue to make their statistice public however, so that we the subscribers could more easily see if/when we are being throttled, or what over all percentage of subscribers go into a throttled state for a given day. I like the system, I'm just saying continued/more transparency would really be nice.
Submitted by Pball1224 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 1:25pm
According to Comcast, throttling won't actually occur "so long as the network segment is not actually congested"
If the "pipe" that feeds my neighborhood is being monopolized by one or two houses running torrent servers, during peek usage, and a lot of other people online too, I'd like them to be throttled please. Then during times of low demand, they can have all that bandwidth. This sounds like a good plan to me.
But Comcast like many other cable internet providers also offer different tiers of service. I pay for the top tier offered by my provider because I am a somewhat heavy user. I wonder how throttling will work on the different tiers.
I really wish there were more details available
There are more details available, I just spent some time following the links in the article and reading the PDF of the filing with the FCC. I'm even more convinced that this is a decent plan. Obviously I expect Comcast and other providers to continue invensting in network upgrades, but this plan will probably be appropriate even then to cut down on the abusers.
If you want to run a torrent server 24/7, it's probably illegal content anyway.
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 2:41pm
Who are you or ComCast to call anyone an Abuser simply for using their internet connection? I pay for my internet connection. I will use it for whatever I want to use it for as long as it doesn not violate the law. And even then that is my business between me and the state and city not ComCast or you.
If my usage has an effect on you then that is between you and ComCast not me. It's ComCast that is supposed to offer the service that you pay for same as me. Unless I hack into your network and steal your bandwidth then nothing I do is your or ComCasts business as long as I pay my bill.
Submitted by Pball1224 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 3:08pm
Maybe I assume too much when I thought that everyone knows that cable internet is shared bandwidth.
If 1 percent of the users are taking up 90 percent of the bandwidth, then they should be the ones that experience slow downs before everyone else has to.
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 3:20pm
Cox as well as ComCast have links with your cable modem to assign bandwidth. That is what the Cox Cable internet tech told me when I was having trouble with my signal strength. So your bandwidth is shared but it's also assigned like me it's I believe either 7 or 10mbps. Cox or Comcast may only have 1gbps of bandwidth but have assigned 1.2gbps so they (Cox or ComCast) are counting on not everyone using all of their assigned bandwidth at the same time which is why Cox has PowerBoost to reduce the ammount of time it takes to download something and it's nice because if there is available bandwidth they assign it to the person that is downloading something as an extra benefit of service.
So you see it is shared but it's assigned. If the pipe is too small in your area then Cox or Comcast should widen it to be able to satisfy the demand in your area. What I'm trying to say is that it's not your or my fault that it's a shared network. It's up to my ISP to ensure that I get what I pay for. It's on them to make sure that the bandwidth is available. So if 1Gbps isn't enough in your area then they need to upgrade to say 2Gbps.
BTW those numbers are just theoretical. I have no idea how much total bandwidth is available in the main pipe my modem sips on.
If we as a country, ar going
Submitted by whelderwheels613 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 12:03pm
If we as a country, ar going to move foward up the broadbank ranking, than this definitly not going to help.
Submitted by AndyYankee17 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 11:52am
I wouldn't mind being metered for internet as long I had a gigabit line
Submitted by yahknow1 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 11:21am
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Comcasts main buisness selling cable television? Then, does it not make sense for a cable provider to limit bandwidth on a service that some day soon will directly compete with thier cash-cow CABLE television?(say HULU.com anyone?) Anyone else think it ironic AT&T just put in place the same type limit on thier service too, only instead of 250Gb, theirs is 25Gb? Hello Skype, Vonage and any other IP-based telephone services!
I think we here in the USA are coming to a crossroads were the FCC had better step in and rule that bits are bits and a byte is a byte! These big ISPs' were great in the beginning of the internet era. They rapidly deployed high speed internet to everyone who wanted it. Now though, I'm afraid the future doesnt look as bright, with these big bullies standing gaurd to both our speeds and now our caps!
Submitted by nekollx on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 10:33am
Someone git me my shotgun
Seriously
I PAY for a SERVICE, i EXPECT THE SERVICE to work as PAYED FOR. Weather i use it to its maximum efftiveness or not. Tell me cosmcost whenyou throttle a users speed do you cut their bull to reflect their lower through put?
Submitted by dstevens on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 10:31am
Comcast offers customers high speed internet with packet optimization for downloading large files quicker,
and now they say if you are downloading large files there going to deprioritize your IP packet requests?
so which is it?
Submitted by baGoGoodies111 on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 10:26am
The only issue I see with any form of limiting a users bandwidth (aside from financial) would be that the internet is rapidly changing from a luxury to a necessity. More and more things are getting thrown onto the internet. Its only a matter of time until bigger things are thrown on the internet.
Customers should get what they paid for
Submitted by Talcum X on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 10:09am
If I bought the line and the bandwidth, then dont penalize me when I use it.
I see a wave of cell phone subscription style plans in the braodband market comming our way.
I'm a Roadrunner subscriber thru Time Warner, so I'm not afflicted by this............yet. But, I dont use my PC that much at home these days, so none of the schemes would affect me if it did come to my service, I just hate the idea of limitations of my servece I purchaced.
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Submitted by Hamerlock on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 9:36am
At least then I'm the one responseible for my service geting interupted.
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