Indeed, when the relatively isolated RNLI, a tidal estuary station in Northern England, wanted a better connection, they took shovel to earth and installed it. That simple.

The fiber and other tech necessary for the deployment were eagerly supplied by FiberStream, which enjoyed the PR while the RNLI finally got the Internet speeds they thought they deserved. [ISP Review via Slashdot]

Ars Technica says the constituents in Massa's district have been subject to data caps from both of the available broadband providers, and Massa thinks that the lack of competition in the broadband market makes volume usage fees unnecessary and unfair to consumers.

Instead, he wants broadband to be treated more like a utility, with the Federal Trade Commission deciding whether or not data caps are fair. And with the current phone/cable duopoly structure in the broadband landscape, Massa thinks companies can do without usage fees.

That said, this bill still has to make its way through House, then Senate and then onto the President's desk. And there have already been a fair number of detractors both inside and outside of congress. Basically, it has a long way to go. [House of Reps via Ars Technica]

Get Organized
First things first—gather all of your monthly bills and take stock of your situation. Ask yourself questions like: "Do I need this?", "Is this the best service provider?" and "How long has it been since I made changes?"

How About that Landline?
If you are really honest with yourself, there are probably several services that you are paying for that don't produce a good return on their investment. One of the top issues on my list is a landline phone. Obviously there are extenuating circumstances, but fax machines and security systems are often among the excuses people use to hang on to these relics.

For most faxing situations, a scanner and some kind of email or e-fax service will work just fine—we recommend emailing PDFs with embedded signature images where possible.

And, of course, you always have the option of going with VOIP. Vonage offers unlimited local and long distance for $25 a month while unlimited US and Canada Skype accounts start at $3 per month (plus it is also available on cellphones for extra savings). Keep in mind that this price is on top of your current internet connection, so it may be advantageous to investigate bundles.

Take Advantage of Bundles
If you insist on keeping a landline, now is a great time to take advantage of bundled services. As a recent article in the New York Times pointed out, companies like AT&T offer several options for bundling services. Another example is Verizon Fios. If you are fortunate enough to have this option where you live, you can get double and triple freedom bundle packages—the latter combining landline, Fios internet and TV for $95 a month (a $38 savings).

While we are talking about bundles, keep an eye out for upsells. For instance, when I moved recently, I decided to try Road Runner Turbo over their standard service. I found that in my situation, the speed upgrade was barely noticeable and therefore not worth an extra $10 a month—so I dropped it. It's as simple as that.

Fight For Your Rights
The NYT article also made clear that the tried-and-true art of bitching can sometimes make a world of difference. If you feel you are paying too much, let your voice be heard. And don't be afraid to threaten a switch to another provider. Often the representatives you are speaking to are empowered to make a deal.

Security Without the Monthly Fee
A lot of people keep landlines just for security systems, and that's not a bad idea. E911 services from traditional telecoms and VOIP networks automatically tell cops and ambulance services where you live, and where you want to continue to live.

But a lot of security systems can be ripoffs. For one thing, the equipment installation can be riddled with extras. And second, what's the monthly monitoring fee for? In reality, the monitoring service is just a middleman. So in addition to paying a huge installation fee—a new ADT system can easily cost over $1000 (depending on the deal)— and you pay at least $25 per month on top of what you pay for the landline (GSM add-ons can cost even more).

One way to eliminate the cost of a monitoring service and possibly save some money on installation without compromising security in the house is a home security kit. One suggestion is SecureLinc. It doesn't require in-home wiring, and it calls up to four numbers when tripped. You still have to keep the landline, but you wouldn't be paying for monitoring and you still have the option of a GSM modem. Instead of dialing out to a landline, the modem uses a SIM from your wireless carrier. There would be a monthly fee associated with that of course, but it will most likely be cheaper than a monitoring service and maintaining a landline—and you don't have to worry about the line being cut during a break-in. If all else fails, dogs and guns (maybe even dogs with guns) is always an option.

Going on a TV Diet
Looking at my own bills, it's pretty obvious that I spend a great deal of money on my DirecTV service. At the moment I'm taking advantage of a 12-month deal at around $50, but after the year is up the price will shoot up to $75 to $80. To be honest, I really only watch a handful of networks and shows consistently.

So would it be traumatic if I gave up that service completely? Probably not. With Bittorrent and the growing availability of my favorite shows streaming legally online, it is conceivable that I could get by without making a huge sacrifice. Engadget contributing editor Ben Drawbaugh has found success in ditching cable for over-the-air TV and Netflix, along with internet-based extras. Four months and counting.

Obviously, this solution isn't going to work for a total TV addict, but it makes sense for most of us to re-examine our situations to see what might be excessive. I mean, there are often great shows on HBO, but sometimes even HBO can be dry for months at a time, and you can find a lot of their shows online or catch them on DVD/Blu-ray. With all the money you save, you can pay an extra couple of bucks for the Blu-ray bump at Netflix.

Speaking of Netflix, how many movies do you really watch? Is three out at a time too many? If you are not churning and burning these discs, you might be able to get away with a cheaper plan. Even the $9 plan gives you unlimited Watch Instantly, which you should try to take advantage of when possible. (If you are on the $5 plan, for two DVDs per month and up to two hours of Watch Instantly, you may want to drop Netflix altogether, because maybe you need that $5 more than Netflix does.)

Dust Off Your Service Plans
Like most of us, you have probably been sitting on a cellphone or TV plan for years now. If you think your provider will alert you when there is a money-saving change you could benefit from, think again. Many years ago I was on a Sprint plan where night minutes started at 9pm. Sometime later, the plan changed to 7pm. Since I make most of my calls in the evening hours, that change had a big effect on my minutes usage. If I had not done a check at the end of the year, I would have never known. Make sure to check the offerings of your provider and the offerings of competitors to make sure you are getting the deal that fits your needs best.

Go Green
Last but certainly not least we arrive at the energy bill. There is no doubt that energy bills can be one of the biggest monthly expenses. Obviously, elaborate solar arrays are out of the reach for many individuals, but there are plenty of simple, affordable eco-upgrades that will pay for themselves sooner rather than later:

• Ditch the incandescent bulbs. You already know that you should change out those energy sucking incandescent lights for CFLs or LEDs. Seriously, a 60W CFL that only uses 13W of power is a no-brainer. Over the life of that single bulb you might save $40 or $50 in energy costs. It is more expensive up front, but you can bounce into any Walmart and get a decent deal. Besides, how many incandescents will you buy over the course of a CFLs seven year life span?

• Buy Energy Star appliances. Again, there is a premium for Energy star devices up front, but these devices use 10% to 50% less energy or water than their traditional counterparts. You will more than make up for that in energy cost savings in a short amount of time.

• Kill the electricity vampires. You may not know it, but many of your gadgets constantly suck standby power even when they are "off." On the lower end, power strips like the Ecostrip and the Visible Energy UFO help to control this problem. If you are looking for a more elaborate solution, a company like Greenswitch can quickly re-wire the outlets in your home—designating each one as green or standard as needed. If you want to turn off all of the gadgets in your home using standby power, it is as easy as flicking a single switch. A solution like this could potentially save 8-10% of your energy costs and pay for itself in a year or two.

• Get an efficient water heater. There are several options here, but spending the extra cash on something like a tankless water heater could result in a savings of up to 50% on your hot water bills (depending on your usage) because it doesn't store and heat water when it's not needed. It costs significantly more than a traditional heater, but there are usually tax credits that help to subsidize the cost. This goes for other green upgrades as well. Green incentives in your state can be found at DSIRE.

•Go low-flow: Replacing your current shower heads with low-flow versions can reduce your water consumption in the shower by as much as 50%. They cost about as much as regular shower heads, and despite consumption rates between .5 and 2.5 gallons per minute, they can still deliver great water pressure. You can also go low-flow with your toilets and use about half as much water per flush for a price that is comparable to a standard version.

• Get or make a rain barrel. Seriously, we waste far too much water irrigating our lawns. Even if you're not a greenie, there's money to be saved. At the very least you can make a simple rain barrel for less than $40 or buy one for $50-$100 (depending on capacity).

In the end, saving money on your bills is about being proactive and taking action when necessary. Ideally, going through your monthly expenses should be part of a yearly self-audit. It also pays to investigate the financial viability of eco-friendly options because many basic upgrades will start paying off right away.

Prof. Dealzmodo is a regular section dedicated to helping budget-minded consumers learn how to shop smarter and get the best deals on their favorite gadgets. If you have any topics you would like to see covered, send your idea to tips@gizmodo.com, with "Professor Dealzmodo" in the subject line. [Image via Utilityweek]

Here is one harrowing tale:

The technician testified that he went to Trikes' Pinckney Road home Oct. 17, after Trikes complained his Internet service was too slow.

While at the defendant's home, the technician said, Trikes began discussing pornographic Web sites that he had visited online as well as a sexually explicit video that he said he found in a gas station garbage can. The technician said he began talking about his date later that evening "to ease the uncomfortableness" of the situation.

However, the witness said, Trikes then exposed his genitals, which made the technician extremely uncomfortable.

Needless to say, Trikes is now facing jail time for indecent exposure. No matter how you feel about Comcast, nobody deserves that. Seriously, It's the kind of reverse porno you will probably find in hell. [Consumerist via Digg and Image via Flickr]

[Image via Flickr]

AT&T says they're not doing any of the actual spotting—the RIAA is handling that part—they're just "forwarding notices from content providers to our customers" to edumacate them. Cnet's Greg Sandoval reports that a Comcast executive said that they've sent customers two million warning notices about infringement. [A Comcast spokesperson later added that these letters weren't part of any new campaign, see below.]

What happens if you ignore AT&T's notices? Will they disconnect you? Here is their lovely wishy-washy answer that really doesn't say anything at all: "We are not suspending or terminating our customers' service. With that said, we do refer customers to our Acceptable Use Policy, which governs use of our service." Just keep in mind, it's the same AT&T that was plotting a massive, intelligent anti-piracy dragnet that would sweep their entire network for pirated content.

Update: Comcast adds via spokesperson that nothing's changed:

"Comcast, like other major ISPs, forwards notices of alleged infringement that we receive from music, movie, videogame, and other content owners to our customers. This is the same process we've had in place for years - nothing has changed. While we have always supported copyright holders in their efforts to reduce piracy under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), and continue to do so, we have no plans to test a so-called 'three-strikes-and-you're-out' policy."

Probably not a distinction they want, but since they're the only major ISP that's not seriously clamping down on bandwidth usage and hanging out with the RIAA at bars—the RIAA's new buddy group reportedly includes AT&T, Comcast and Cox—Verizon still looks like the best ISP around for people moving around less-than-legally shiny material (i.e., everyone on the internet), especially if you get FiOS. [Cnet via CrunchGear]

The golden rule—which we covered a bit here—to keep in mind is this: If you use more than 70 percent of your downstream or upstream bandwidth for more than 15 minutes, you'll be slowed down for at least 15 minutes, or until you're brought back down to using 50 percent of your bandwidth. The other, more esoteric way to bring on the sludge is actually a pair of conditions: If a certain CMTS port—cable modem termination system, the hub your cable modem, along with those of up to 15,000 (but probably fewer) runs to—is congested and if you've been targeted as the asshole why.

By slowed down, it means all of your packets are assigned "Best Effort" quality of service, a lower tier than Priority Best Effort. Which means this, according to Comcast:

If there is no congestion, packets from a user in a BE state should have little trouble getting on the bus when they arrive at the bus stop. If, on the other hand, there is congestion in a particular instance, the bus may become filled by packets in a PBE state before any BE packets can get on. In that situation, the BE packets would have to wait for the next bus that is not filled by PBE packets.

This all happens in a compressed time frame though—missing 50 buses would mean being delayed by about a tenth of a second, but it is possible to have your packets dropped in "extreme cases." (See? The bus metaphor was theirs.)

Don't forget your bandwidth counter either, guys. You wouldn't wanna zoom past your 250GB cap and get slowed down, would you? Enjoy your internets, and don't hog it all! [DSL Reports]

Essentially, the system localizes peer-to-peer file sharing. Right now, when you hop on a torrent, you download and upload data from and to people all over the world. It's quite inefficient. P4P prioritizes peers who are on your local ISP network, making downloads both much faster and much more efficient.

The system relies on iTrackers being installed on ISPs networks. The more networks that run iTrackers, the better the P4P system will run and the faster the speeds will be. Comcast is pushing to make the iTrackers an Internet Engineering Task Force standard, which would help the spread and use of the software greatly.

They want this because this is an actual win/win situation in the file-sharing front. P2P users get better speeds and Comcast gets less load on their backbone. Group hug, y'all! [Ars Technica]

COX TO LAUNCH NEXT GENERATION BUNDLE WITH WIRELESS IN 2009
Company Sees Opportunity in Deeply-Bundled Customer Relationships,
Integration & Simplicity

ATLANTA – October 27, 2008 – Today, Cox Communications announced its plan to add wireless offerings to its bundle of award-winning entertainment and communications services, such as digital cable, high-speed Internet and telephone in 2009. The company is delivering on its promise to enable residential and business customers to take their Cox services with them wherever they go. Today’s news marks another innovative milestone in the company’s history. In 1997, Cox was the first company to introduce a voice, video and data bundle to the marketplace. Today, more than 64% of Cox customers buy multiple services from Cox and one-third subscribe to all three products.

“Wireless service will be a key driver to Cox’s future growth,” said Pat Esser, president of Cox Communications. “As wireless communications enters the new generation, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the entertainment and communications services our customers want, whenever, however and wherever they want them. Our bundled customers will become even ‘stickier’ as we offer them the best customer experience. To deliver the best customer experience, we will manage every aspect of the service, from product development to marketing and sales to back-office operations and customer support and billing.”

Cox will utilize the Nationwide Sprint Network to quickly enter the market in 2009. At the same time, Cox is concurrently building its own 3G wireless network for additional market launches in 2009. Cox will also test 4G technology utilizing LTE (long term evolution). Earlier this year, Cox joined CTIA (the international association for the wireless telecommunications industry), the Rural Cellular Association and CDMA Development Group (CDG).

In recent years, Cox successfully acquired wireless spectrum in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Auctions. “We’ve already invested more than $500 million to acquire wireless spectrum and to develop the infrastructure and human resources needed to architect our own advanced wireless service,” said Esser. “Our commitment is firm, and the wireless services we deliver will further the Cox experience. As consumers are increasingly adopting a mobile lifestyle, we will continue to deliver in ways that are uniquely Cox – offering the first truly integrated bundle that is easy-to-use, reliable and supported by the best customer service available.”

“Cox understands the importance of leveraging content across the television, computer and mobile device,” said J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.d, vice president & chief analyst, Mobile and Wireless at Frost & Sullivan. “Given its existing business operations, Cox is well positioned to extend its local market assets for wireless and leverage its existing customer relationships in the markets it serves. This strategy is very similar to the company’s successful entry into the landline telephone business more than 10 years ago.”

Cox research indicates that consumers want a simple and easy-to-use wireless service that will integrate easily with their lifestyle. Management and delivery of converged content is at the core of Cox’s wireless strategy. Cox customers will be able to use their mobile phone to access television favorites, program their DVR, access content saved on their home computer and simplify their lives with enhanced voice features.

“We are in the business of making it simpler and easier for people to enjoy communications and entertainment,” said Dallas Clement, senior vice president of strategy and product management. “Ten years ago, only Cox, a cable company, had the flexibility to introduce simpler telephone plans to the marketplace. And now, with wireless, we have the flexibility yet again to introduce a simpler and better wireless offer, making it easy for consumers to continue to choose Cox as their trusted provider. It’s an exciting future for our customers.”

Cox has a long history of innovation and customer service excellence. When Cox launched telephone service in 1997, it became the first company to deliver digital video, high-speed Internet and telephone service via a single network. This innovation and focus on customer service has earned the company many prestigious awards. In the last six years, Cox has received highest rankings in 15 J.D. Power and Associates Customer Satisfaction studies for telephone, video, high-speed Internet and commercial data. Cox is the only cable or telecommunications provider to earn highest satisfaction ratings across all product lines, including commercial data services.

Users interested in the upgrades will be able to check their zip code for availability on a special landing page set up on the Comcast website. Keep in mind that all of these tiers will most likely be subject to Comcast's new 250GB data caps as well as their priority bandwidth management system that temporarily slows down heavy users under periods of congestion.

COMCAST BEGINS ROLLOUT OF EXTREME 50 MBPS HIGH-SPEED INTERNET SERVICE
Plans to Reach More Than 10 Major Markets and Nearly 10 Million Homes and Businesses in
the Next Several Months

Two New, Faster Speed Tiers Introduced and Speeds Doubled for Most Existing Customers
PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 22, 2008 – Comcast, the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and
communications products and services, today announced it is making the leap from broadband to wideband with
the launch of next-generation DOCSIS 3.0. With wideband, Comcast will introduce a brand new echelon of
Internet speed tiers, which will redefine the customer experience online and create a platform for Internet
innovation in the years ahead.

In the next few weeks, Comcast’s new services will be available to millions of residential homes and businesses
in parts of New England, including the Boston Metropolitan region and Southern New Hampshire, as well as
areas of Philadelphia and New Jersey. These services also will be available in the Twin Cities where wideband
was launched earlier this year. Comcast plans to continue to roll out wideband across its footprint and expects
to reach more than 10 major markets and pass nearly 10 million homes and businesses in the next several
months.

With wideband, Comcast will offer among the fastest speeds available today, including the Extreme 50 tier at up
to 50 Mbps. It also will enable Comcast to double speeds for the majority of existing high-speed Internet
customers at no additional cost.

“Wideband is a game-changer for the industry. With wideband running over our next-generation fiber-optic
network, we can greatly enhance our customers’ online experience immediately. And these speeds are only a
preview of what’s to come—wideband will provide the capability of delivering dramatically faster speeds in
excess of 160 Mbps in the future,” said Mitch Bowling, SVP and General Manager, Comcast Online Services.
“Today’s announcement reaffirms our commitment to offer more speed to more homes than any other U.S.
Internet service provider.”

As part of the wideband deployment, Comcast will launch two new premium speed tiers to its residential and
business class customers. Both services are ideal for households or businesses simultaneously using several
computers or Internet-connected devices. They also will appeal to those who simply want some of the fastest
speeds available in the U.S. today:

New Residential Tiers
•Extreme 50, offering up to 50 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 10 Mbps of upstream speed at
$139.95/month.*
•Ultra, offering up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed at
$62.95/month.*

With Extreme 50, Comcast customers, for example, will be able to download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about
16 minutes, a standard-def movie (2 GB) in about 5 minutes and a standard-def TV show (300 MB) in a matter
of seconds. Customers with Extreme 50 also will be able to download digital photos, songs and games faster
than ever

On the bright side, it's good that your torrents aren't getting slowed down, but on the other hand, "legal" applications like Netflix or Amazon will be affected as well. This probably won't be a big deal to all that many of you, as Comcast says the throttling only occurs during periods of congestion, and in total will only impact 1% of users. (It's likely that many Giz readers are in that 1% of bandwidth hogs though.) In any case, you'll still have to watch out that you don't run over the 250GB monthly cap, or else your net will become disconnected entirely. FAQ below:

Why does Comcast manage its network?

Comcast manages its network with one goal: to deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers. High-speed bandwidth and network resources are not unlimited. Managing the network is essential to promote the use and enjoyment of the Internet by all of our customers. We use reasonable network management practices that are consistent with industry standards. We also try to use tools and technologies that are minimally intrusive. Just as the Internet continues to change and evolve, so too, will our network management practices to address the challenges and threats on the Internet.

All Internet service providers need to manage their networks and Comcast is no different. In fact, many of them use the same or similar tools that Comcast does. If we didn't manage our network, our customers would be subject to the negative effects of spam, viruses, security attacks, network congestion, and other risks and degradations of the service. By engaging in reasonable and responsible network management, Comcast can deliver the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers.

How does Comcast manage its network?

Comcast uses various tools and techniques to manage its network, deliver the Service, and ensure compliance with the Acceptable Use Policy and the Comcast Agreement for Residential Services available at http://www.comcast.net/terms/subscriber/. These tools and techniques are dynamic, like the network and its usage, and can and do change frequently. For example, these network management activities may include identifying spam and preventing its delivery to customer e-mail accounts, detecting malicious Internet traffic and preventing the distribution of viruses or other harmful code or content and using other tools and techniques that Comcast may be required to implement in order to meet its goal of delivering the best possible broadband Internet experience to all of its customers.

Does network management change over time?

Yes. The Internet is highly dynamic. As the Internet and related technologies continue to evolve and advance, Comcast's network management tools will evolve and keep pace so that we can deliver an excellent, reliable, and safe online experience to all of our customers.

In March 2008, Comcast announced that it will migrate to a new network congestion management technique before the end of the year. (See more FAQs about that in this section.)

How will the new technique work?

The new network congestion management practice works as follows:

If a certain area of the network nears a state of congestion, the technique will ensure that all customers have a fair share of access to the network. It will identify which customer accounts are using the greatest amounts of bandwidth and their Internet traffic will be temporarily managed until the period of congestion passes. Customers will still be able to do anything they want to online, and many activities will be unaffected, but they could experience things like: longer times to download or upload files, surfing the Web may seem somewhat slower, or playing games online may seem somewhat sluggish.

The new technique does not manage congestion based on the online activities, protocols or applications a customer uses, rather it only focuses on the heaviest users in real time, so the periods of congestion could be very fleeting and sporadic.

It is important to note that the effect of this technique is temporary and it has nothing to do with aggregate monthly data usage. Rather, it is dynamic and based on prevailing network conditions as well as very recent data usage.

Will the technique target P2P or other applications, or make decisions about the content of my traffic?

No. The new technique is “protocol-agnostic,” which means that the system does not manage congestion based on the applications being used by customers. It is content neutral, so it does not depend on the type of content that is generating traffic congestion. Said another way, customer traffic is congestion-managed not based on their applications, but based on current network conditions and recent bytes transferred by users.

How does the new network management technique impact me and my use of the Comcast High Speed Internet service?

With this new technique, most customers will notice no change in their Internet experience. The goal of congestion management is to enable all users to have access to a fair share of the network at peak times, when congestion occasionally occurs. Congestion management focuses on the consumption activity of individual customer accounts that are using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. As a result, and based on our technical trials of this technique, we expect that the large majority of customers will not be affected by it. In fact, based on consumer data collected from these trials, we found that on average less than 1% of our high-speed Internet customers are affected by the approach.

How often does Comcast expect to use this technique?

Based on market trials to date, Comcast expects that select portions of the network will be in a congested state only for relatively small portions of the day, if at all.

During these trials, Comcast did not receive a single customer complaint that could be traced to this new congestion management practice, despite having publicized the trials and notifying customers involved in the trials via e-mail.

Comcast will continue to monitor how user traffic is affected by these new congestion management techniques and will make the adjustments reasonably necessary to ensure that our Comcast High-Speed Internet customers have a high-quality online experience.

Can you give me some “real world” examples of how much bandwidth consumption would be considered too much? For example, how many movies would I have to download to be affected by this new technique?

Since the technique is dynamic and works in real time, the answer really depends on a number of factors including overall usage, time of day and the number of applications a customer might be running at the same time. First, the local network must be approaching a congested state for our new technique to even look for traffic to manage. Assuming that is the case, customers’ accounts must exceed a certain percentage of their upstream or downstream (both currently set at 70%) bandwidth for longer than a certain period of time, currently set at fifteen minutes.

A significant amount of normal Internet usage by our customers does not last that long. For example, most downloads would have completed within that time, and the majority of streaming and downloading will not exceed the threshold to be eligible for congestion management. And the majority of longer-running applications, such as VoIP, video conferencing, and streaming video content (including HD streaming on most sites) will not exceed these thresholds either.

The point of the technique is to deliver the best overall online experience possible. The technique should help ensure that all customers get their fair share of bandwidth resources to enjoy all that the Internet has to offer and that includes surfing the web, reading emails, downloading movies, watching streaming video, gaming or listening to music.

How will customers know they are being managed?

We are exploring ways to create new tools that will let customers know when the management is occurring. In the short term, our efforts are focused on transitioning to the new technique as soon as possible.

We believe this sort of congestion notification should be an Internet standard and have been discussing this issue in technical bodies like the Internet Engineering Task Force. We believe the use of Internet Standards for such a real-time notification is important as applications developers can write for networks beyond the Comcast network. However we are planning to develop a capability that may enable a customer to see if they were managed in the past, though this is not yet ready for testing.

Does this technique apply to both Commercial and Residential services?

Yes.
How is this announcement related to the recent 250 GB monthly usage threshold?

The two are completely separate and distinct. The new congestion management technique is based on real-time Internet activity. The goal is to avoid congestion on our network that is being caused by the heaviest users. The technique is different from the recent announcement that 250 GB/month is the aggregate monthly usage threshold that defines excessive use.

Is Comcast Digital Voice affected by this technique? What about other VoIP providers?

Comcast Digital Voice is a separate facilities-based IP phone service that is not affected by this technique.

Comcast customers who use VoIP providers that rely on delivering calls over the public Internet who are also using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth during a period when this network management technique goes into effect may experience a degradation of their call quality at times of network congestion. It is important to note, however, that VoIP calling in and of itself does not use a significant amount of bandwidth. Furthermore, our real-world testing of this technique did not indicate any significant change in the quality of VoIP calls, even for managed customer traffic during periods of congestion.

What about Fancast.com and streaming video or video downloads? What will happen to them?

During periods of congestion, any customers who are using a disproportionate amount of bandwidth – no matter what type or content of the online activity (for example, it does not matter if the content is coming from a Comcast owned site like Fancast.com or not) – may be affected by this technique.

Our technique also has no ability to determine the applications or protocols being used or the content, source or destination.

Does Comcast block peer-to-peer ("P2P") traffic or applications like BitTorrent, Gnutella, or others?

No. Today, Comcast does not block P2P traffic or applications like BitTorrent, Gnutella, or others as part of its current network congestion management technique.

It is important to note, however, that the current network congestion technique, which will be replaced by the end of 2008, may on a limited basis temporarily delay certain P2P traffic when that traffic has, or is projected to have, an adverse effect on other customers' use of the service. We do this because, in certain situations, that type of traffic consumes a disproportionately large amount of network resources.

Does Comcast discriminate against particular types of online content?

No. Comcast provides its customers with full access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer. However, we are committed to protecting customers from spam, phishing, and other unwanted or harmful online content and activities. Comcast uses industry standard tools and generally accepted best practices and policies to help it meet this customer commitment. In cases where these tools and policies identify certain online content as harmful and unwanted, such as spam or phishing Web sites, this content is usually prevented from reaching customers. In other cases, these tools and policies may permit customers to identify certain content that is not clearly harmful or unwanted, such as bulk e-mails or Web sites with questionable security ratings, and enable those customers to inspect the content further if they want to do so.

Granted, when you experience the kind of growth Comcast has in recent years, I can understand how customer service might drop off. But what happened here was pure ignorance. In fact, it seems that they are going out of their way to irritate their own customers in some cases. So my question is: when will customers start seeing the benefits of the "billions of dollars" Comcast claims to have poured into improving their network, customer service and sales operations? [Washington Post via Fark]

One great thing about the set is that you can change the way it does sound depending on room size and TV placement using simple menu options. Oh yeah, and the picture on the 120Hz set wasn't bad either. The 149 comes in two flavors, a 46" for $3300 and a 52" for $3700, out soon. [Mitsubishi]

It is more or less accepted that a minority of users use disproportionate of bandwidth, but what they're using it for is changing. It's increasingly video, not BitTorrent. The whole pro-BitTorrent thing is a smokescreen, because BitTorrent is less and less of an issue—video, and increasingly, HD video will be the real one. (Along with any number of other increasingly bandwidth-intensive apps.) And it'll be more and more competitive with providers' TV offerings—we've already seen Time Warner cry about it. But there's no legitimate way to block it and protect their content.

They can, however, make it more expensive for you to download with bandwidth caps (which is conveniently net neutral). And that's what I think this is partially about—protecting their TV business, not just curbing voracious bandwidth appetites. Regardless of the motivations, it's definitely coming. Comcast's tests will probably start soon, Time Warner's are already underway and regional ISPs have been doing it for a while. It's looking very much like the future of broadband here.

At least if we're using it less maybe the internet won't explode now. [Wired]

Adelstein half dodged that with a question: "The problem is, how can you ever tell what's illegal?" Well you can't, not without some serious filtering and snooping by ISPs, and a lot of wrangling over whether uploading or downloading is deemed piracy. And what about telling the difference between illegally sharing a movie from a big studio, and sharing an independently-produced movie designed for P2P sharing? Clearly, the FCC isn't comfortable going all in for content filtering, at least not yet.

We'll just have to watch to see what this implies for the final net neutrality guidelines. [Ars Technica]