I've had Comcast for 3 years, and have been a very heavy users - NewsGroups, BitTorrent, Gaming, what have you - for that entire time. Never, not once, have I ever had my bandwidth throttled or shaped - and I live in a quite large city where the penetration of cable broadband from Comcast is VERY high.

I'm not denying that it happens, but I'd be curious to know why it happens to some areas of Comcast's users, and why not in other areas. Neither the AP or the EFF's testing looked at more than one area of the country.

The other thing that most people forget is that Comcast has inherited the majority of it's broadband network - very little was built by Comcast directly, and not all previous owners were good about keeping their networks in good shape, which could lead to capacity issues that can be resolved, but just not immediately (fiber doesn't roll out itself; CMTS's don't configure and deploy themselves).

Also Comcast has recently instituted a centralized Change Management system that requires Regional, Divisional, and Corporate approval for all major plant changes - and this takes time, as anyone who has ever used a Corporate purchasing/approval system can tell you.

DigitalNoise

I can totally hear the Beastie Boys doing this as one of their raps. Take "Paul Revere" and just replace the lyrics with these!

egonpax

egonpax

undeadmachine

P3nnst8r

More of a "Major-General's Song" feel to it than a "Dr. Suess" rhyme.

SuppleMonkey

He didn't create that if that's what you are thinking. I first read that poem about 25 years ago in a computer users group newsletter. Here is the full poem. I don't know anyone who actually knows who wrote this but it wasn't Dr. Seuss that's just the title of it.

Although I do salute Mandatory_Field for using the poem in this situation.

Dr. Seuss Explains Computers
If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted as a very last resort,
and the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
and the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
and your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash,
then your situation's hopeless and your system's gonna crash.

If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
but your packets want to tunnel on another protocol,
that's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall,
and your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
so your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse,
them you might as well reboot it and go out with a bang,
'cause as sure as I'm a poet, your system's gonna hang.

When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk,
and the micro code instructions cause unnecessary risk,
when you have to flash your memory and try to RAM your ROM,
quickly turn off the computer and be sure to call your mom.

MacBandit

nobodyzhome

I bow to you, sir.

SuppleMonkey

geowrian

illiniguy

However, the opposing argument, besides net neutrality, is the user pays for access to their service at specified speeds (within reason), but does not get them. If I torrent 1 GB files once a month and don't touch torrents the rest of the week, it takes a LONG time to transfer since I'm capped at 40 KBps. If I did the same thing via ftp or http, I'd be getting many times faster rates. Basically, opponents say they should punish/limit those using the majority of the bandwidth, not the protocol they use, or not at all. Also, all this should be made crystal clear when advertising their "blazing fast speeds".

geowrian

kcm117

noahlh

twistah

(BTW, LOL fuzzycuffs!)

RevRagnarok

Unfortunately, it's still better than Telus for internet (they actually respond to those who "report" what you're downloading on torrents, Shaw doesn't care).

Polybius

Specifically, you win 3,682 internets.

Rhainor

CarbonatedWater

92BuickLeSabre

Since only some ISPs have resorted to bandwidth throttling, I do not know why their competitors have not used that to their advantage by promoting the limits the errant ISP competitors use on their customers who may be uninformed about that practice.

I make an effort to understand the policies and practices of my ISP and as a result I would never choose to go with Comcast or AT&T for Broadband due to their consistent heavy handed approach. The best way to dissuade those practices is to educate the masses to show their disapproval in the marketplace.

Vagabum

Mandatory_Field

CoolZWhip

fuzzycuffs

Radoll