To RANDY CURRY:  Just so you know, I have Time Warner Cable Internet, so I am qualified to comment on this.

I don’t use all that much bandwidth myself, so I don’t think I would be in the top 5% or be affected. The part that makes me most disgusted about this is the marketing that implies unlimited usage.  I know at least one person who claims they had their account frozen for going over the invisible limit.  If it is so, they should at least note in the fine print what that limit is.

Sounds like basic economics to me.  How about a policy that flexes with the times, like “you are charged extra if you’re in our top 5% of bandwidth users that month”?  Maybe a warning the first month and kick in the second month so people who aren’t aware can make adjustments.

Until recently I was on an ISP here in the UK – PlusNet – who had a number of packages with different monthly bandwidth limits. We started on the 5 GB package but found we were frequently using it up (mostly thanks to TeamSpeak) so we upgraded to a more expensive package with 20 GB included. Their customer service web site let you track your usage and warning emails were sent when you were close to your limit; should you exceed it 2 months running, they make your internet slower for the rest of the month or until you upgrade.

Our current ISP, Virgin Media, have ‘unlimited’ usage but with a fair usage policy. If you download too much during peak times, then your speed is limited for a few hours. If you consistently download too much then you may be required to pay more money.

Most ISPs have a set monthly limit and will ask for money if exceeded – the majority of ISPs here use ADSL and have to pay BT Wholesale (the monopoly operator) for use of the telephone lines into customers’ homes so they can have quite tight profit margins. Some of the bigger ISPs now sell ‘unbundled’ packages where they can take control of your phone line (obviously with your permission) and so these packages tend to be cheaper, but are only available in areas where that ISP has a large number of customers. Virgin Media is a cable ISP and so it uses its own cables end-to-end, hence why its packages are unlimited. Unfortunately, Virgin is mostly restricted to big urban areas since that’s where the cables are.

It must be a Texas thing. I think it is interesting that it’s Dallas where they are test marketing the internet over the electrical system. Looks like there is new competition right around the corner. I’m eager to see how that turns out. My dad (a retired electrician) has been talking for years on how they should use the electrical system to carry internet, TV and phone in addition to electricity. I’m glad that he has lived to see it tested at least.

I live in Indonesia and it’s standard here to apply bandwidth limits on 3G/broadband internet – pick a package and pay extra if you go over. I typically hit my tasrget of 3Gb per month, just blogging, getting my science lessons ready and the occasional Skype session.

GOD DAMMIT!! The one time I hit submit without doing one of my measures to not lose a comment.

Well anyways, I basically think this is a good idea and I’m sure it could save me some money. There are plenty of months where I don’t use much bandwidth at all!

I’m not the sort who leaves his PC on all the time downloading huge video files or MP3s.

Ha, My Mac has been on 24/7 for the last month straight running BitTorrent. I’m averaging 155KB/s at the moment and have peaked at 520KB/s with popular torrents. I have utilities that keep track of my uptime and up/down data and I’m already at 100GB in and 45GB out this month.

I know I could do far better if Concast wasn’t actively trying to block BT uploads.