TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Not So Fast, Broadband Providers Tell Big Users

Not So Fast, Broadband Providers Tell Big Users

Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:45:04 -0400

Firms impose limits even as demand rises
By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff | March 12, 2007

Amanda Lee of Cambridge received a call from Comcast Corp. in December
ordering her to curtail her Web use or lose her high-speed Internet
connection for a year.

Lee, who said she had been using the same broadband connection for
years without a problem, was taken aback. But when she asked what the
download limit was, she was told there was no limit, that she was just
downloading too much.

Then in mid-February, her Internet service was cut off without further
warning.

For Lee and an increasing number of people, a high-speed Internet
connection is a lifeline to everyday entertainment and communication.
Television networks are posting shows online; retailers are lining up
to offer music and movie downloads; thousands of Internet radio
stations stream music; more people are using WiFi phones; and "over
the top TV," in which channels stream over the Internet, is predicted
to grow.

That means that more customers may become familiar with Comcast's
little-known acceptable-use policy, which allows the company to cut
off service to customers who use the Internet too much. Comcast says
that only .01 percent of its 11.5 million residential high-speed
Internet customers fall into this category.

http://www.boston.com/business/personaltech/articles/2007/03/12/not_so_fast_broadband_providers_tell_big_users/

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