My Existence

My phone rang 1t 12:23pm today, didn’t recognize the number but I always answer regardless.

The man speaking identified himself as a Comcast Rep, and went on to explain that my account is using excessive bandwidth, and that I must *drastically* decrease usage or my service was going to be terminated for a period of one year, without further warning, if I was to show up on their list again.

 I played dumb of course, something you all know I am not, and asked exactly how much bandwidth he was talking about.  Apparently I used 413GB last month.  That’s quite a lot, I have to say.  I asked how that was possible, saying I know I download a lot of game demos, videos from youtube, netflix ondemand along with heavy internet browsing and gaming, but 413GB is an awful lot of data.  He asked if I had a wireless router, which I do( but is secured ).  He said someone could be connecting to it without my knowledge and using bandwidth that could account for that total.

 I asked what I should do, and his answer was “Contact your router manufacturer and inquire with them how to make your wireless connection secure.”  And without hesitating, repeated that if I did not drastically reduce my bandwidth usage, my account would be terminated for one year.  Nevermind the fact that if someone was really using my connection, they should be traced and tracked down and action taken against them.  Didn’t want want to discuss that subject.

Moving on, I asked what was the limit.  He said there was no hard limit, but that they run a report that identifies the top 1% of high usage customers, and then the top 1% of those customers, and these are the people who get these phone calls.  I said they should impose limits if they are going to the extent of terminating services based on usage, and he said it varies by region so they can’t impose hard limits because usage changes each month.

 Telling him I have heard of other people complain about these invisible limits, he once again rattled off the report speal and that only those customers get these phone calls.  I then said I will glady switch to FioS if my service gets terminated, as will a lot of other people when the service becomes available in their area, and hung up on him.

 Now, I do a LOT of torrenting.  No movies, a game here and there which I end up buying for multi-player if I like it enough.  Most of the items I download, are television shows.  Running some numbers, I have downloaded at least 60+ TV episodes in the month of November.  More, because I delete the torrents after a while.  And have uploaded back at least 80% of what I have downloaded.  So say 75 shows, at 1.07GB a piece with 80% shared back gives a little under 150GB.  Throw in the half dozen games shared closer to 100% back, roughly 6-8GB a piece these days( crazy! ) and I have around 250GB of usage.

 Add in the GF and the other roomate, both who download a lot of fan made anime videos, and both also torrent TV shows and I can see how they got that number.    Between the two of them, I am sure they use around 150GB a month.

I can’t wait for FioS and it’s claimed “unlimited” usage policy.    Though I have no issues with Comcast, and will certainly admit I am a heavy bandwidth user - if they can’t give me a limit to adbide by for fear of other people rising their usage to meet the limit so they dont waste money, then Comcast doesnt deserve to be in the business of being an ISP.  No current ISP should be allowed to oversell their services.  It would be like an airliner selling 400 tickets for a 350 seat flight, then having upset customers who get there and find out their seat was taken…oh wait, that happens!

We live in a stupid, morally corrupt, only here to make money corporate society.  until people stand up for their rights and say they have had enough, we will only continue to be walked over and stolen from.