RE: Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users

[Blanchard_Michael () emc com]

 wow, it's the Hughes DirectPC FAP all over again..... 


Michael P. Blanchard 
Antivirus / Security Engineer, CISSP, GCIH, CCSA-NGX, MCSE
Office of Information Security & Risk Management 
EMC ² Corporation 
4400 Computer Dr. 
Westboro, MA 01580 


-----Original Message-----
From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org [mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of 'Richard M. Smith'
Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 8:34 AM
To: 'FunSec [List]'
Subject: [funsec] Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users

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

Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users
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.

"Comcast has a responsibility to provide these customers with a superior
experience and to address any excessive usage issues that may impact that
experience," Comcast spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman said in a statement. "The
few customers who are notified of excessive use typically consume
exponentially more bandwidth than the average user."

Feddeman declined to say where Comcast draws the line on too much Internet
usage, instead saying the amount of data that could trigger a warning call
would be roughly the equivalent of 13 million e-mail messages or 256,000
photos a month. Although those files vary in size, a typical photo file size
is 1 to 2 megabytes, meaning that excessive users are downloading hundreds
of gigabytes per month.

Matt Davis, a research director at IDC Corp., said that because of the way
cable high-speed Internet works, a person using a huge amount of bandwidth
will slow service for hundreds of customers.

"You look at it and see there's some two to three people in the neighborhood
or a college dorm . . . and what they're doing is impairing the customer
experience for the rest of the people off that node," Davis said. "Then it's
a business decision: Do you alienate a small percentage of customers to make
your other customers happy?"

Davis said that even if only a tiny fraction of customers are downloading
enough to trigger the policy, that will probably change as more
entertainment moves to the Internet. Today, he said, an average subscriber
downloads about one gigabyte per month, but even if everyone on the network
began downloading just one movie a month, it could have a dramatic effect on
the network.

Downloading is "certainly going to increase dramatically over the next five
years," he said. "And even if it's double or triple or quadruple, it's going
to place a lot of pressure on networks that are being pressured right now."

Limiting Internet use to maintain good service for everyone is common among
providers, and Comcast says it does not disclose a hard-and-fast limit
because numbers would shift as the network evolves. But the policy contrasts
with Comcast's marketing, which emphasizes download speeds and touts its
PowerBoost service, which gives customers an extra surge of speed when
downloading large files.

"If Comcast has that limit, they really need to say what that is," said
Frank Carreiro of West Jordan, Utah, who said he contacted customer support
via an online chat after his family got a phone call warning that they were
using the Internet too much. The customer representative said there was no
official limit; the family's service was shut off in January.

"It's like if you're driving down freeway, and there's nothing to say what
the speed limit is," Carreiro said.

It also seems to be something that the company's own customer support
representatives are unfamiliar with, according to three people who were
recently kicked off Comcast Internet service.

Lee said that she was not given specifics about how much to reduce usage and
that when she called customer support to get more information about the
warning, the customer service representative suggested that it may have been
a prank call.

Joe Nova in Attleboro said a Comcast representative called in June to inform
him that he was downloading too much content and must stop immediately or
lose Internet service for a year.

When his service was cut off, he called customer support. "I told them I was
willing to sign up for a professional account, a business account, and they
said they never heard of a bandwidth limit," he said.

Nova, Lee, and Carreiro admit to activities that devour bandwidth, like
downloading movie and television shows, listening to Internet radio, or
making video calls. But they also said they weren't given clear guidelines
about how to remedy the situation and were told repeatedly that there was no
download limit, even though they were warned that they were downloading too
much.

Acceptable use policies that state that consumers cannot download so much
content that it degrades service are common among Internet providers.

Although Richard Ramlall, RCN senior vice president of strategic and
external affairs, said in a statement that the company "does not suspend
service related to the frequency or size of downloads," RCN's policy says
customers cannot "act in a manner that negatively affects use of the
Internet by other subscribers, users, individuals, or entities."

Verizon's DSL service has a different network architecture that means a
single "bandwidth hog" should not affect neighbors and does not limit
downloads, according to spokesman Mark Marchand.

"Legitimately, everybody's going to be a bandwidth hog sooner or later,
because that's what the Internet is, going forward," said Linda Sherry of
Consumer Action.

Carolyn Y. Johnson can be reached at cjohnson () globe com.
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