Zoneboy
09-09-2007, 03:10 AM
Link (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070908/ts_alt_afp/ustechnologyinternet_070908061617)
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Several Internet users in the United States have been unplugged by their service provider because they download too much, a press report said here Friday.
Cable Internet and entertainment provider Comcast has punished some transgressors by cutting off their Internet service, arguing that excessive downloaders hog Internet capacity and slow down the network for other customers, the Washington Post reported.
Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told AFP the company was addressing "the problem of abusive activity that adversely impacts on everybody else's experience."
"I can't give you a number" for clients who have been disconnected, said Douglas, while assuring that customers whose plugs were pulled are "very rare."
According to the Washington Post, a customer would have to download the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four feature films a day to trigger a disconnection warning.
Comcast gives customers a month to fix problems or upgrade their service before they are disconnected, the Washington Post said.
An unplugged client in Rockville, a suburb of Washington, has filed a complaint with the county he lives in, saying his contract with his service provider states that he is entitled to unlimited Internet access, officials in Montgomery County said.
A recent report by the ABI market research company warned that the growth in demand for "bandwidth-hungry services such as HDTV and online gaming is leading to a critical lack of capacity" in US cable operators' networks.
"Cable TV operators trying to satisfy the increasing bandwidth demands of HDTV customers feel very much like the thrifty grocer who tried to cram ten pounds of potatoes into a five-pound bag," ABI research director Stan Schatt said last month.
"The increasing bandwidth demands on cable operators will soon reach crisis stage, yet this is a dirty little industry secret that no one talks about."
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Several Internet users in the United States have been unplugged by their service provider because they download too much, a press report said here Friday.
Cable Internet and entertainment provider Comcast has punished some transgressors by cutting off their Internet service, arguing that excessive downloaders hog Internet capacity and slow down the network for other customers, the Washington Post reported.
Comcast spokesman Charlie Douglas told AFP the company was addressing "the problem of abusive activity that adversely impacts on everybody else's experience."
"I can't give you a number" for clients who have been disconnected, said Douglas, while assuring that customers whose plugs were pulled are "very rare."
According to the Washington Post, a customer would have to download the equivalent of 1,000 songs or four feature films a day to trigger a disconnection warning.
Comcast gives customers a month to fix problems or upgrade their service before they are disconnected, the Washington Post said.
An unplugged client in Rockville, a suburb of Washington, has filed a complaint with the county he lives in, saying his contract with his service provider states that he is entitled to unlimited Internet access, officials in Montgomery County said.
A recent report by the ABI market research company warned that the growth in demand for "bandwidth-hungry services such as HDTV and online gaming is leading to a critical lack of capacity" in US cable operators' networks.
"Cable TV operators trying to satisfy the increasing bandwidth demands of HDTV customers feel very much like the thrifty grocer who tried to cram ten pounds of potatoes into a five-pound bag," ABI research director Stan Schatt said last month.
"The increasing bandwidth demands on cable operators will soon reach crisis stage, yet this is a dirty little industry secret that no one talks about."