Vista - Surprise! Internet Users Dislike Broadband Cap

Written by Kevin Parrish - 2:20 AM - October 2, 2008


It’s no secret that internet service providers are considering Broadband caps to cut down costs. However many U.S. consumers dislike the idea and will gladly change carriers if their current BSP implements the restrictions.

ZoomIn Zeugma Systems’ recent survey conducted for the International Data Corporation (source), 81 percent of the 787 U.S. customers polled proclaimed their dislike for a Bandwidth cap and the additional charges for internet use beyond the limit. However, 83 percent had no idea what a gigabyte was or just how much bandwidth they actually consume. 51 percent of those polled added that they would actually switch service providers if broadband caps were set in place. Some even claimed to actually pay for additional premium services if necessary.

"These results are both an opportunity and a warning for BSPs," said Kevin Walsh, Zeugma Systems vice president of marketing. "The opportunity is that consumers are signaling a willingness to pay more for dedicated bandwidth over and above basic high speed internet for such services as premium internet video, VOIP, gaming, and corporate VPN access. The warning is a clear distaste for bandwidth caps. At a minimum, providers moving forward with bandwidth capping schemes may want to consider a more intelligent and flexible application of caps.”

Starting today, Comcast residential customers are now limited to 250 GB per month. The company claims that the new limit is more than enough for its customers, and will more than likely never surpass the limit. But considering the consumers who purchases games and movies online, this restriction may feel more like a punishment than means to save money on behalf of the BSP. Online Gamers may face the largest setback, especially those playing on Microsoft’s Xbox Live service or MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and EverQuest II.



Read more at the Source:
Surprise! Internet Users Dislike Broadband Cap - Tom's Hardware

What a shocker lol.

If Time Warner caps it by me I am out and will be looking for someone else.

We pay enough as it is and should not be limited regardless if you reach it or not.

Can't let these big companies get away with everything they please.

And I will be more than happy to give my $40+ to someone else!

Agreed. There's plenty of other companies to go to instead.

Hopefully there is more than one in your area.

In the contract I am in with AOL I am uncapped, there are not many left in the uk. If they change and make it a capped service are they breaking there contract?

Australia has never had 'unlimited' downloads only 'unlimited'.........In fine print (hours)

Always had caps here and there like 20gb onpeak/ 20gb offpeak for $80 a month

In the UK there are only a few left who do not cap, so we are pretty much s*****d if you are in a contract, all you can do is wait it out and then change.

But sometimes it is worth buying out your contract just to get rid of bad service.

My ISP has started traffic management by throttling people who go over an allocated amount of bandwidth at certain times of the day




This sucks but they are the only cable provider and I hate adsl.

/me waits for the 50meg uncapped product coming by the end of the year.

"/me waits for the 50meg uncapped product coming by the end of the year."

They continue to make promises - so don't hold your breath! Might just turn blue.

I think they will pull a limited rollout off and normaly i'm in one of the first areas in a rollout or can blag the upgrade via the retentions dept lol

I'm on a plan that has no caps, mind you can't get my email from them at the moment as they have major problems with the email servers, been down for a couple of days

Trouble is where I am there's no chance of cable in the area, a bit like gas we can't get that either

At least I'm not with BT, they were expensive when I first went online and that was dial up, I didn't even bother when I went ADSL as I'd already gone with another landline provider so went with another broadband supplier and not had any problems really, sitting here with three computers behind the router.