Comast (the #2 broadband Internet provider in the United States) announced yesterday that beginning October 1st, they will limit the monthly bandwidth a person can use.
This isn’t good news, as the United States is already close to a third-world country in terms of broadband Internet implementation. Comcast’s announcement (likely to be followed by other service providers) isn’t going to improve our position any.
With Comcast’s updated new plan, users will be limited to 250GB of bandwidth consumption a month. If you go over that limit during a 6 month period, you get a phone call and your fingers slapped. If you go over it again, your service will be terminated.
Extra Bonus: Comcast doesn’t have anything in place where you can monitor your bandwidth usage…and…they have no plans to implement anything of the sort. That means you run the risk of having your service terminated, but have no way of knowing how much bandwidth you’re using.
Now to be fair, cell phone companies have always restricted usage on their networks (i.e. you only get so many minutes a month, clearly spelled out…and you can see where you are with your minutes at any time).
And 250GB a month is more than enough bandwidth for the average Internet user (according to Comcast, that’s enough to send 50 million emails, download 62,500 songs or 125 standard-definition movies a month).
The problem is that Comcast’s limits are being put into place, largely because of the surge in popularity of online video. And if you’re an online video producer, this can cause some concerns.
For example, let’s say you use Ustream.tv to broadcast live (like I recently started doing). Well, if you’re broadcasting live 24/7, you’re consuming bandwidth 24/7. Add to that the videos you upload, the videos you watch and video chats…and your bandwidth usage can skyrocket.
And with no bandwidth metering available to you…you’re pretty much working in the dark.
As I’m personally a heavy bandwidth user, I’m going to start using some free applications to monitor my bandwidth (frankly, I have to). I stream, upload and watch web video using both Windows and Mac…so I need software to do the monitoring on both platforms.
For Mac, I’ll be using this application.
For Windows, I’ll be using this.
In about a month, I’ll do another post with numbers on my personal bandwidth usage. That should give other online video producers like me at least some glimpse into the world of bandwidth consumption.