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Comcast’s Data Cap Solution

February 15, 2009 on 5:49 pm | In IdBlog, Spin | Add a Comment

Back in October 2007 we relayed a story about cable giant Comcast selectively limiting some of the traffic over its wires ( see Comcast Throttles Uploads). This month Wired magazine has done a thorough follow-up on the story called The Dark Lord of Broadband Tries to Fix Comcast’s Image.

Since that story broke, Comcast has been vilified in the media and by the FCC. Apparently, cable companies are inured to a certain amount of complaining from irate TV fans, but were unprepared for the storm of protest unleashed by free-speech absolutists and net-neutrality mavens. However Comcast isn’t just providing an entertainment service. Now that so much business is transacted over the net, and the majority of Americans have always-on connections, Internet service is now seen as a utility, like electricity and water. And utilities — especially information utilities — are subject to a whole different level of scrutiny.

The good news is that Comcast has arrived at a fair solution that serves its customers and preserves the viability of its network. The cable company has imposed a cap on bandwidth at 250 GB a month. That’s enough to download over 100 standard-definition movies a month. More importantly, this solution is in line with the principles of common carriage. It can serve as a good model as the web matures.