Comcast Bandwidth Caps need to go

At what point is Comcast going to remove or update their bandwidth limit?   250GB per month is nothing if you are using NetFlix, Hulu and buying movies from iTunes/Amazon.  The bandwidth cap started around Oct 2008 and this is November 2011.   In Internet years that is like looking at the mileage of cars from the 60′s and thinking that it should be the standard.    They put a nice little graph in your Users and Account page but how accurate is it?

In the 9 years I’ve lived in this house, Comast has had to run a new line from the box (in my from yard) at least 3 times and according to my own testing, the quality of my connection still sucks.   If data packets are being recent due to poor line quality, am I paying for those duplicates?    Who is doing the measuring and “what” is being measured?      My router (Netgear 3500L running Tomato) is close to the numbers from Comcast but the Comcast numbers are always higher, usually by a few GB.

I’m at 120+ for November and it is the 10th…   I purchased some movies from  iTunes ($5 sale) and my kids and I watched “Top Shot” (seasons 1 & 2) on Netflix all weekend.    I’ll hit my cap by mid month at this rate.   Last month my iPad crashed (thanks Apple for timing out your developer release of iOS5 without notice).    The next thing I know, I have a HUGE spike in band width from my iCloud restoring my iPad…  (30+GB that one day)

Part of my issue is the way Comcast groups people that go over as “bad guys”.

List of “normal” activity that can use bandwidth:

1. Downloading Video content (legally).   Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Vudo, Blockbuster, iTunes, ….
2. Downloading Music.   Amazon (now with Cloud Player!), iTunes (now with iCloud), Google Music (backup your music to the cloud), Pandora, Spotify, …
3. Backups.    Crashplan, Mozy, iCloud, Carbonite, the list goes on.   I backup 4 machines (that isn’t all of them) and it “could” push TB’s of data up if I let it.
4. File sharing (legally).   I have a 50+ GB Drop box account, Box.net and Filesanywhere.    most stuff coming and going…
5. VoIP.   I dropped Comcast Voice and Vonage like a bad rash for Ooma.   $200 gets you the device, only pay for Gov Fees and Taxes.
6. Online Gaming.   Are you kidding me?    BattleField 3 = 13+GB.    I have 200+GB of games in my Steam library alone.   Plus two teenage boys that also game.

Moral of the story?   250GB is a joke.    Many people will still be under the cap, some for a long time but for those of us that are a little more tech savvy, please don’t make us feel like criminals and threaten us with “NO SERVICE FOR A YEAR!”  (read the fine print some time for your Comcast account.

Enough is enough…  bump it up to 500GB and quit trying to force people to use your On Demand service.