Comcast Rolling Out Broadband Usage Meter

Comcast is rolling out bandwidth usage meter to customers so they can see how much data they use per month. The first customers to get access to the data are in Portland, but Comcast expects to roll it out to all customers soon.

 

It's interesting to note that the typical Comcast customer only uses about 2 - 4 gigabytes per month of the 250 gigabytes includes in the service plan.

Do we have any Netflix subscribers in the Portland area that use Comcast? I'd love to see what Instant Streaming does to this chart.

via Gizmodo.

Comments

[banter]

viva la u-verse!

Too bad its a bit slow.

[Smy]

The biggest revelation the FCC data showed was that the whole ISP canard, about how much traffic was out there being reason for capping or charging extra fees, was untrue. ISPs want a usage based system like cell phones because of the obscene amount of profit in that model for the investment, which makes greedy grabby hands grab more. It's not enough to make a good profit, which ISPs already do, they have to continually and arbitrarily reach for more. Today that especially means decreasing the value to the consumer.

[David Grenier]

I've long wanted to find some simple shareware utility to do just this. I've been considering getting one of those "mobile broadband" devices, but they tend to come with a bandwidth cap and I have no idea if my general usage is close to that.

[Joe Woody]

Yes! I live in Portland OR and love my Netflix (on my Xbox 360). I don't see the feature... yet. I guess maybe it hasn't rolled out to everyone in Portland, I'm not sure.

[gilraen]

It's about time Comcast provided a bandwidth meter - it's absolutely ridiculous for them to limit usage but provide no means of monitoring it. Ever since they revealed their "hidden" cap a couple of years ago, I've been using NetLimiter 2 Monitor, to keep track of my bandwidth usage (it's free, and it's awesome, except it doesn't work with Windows 7 yet, although a compatible version is in the works). But, of course, that only calculates usage generated by a single computer; since I have 3 computers plugged into the router, I have to keep track of the usage on all three, and add it up.

[rjspring]

In Bend, our local ISP gave us a broadband meter when they rolled out the cap. A standard def movie takes up around 2-3 GBs (2-2.5 hours) and a HD movie can take 5GB+. We have a 100GB cap here unless you are the highest tier package which is 150GB.

[chris]

just checked from the bay area, nothing shows up on that page :(. i think usage wise i probably use in the teens of gigabytes downloaded, no more than maybe 25ish max. and upload a couple gigs, no more than maybe 5 -10

[S]

Comparing my Comcast bandwidth monitor to the viewing of 1 HD title via XBOX 360 (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, check it out if you haven't seen it!), about 1G was used for 99 minutes of viewing, at 10Mbps download speed. I'm certain I'm not the standard, but there you are. About 1G used per hour and a half of HD viewing.

[Matt]

I'm a Portlander, using Comcast and living right downtown, but the feature isn't available to me at the moment either.

[LL]

No Comcast meter here yet, but I've been using BitMeter for months now and am very happy with it. Simple to use; you can set it to send an alert when you're within a specified percentage of your bandwidth cap. Also provides cool graphs and other statistics. It's freeware too, so the price is right!

[Satorical]

I'm in Portland on Comcast. I have the fastest non-biz account you can get, and pay the post-introductory price of $68/month (I don't subscribe to cable or voice). I'm looking into the broadband meter now, although I believe I'm supposed to have unlimited bandwidth.

Bottom line, bring on the competition. Of course, they'll likely have de facto price fixing like the cellphone companies; basic voice plans should long ago have dipped well below $40/month, but that hasn't happened yet.

[Joe Woody]

It has finally rolled out to me. It shows a bar graph for monthly usage... in November I used 74 GB, and that included the entire first season of Lost on my Xbox 360 Netflix account.

Most interesting to note: apparently I have a 250 GB limit on my account. I don't believe that I was ever told this, but it seems to be true. November was a busy month for me and the Internet, so I'm guess I won't exceed 100 GB. But we'll see...

[BCR]

It's been rolled out to the Corvallis area now, November was ~85 GB, December is up to 135GB so far, guess I have a bit more to go to get my money's worth. I get a fair amount of video content via torrents, that eats up bandwidth especially if you are a good netizen and share back.

[Alexander]

This is what it does.

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/75/difficult.jpg

The first month we didn't think much of it. The second month we were like "Oh shit..." Third month I was on a vacation. This month, I just forgot about it.