How will the Comcast limits affect you?
Monday September 1, 2008
I use Comcast. It's the only high-speed Internet access I can get where I live. I've never been sent a "you're going over the limit" message from them, so I'm told that means that their newly publicized caps on usage are not going to affect me. But is that really true? Disregarding the fact that downloaded video is going to get more and more popular as time goes on, and I'm sure I'll be downloading more in the future (I already watch Netflix and YouTube a little), now, as a Web designer I have to consider bandwidth more carefully. As Positive Space Blog says, now I'll have to think about how what I'm designing might affect someone else's cap, not just my own. In other words, just as we were starting to move away from the problems of slow-speed Internet access, Comcast turns around and makes that issue important again. If I write a site that puts you over the limit (or just too close to the limit too quickly), you might decide not to visit my site (and I would miss you!).
And before you say it, yes, the 250GB limit is high, very high. And most people won't be affected right away. But say in 3 years downloading on-demand video is much more common, do you really think that Comcast is going to increase their limit? As I said in a post a few days ago, the W3C is looking at video to make it play more nicely on the Web. But what good does it do if the video plays nicely but no one has any bandwidth left to view it?
Comments
Although we’re not reverting to designing for dial up, this may be just a good reminder to keep for file size optimization.
I remember moving up to a 14k modem and downloading a 1mb file was still slow. Bandwidth growth has slowed down, but is it over? Have we hit a ceiling? Future solutions may include better compression, but I’m sure there will be solutions. Meanwhile, 40% of Internet browsing is done by dial up, last time I checked. Growth in mobile networks may be the solution for rural areas.
I try to keep page load time to 30 seconds or less at 56k. That certainly helps with bandwidth caps. My plans for video and photo galleries for our school includes segregation so people with dial up do not unknowingly load a large page.
As with Gary, I started my use of the internet w/ a 2400 baud modem and upgraded to 28.8Kbps once I discovered PPP.
But say in 3 years downloading on-demand video is much more common, do you really think that Comcast is going to increase their limit?
Yes … I think they will. As bandwidth intensive applications and HD media via internet become more prevalent, we’re going to need an increased cap. Although compression will become more efficient, Blu-ray/HD DVD weigh in at between 30 - 50 GB and HD MP4 typically between 4 - 6 GB.
ISPs will have to increase their caps in order to accommodate such uses.
How does this effect people who work from home or have to support customers from home?
A major problem on a weekend? We can be connected for 8, 10, 12, 16+ hours at a time.