news-record.com

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer:

Comcast is committed to providing you with the best online experience possible.

One of the ways we do that is by managing the leading fiber optic network in the nation to ensure it is fast, safe and reliable. As part of our ongoing efforts to continuously improve the quality of our service, we are switching to a new network congestion management technique by the end of the year. It is focused on managing network congestion only when and where it may occur. It will also replace the current technique and will help ensure that all of our customers receive their fair share of network resources.

What does this mean for you? Probably nothing. We ran five market trials of this technique over the summer and found that less than one percent of customers were affected. So, the vast majority of customers will not notice any change to their Internet experience as a result of this new technique. During the times of busiest network use (which could occur at any hour, depending on your neighborhood), those very few extraordinarily heavy users – who are doing things like conducting multiple and continuous large file transfers – may experience slightly longer response times for some online activities until the period of network congestion ends.

As we transition to this new technique, we have amended our Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") and posted it on the Comcast.net Web site. For links to the amended AUP, as well as answers to Frequently Asked Questions and more information about this new technique or our network management efforts in general, please visit our Network Management Policy page at: www.comcast.net/networkmanagement.

Thank you again for choosing Comcast as your high-speed Internet provider.

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer,

We appreciate your business and strive to provide you with the best online experience possible. One of the ways we do this is through our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The AUP outlines acceptable use of our service as well as steps we take to protect our customers from things that can negatively impact their experience online. This policy has been in place for many years and we update it periodically to keep it current with our customers' use of our service.

On October 1, 2008, we will post an updated AUP that will go into effect at that time.

In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may degrade the online experience of other customers.

250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it's very likely that your monthly data usage doesn't even come close to that amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following:

* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);
* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or
* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).

And online gamers should know that even the heaviest multi- or single-player gaming activity would not typically come close to this threshold over the course of a month.

In addition to modifying the excessive use policy, the updated AUP contains other clarifications of terms concerning reporting violations, newsgroups, and network management. To read some helpful FAQs, please visit http://help.comcast.net/content/faq/Frequently-Asked-Questions-about-Exc....

Thank you again for choosing Comcast as your high-speed Internet provider.

has been received by FCC. Thanks for your information. When inquiring about your complaint, be sure to reference this number: 09-C00108739 and, be sure to mention that you filed this complaint over the internet.

It takes 2 minutes to file your complaint with the FCC: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

Sounds like a lot of people are angry about TWC making changes in their pricing scheme, but it was inevitable. It all goes back to basic economics . . .if there's more demand than the supply, prices go up unless there is competition.

On another slant, this might be a way for TWC to pay for extending cable to those who don't have it. I mean, the Dems in Washington want everyone to have cable even if they don't have a computer, so this is one way to do it. Maybe they need to get in line and ask Congress to pay for it? Either way, we'll be taxed and we know how much taxes are going up with the current administration.

As for me, I've used PCs since they began becoming commercial in the late 1970s and even remember the old TRS 80s before Bill Gates got started. My advice (and we know how much it's worth) is get used to it and quit whining, or organize a march on the City and County governments to protest. And we know how much good that will do.

Area residents need to flood the Attorney General's office and local commissioners with emails requesting an investigation of the monopoly that is Time-Warner. The the link to the AG's website is listed below.

http://www.ncdoj.gov/default.jsp

I have registered a complaint with the FCC. Please everyone, complain to everyone your can. If we all really keep on this we can make a difference. The FCC website to make a complaint is: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
Be sure to mention how this policy will disproportionally hurt the poor individuals in our community. Also mention the lack of alternatives in our area for high speed service.

I have the same sentiment that most have. I don't know if it is fortunate or unfortunate, but I am in a 2 year price lock guarantee. I have to finish it out or pay a penalty. I will be like the rest of you. I will go elsewhere the first chance I can. We are supposed to be going forward, not backward and prices should be coming down.It always amazes me that the more customers a compnay has; the larger the monthly premium. I hope News & Record shares the comments and Time Warner wakes up before they have to fire hundreds of employees because of a lack of business. How much more do the "big guys" think we can take?

No surprise here, greedy Time Warner strikes again! Ridiculous sums up this whole issue. In a time where people are trying to save a little money and relying more and more on home entertainment they plan to pull this stunt. I have lived in many cities across the US and this is by far the worst place in terms of availability, competition and customer service ( tier 2 support has problems distinguishing between a serial number and a MAC address) to make it worse its a freaking monopoly so they do whatever they want and treat their customers very badly.

3 years ago I moved here and the price has gone up and up and up and now this. I still remember when they came to "install" broadband at my home, 3rd party guys one I believe was drunk came in DUMPED a BROKEN router(with no AC power adapter) 2 hours late on my desk and left. I can go on and on with Time Warner's quality customer service but don't feel like writing walls of text here.

They belly ache about some areas where 5% of customers eat up 90% of their bandwidth so they brain storm with this idea to make a another buck on top of the many more they make off their current customers. In my mind it would make more sense to drop these "offenders" instead of punishing yes punishing everyone else, just an excuse to take more from us.

ATT here I come :)

For me at least this is a deal breaker. In response I am leaving TWC completely. My TV service is going to Dish Network and my Internet is going to AT&T. I can’t be the only one so it seems TWC is just shooting themselves in the foot.