DVR Chatter

Comcast has announced that they will begin capping the amount of data transferable by their residential internet customers in October.  Initially, the cap will be 250 Gb.

To publicize the change, Comcast will run banner notices on its Comcast.net home page and security channel Web site, update the FAQ in its help section, and include an insert in an upcoming billing statement.

Washington-based interest group Free Press, which filed the complaint against Comcast with the FCC, said it remained concerned about how a cap helps solve Comcast's congestion problems or how it will work with other usage limits under consideration the company is considering.

"Though the proposed cap is relatively high, it will increasingly ensnare more users as technology continues its natural progression," S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press, said in a statement. "If Comcast has oversold their network to the point of creating congestion problems, then well-disclosed caps for Internet use are a better short-term solution than Comcast's current practice of illegally blocking Internet traffic."

Turner said the move highlights why the U.S. needs more "genuine broadband competition."

That's kind of the point.  They're instituting the cap at 250 Gb (about 53 DVDs) a month so that no one can really say anything.  As they continue to oversell their network capacity and as people begin to stream more data over the internet causing more congestion, look for this limit to incrementally drop over time.