Comcast to Limit Transfers to 250GB/Month

This is about the desktop, not cell phones, but it’s important: Comcast has confirmed that all residential customers will be subject to a 250 gigabyte per month data limit starting October 1, PC Magazine reports.

250GB is plenty of bandwidth for most users, although anyone who has decided to give streaming movie rentals a try (a la the iTunes Store or Netflix Watch it Now) could run into that wall relatively quickly. Nonetheless, this follows a move by carriers over the past year to add 5GB/month limits to their cellular data network plans, after initially marketing them misleadingly as “unlimited.”

Industry groups plan to fight Comcast’s decision. “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 in the report that the move highlights why the U.S. needs more “genuine broadband competition.” Several months ago, Comcast gave in and ceased to limit download speeds based on usage admit a flurry of complaints (and after initially denying the behavior).

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