[Infowarrior] - 5GB DSL caps - net neutrality, ha!

[Richard Forno]

Talk about a recipe for disaster.....at the very least I hope they  
offer "bonus bits" for those weeks when vendors release massive  
updates to their operating systems and you've got 5 PCs in your house  
requiring updating.  Otherwise, you're going to have a hard time  
emailing Frontier for help since they'll likely have cut your access  
for over-use.

The ONLY reason I see for this is to discourage folks from going  
elsewhere on the Internet for music/video, and maybe to reduce p2p  
traffic.  But if Frontier suddenly rolls out its own "internal" music/ 
video service, watch the lawsuits start to fly.  (I could use a good  
laugh......)

Bottom line - these guys are idiots.   And folks wonder why I prefer  
business-class Internet connections from "real' (ie, traditional) ISPs  
at my house and not from telcos or cable companies.

-rf


Frontier Sets Tiny Broadband Cap
Stacey Higginbotham, Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 12:29 PM PT Comments  
(6)

Frontier Online, an incumbent carrier with service in 23 states,  
updated its acceptable use policy last week to reflect that it now has  
a 5 GB data cap for its DSL subscribers (hat tip to DSL Reports).  
Before we all cry foul, however, Frontier wants us to know that with  
that cap, we can each send half a million emails and download about  
1,250 songs from iTunes. Of course, the picture’s less rosy if you’re  
like me and love Hulu, since then you’re looking at only 10-15 hours  
of “30 Rock.”

The efforts are in line with those of other ISPs trying to cut down on  
bandwidth hogs by offering different tiers of service. Time Warner  
Cable is testing a 5 GB service tier delivered at 768 kbps in Texas,  
but Frontier doesn’t seem to have an offering with a larger data cap.  
Granted, a Comcast spokesman told me earlier this year that the cable  
company’s average broadband subscriber only uses 2 GB per month, but  
as more and more content goes online, a 5GB cap seems like a recipe  
for customer loss.

http://gigaom.com/2008/07/30/frontier-sets-tiny-broadband-cap/